Talking Allergies

I did search and nothing came up so I thought I would share this.

There is a very common anesthetic, propofol, that contains egg. The brand name is Diprivan.

EDITED to add that according to wikipedia, propofol also contains 10% soybean oil.

I learned this when I was about to have surgery and the nurse was very grateful that we told her I had an egg allergy (this was also when I began wearing a bracelet!)


Also, I have learned that the food ingredient cysteine, may or may not be derived from egg.

It is for reasons such as this thatI insist that the hospital identify my daughter by the coloured hospital bracelette for allergies.

I had to argue this point with a nurse in the past! Unless you are a medical professional, you can't know what is in all medications.

Thanks for sharing.

_________________
Moderator
Daughter: asthma, allergies to egg, milk, peanuts, tree nuts, most legumes (not soy) & penicillin. Developing hayfever type allergies.
Husband: no allergies
Me: allergies to some tree that flowers in May
Cat: allergic to beef, pork and lamb

I know. My biggest fear is that some nurses and doctors just don't know.

I think it would be OK to declare Diprivan as a drug allergy, as it is contraindicated for egg allergy in all cases, unlike something like MMR...

The fact that such a common anesthetic contains egg protein scares me. I know which vaccines now have gelatin/egg in them. This makes me wonder now if any pain med. given by injection have gelatin in them also.
Our son had stomach surgery at 8 weeks old. The fact that he didn't react at that time to the anesthetic means nothing as he has developed so many allergies as he's gotten older. Thanks for the heads up as that is a very good thing to be aware of.
What is the protocol for an anaphylactic child who is of 'food eating' age if admitted to hospital? Are you allowed to bring all your own food for your child? Our son was only an infant at the time of his surgery and we didn't discover his first allergies until he was 6 months old so food wasn't an issue.

_________________
DD 12 yrs -no allergies
4 yr old DS - asthma/eczema Anaphylactic to Peanuts, all tree nuts, sesame , all pea/lentil legumes, gelatin.
Allergic to trees, grass,ragweed, feathers, dander, mold and dust.
Outgrew eggs, fish, shellfish

I don't think there are many drugs out there that contain egg...at least, I haven't come across any others. I have no idea about gelatin.

You can always google propofol to find out more about it..but this is not a topical or 'freezing' type of anesthetic. It is one meant to induce general anesthesia (like during surgery) or to sedate patients with a lot of tubes and machines in ICU. So if they offer you freezing for a cut or something in emerg, you probably won't be dealing with this drug.

BC2007, in Ottawa children 16 and under are transfered to the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario. They use a coloured hospital bracelette (red) to identify the patient as having allergies. I spoke to food service years ago and the staff were very knowledgeable. If you have the nurse request a meal for a child with the age and allergies, they can make up a meal.

I think it's a good idea to speak to the hospital administration in your commnity to see what can be done before the emergency strikes.

_________________
Moderator
Daughter: asthma, allergies to egg, milk, peanuts, tree nuts, most legumes (not soy) & penicillin. Developing hayfever type allergies.
Husband: no allergies
Me: allergies to some tree that flowers in May
Cat: allergic to beef, pork and lamb

Great advice Susan, I also try to do as you suggested and not 'borrow trouble' but in this case such precautions really make sense especially with our little guys' track record.
I feel like I have a little more control if I hope for the best but prepare for the worst.

_________________
DD 12 yrs -no allergies
4 yr old DS - asthma/eczema Anaphylactic to Peanuts, all tree nuts, sesame , all pea/lentil legumes, gelatin.
Allergic to trees, grass,ragweed, feathers, dander, mold and dust.
Outgrew eggs, fish, shellfish

[quote="BC2007"] I know which vaccines now have gelatin/egg in them.
Hi BC2007 - I realize you posted this a while ago but.......Would you be able to list the vaccines with gelatin/egg in them? I think all of us would benefit from your knowledge. I, for one, have no idea which are safe and which are not. If you know of any with milk in them, those too please.

_________________
Sue
Adult on-set anaphylaxis - penicillin, shellfish, crustaceans

Hi there, I just joined up here and seen your question.

As far as I know, flu shots are grown on eggs and I had a person from the health clinic try to tell me the MMR is safe but I had her read the ingredients to me over the phone cause they wanted her to have her booster. Looking back now I think she reacted to the MMR shot when she was one and was advised after finding out how severe she is not to get the booster.

