mushroom toxins

[fishbait]

has anyone ever had and problems or reactions from handling mushrooms? i got a freebie from the lfs thursday, a small frag of a purple mushrooms that was about fingernail size. i got home about 8 pm and acclimated him for an hour, put him and moved him around a few times to get him right where i wanted. then about 9:45 i got a really bad cramp in my arm, followed by excruciating pain in my side. the pain radiated the whole left side of my body for the first hour. it finally went away at 4:00 a.m. no pain all day friday. then about noon saturday i noticed that something had knocked him from his perfect little place that i found for him. so i dove in the tank and put him back. about thirty minutes later the pain came back. after two hours of tuffing it out i gave up and went the emergency room. after seven hours of blood work and cat scans turned up nothing but a slightly elevated liver enzyme they sent me home. of course the pain had been long gone by the time they got done. i felt fine all day today, then i walked by the tank and dangit, something knocked my shroom over again! so i dove in and put him back once more. ( bare handed of course) then about thirty minutes later here comes the pain again.
of course i never put two and two together ( the pain and handling the shroom) until tonite. maybe that explains my liver enzymes being slightly elevated? has anyone else ever heard of this happening? am i the only one dumb enough to handle corals bare handed? is this even possible with a mushroom? do they have enough toxins to infict pain in humans? this is my first shroom. i have handled my xenia and frogspawn numerous times without any problems. but anyway sorry for the extremely long post. but, if this is my problem then maybe it will save someone else the same grief i have been through the last few days. :frustrat:

 

[bobby]

I have never heard of anything bad from shrooms, but if I were you I would start to wear gloves to be on the safe side. They sell glove that cover your whole arm at drsfostersmith.com.

 

[RigoSharon]

corals are known to have toxins and cause allergic reactionsto humans..with the descriptions of your signs n symptoms i could say that you had an contact allergic reaction..non an anaphylactic one cause breathing was not compromine nor vascular tone...histamine is released from mast cells when in contact with an pyrogen...thats a mechanism of imnunologycal defense..thats what could cause the pain..swelling, redness, numbness etc...
try to handle that coral with gloves..cause next contact could end in an anaphylactyc shock..a more serious allergic reaction...probably at your local ER they used dyphenhydramine (benadryl, ) and steroids to block the allergic reaction...with some med for pain etc..plus labs like cbc ..bmp. UA..ABG etc..
the liver enzymes could increase do to some toxins..i dont think that an exposure to these mushrooms could cause that..cause there will be more severe symtoms atacched to it....cause an increase of ALT..and AST could mean an inflamated liver or hepatitis ..can you tell the exact values of those enzymes to be more expecific??...anyways...be carefull...use gloves ..is the symptoms worsen like inflamation..shortness of breath..fatigue..taquicardia..go fast to your local ER...

 

[RigoSharon]

make a visit to your local doc...see if that liver panel could be repeated.. to make sure that your liver is ok..and to identify the origin of the increase of those enzymes...could be from a false positive..a mainly error of lab..that way you and your doc can be sure..ok...i really dont think a fist exposure of shrooms caused that...but is imperative to identify the cause..your local doc will give you more information about that ..i hope this little info helped...

 

[fishbait]

they didn't use any benadryl because they didn't think i was having an allergic reaction. i didn't associate the pain with hanlding the coral until tonite when it happened again.

 

[yote]

Ok Rigo,Just about the time I start getting over being paronoid about my corals,you start posting this technical stuff and snap me back to paronid,lol.

Fish,I aint read nowhere about shrooms causing any troubles like that,But you also gotta remember thats salt water stuff,and theres a lot about the corals that even the high dollar biologist still dont know.Just start wearing gloves when ever you decide to go diving in your tank.

 

[RigoSharon]

be carefull...make a visit to your local doc ok....any doubt ill be gladly to help ok..good luck

 

[RigoSharon]

sorry a little question...in the initial evaluation in the ER did you tell the triage that that pain came after you handle shrooms?....cause it was an important info to hav it on record..

 

[jhnrb]

Ask the coral farmers what they do when handling corals and Ill bet you will find them wearing gloves. not the hobbist but the commercial farmers/propagators. never handle corals without gloves, even if you do not have a reaction, the oils from your skin etc can have an effect on the corals. hope you are feeling better. do follow up with your doc and see if you can definitely identify the association with the tank if not something else.

 

[fishbait]

No I didn't tell them it came after handling the shrooms cause we didn't realize that may have something to do with it.

 

[RigoSharon]

i see..just be carefull fishbait..visit your local doc..to see if theres another etiology to that pain you have or is related to the shrooms.that way you can recieve proper treatment. tell him exactly what you have told us..i hope everyting resolves ok..take care..

 

[SSalty]

Wow, sorry to hear about that.

I wish I would have read this 10 hours ago. I was fragging some of my mushrooms bare handed, but I didn't have the reaction you had. Did you happen to have a cut on your had that may have caused easier access for the toxin to enter your blood stream?

We learn from our mistakes and others mistakes, I guess I will be wearing gloves whenever I handle my corals.

Take care, hope ya feel better.

 

[d.french]

we had a local guy in our reef club who was fragging zoos and got squirted in his eye and put him up in hospital real quick and got verys sick, zoos can mess you up bad and i've seen some people have bad reaction to frogspawn and hammer coral since they are stinging corals also.

 

[reeffreak]

Man sorry to here that.
I'm glad you're alright and like everyone else said you really need to wear gloves.

 

[fishbait]

thanks for all the good info and advice rigo. i'm going to go to my local doc in the morning for a follow up. i'm seem fine so far today. but i was in pretty bad pain for about 6 hours after handling the shroom last night. i'm hoping that is the problem. if so i can just start wearing gloves!

 

[fishbait]

sorry to scare everyone about mushrooms. i found out that wasn't the problem. i sure was hoping it was. it seemed like the common link to when the pain started. the good doc rigo was right. they found three spots of my liver last night. i go in for a biopsy in the morning. this kinda sucks. i don't even drink. just the occassional cold beer or two. but that's not very often.

 

[RigoSharon]

im glad i helped....sorry to hear about the findings on your liver..just be calm..follow the docs instructions..i hope everyting resolves ok..any question you may have..feel free to ask me ok..ill gladly help in any way i can..

 

[fishbait]

thanks rigo. i may have a few more before all this is over.

 

[yote]

Dang Fish,Hate to hear that Bud.Let us know what the results are,and we'll sure be thinking about ya.

 

[bobby]

Yea let us know how it go's. Good luck.