Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Preparing for your appointment
By Mayo Clinic staffYou're likely to start by first seeing your family doctor or a general practitioner. However, in some cases when you call to set up an appointment, you may be referred immediately to an allergy specialist.
It's a good idea to write a list of your questions ahead of time. Your doctor will likely have questions for you, as well. He or she may ask:
- What symptoms are you having? How severe are they?
- When did you first notice your symptoms?
- Have you had a reaction to shellfish in the past?
- What kind of shellfish did you eat?
- How soon after eating shellfish did your symptoms occur?
- What other foods did you eat during your meal? Don't forget sauces, beverages and side dishes.
- Did any other people dining with you experience similar symptoms?
- Is there a history of allergy in your family?
- Do you have other allergies, such as hay fever?
- Do you have asthma or eczema (atopic dermatitis)?
What you can do in the meantime
Avoid eating any type of shellfish before your appointment.
- Sicherer SH. Seafood allergies: Fish and shellfish. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed April 22, 2009.
- Sampson HA. Food-induced anaphylaxis. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed April 22, 2009.
- Sicherer SH. Food allergen avoidance. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed April 22, 2009.
- Burks W. Clinical manifestations of food allergy. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed April 22, 2009.
- Wood R. The natural history of childhood food allergy. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed April 22, 2009.
- James JM, et al. Respiratory manifestations of food allergy. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed April 22, 2009.
- Marcus EN. Marine toxins. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed April 22, 2009.
- Burks W. History and physical examination in the patient with possible food allergy. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed April 22, 2009.
- Burks W. Diagnostic tools for food allergy. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed April 22, 2009.
- Seafood allergy. American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. http://www.aaaai.org/patients/advocate/2006/winter/seafood.asp. Accessed April 22, 2009.
- Seafood allergy. Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. http://www.aafa.org/display.cfm?id=9&sub=20&cont=518. Accessed April 22, 2009.