By the way, listed in the ingredients was "chicken embryo". To me that's way to close to an egg.

Also watch for lecithin, soy vs egg.
Looking forward to see what others say.

Oh we also have diprivan and propofol listed on her bracelet.


Michele

_________________
Myself - Seasonal, cats
dd-asthma (trigger - flu) anaphylactic to eggs, severe allergies to bugspray and penicilin,pulmicort
ds-Seasonal, cats and OAS
dh-allergy cats, bugspray and guava, outgrew egg allergy

SuzieQ, here's the list I have so far of vaccines with gelatin in them. This spring our allergies did another skin prick of the MMR to see if there was any way our son could have the vaccine but he was still too allergic to even divide it into thirds as commonly done. I don't have any list for vaccines with milk, sorry.

As well as vaccines any gel cap medicine contains gelatin.

Vaccine Trade Name Gelatin quantity
DTaP Tripedia 0.0015 mg
influenza FluzoneFlumist 0.025 mg 2 mg
tamiflu capsules (H1N1 anti-viral drug)
measles Attenuvax 14.5 mg
mumps Mumpsvax 14.5 mg
rubella Meruvax II 14.5 mg
measles, mumps, rubella MMR II 14.5 mg
varicella Varivax (chicken pox) 12.5 mg
shingles Zostavax 15.58 mg
rabies Rabavert < 12 mg
Yellow fever vaccine
Tetanus
Japanese enephalitis
Acellular pertussis

_________________
DD 12 yrs -no allergies
4 yr old DS - asthma/eczema Anaphylactic to Peanuts, all tree nuts, sesame , all pea/lentil legumes, gelatin.
Allergic to trees, grass,ragweed, feathers, dander, mold and dust.
Outgrew eggs, fish, shellfish

Hi BC2007, excuse me for butting in. I'm just so excited to be here.

Regarding your list, is there anything you might direct me to re: just eggs? Always learning.


Michele

_________________
Myself - Seasonal, cats
dd-asthma (trigger - flu) anaphylactic to eggs, severe allergies to bugspray and penicilin,pulmicort
ds-Seasonal, cats and OAS
dh-allergy cats, bugspray and guava, outgrew egg allergy

There is no such thing as butting in...
I think I had a celebratory hit the delete button on my egg folder I kept when our son passed his oral challenge and we were sure he had outgrown his egg allergy.

I'll see if I can find it on the backup drive. Below is just what I found online...I'm sure it changes all the time so maybe someone dealing with egg now is more up to date.

_________________
DD 12 yrs -no allergies
4 yr old DS - asthma/eczema Anaphylactic to Peanuts, all tree nuts, sesame , all pea/lentil legumes, gelatin.
Allergic to trees, grass,ragweed, feathers, dander, mold and dust.
Outgrew eggs, fish, shellfish

I was told that it's unwise for my daughter to have the annual flu shot, because she reacted to strongly to the h1n1 shot (full body hives? reversed with benadryl, dosed regularly over a 2 days). It contains egg. I believe the nurse here told me the MMR was safe, they checked and it's not contraindicated in the big binder - and she had no reaction, so maybe we were just lucky with that one.

_________________
Daughter 3.5 years) - Dairy, Eggs, Peanuts, Sesame, Beef; asthma and eczema
Daughter (2 years) - Peanuts Eczema
Son (7 months) - Contact allergy to something food undetermined

You can use Health Canada's Drug Base to search for the ingredients of a specific drug...
http://webprod.hc-sc.gc.ca/dpd-bdpp/sta ... o?lang=eng

Here's the link to info on how to search http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/dhp-mps/prodphar ... he-eng.php

_________________
Moderator
Daughter: asthma, allergies to egg, milk, peanuts, tree nuts, most legumes (not soy) & penicillin. Developing hayfever type allergies.
Husband: no allergies
Me: allergies to some tree that flowers in May
Cat: allergic to beef, pork and lamb

Hello,
I just wanted to make a comment on propofol. I had my wisdom teeth out last week and went under general anesthetic. I explained my egg allergy to the anesthesiologist, and he said that the egg in the drug is not the protien and would not cause a reaction. He was and older man who had been and anesthesiologist for 30+ years and said he had used propofol many times on egg allergic individuals and never had any reactions. He said that of course he would never use it on anyone if he didnt know it was 100% safe. Being as careful as I am, I told him no to the propofol anyways and we used a different anesthetic. Just thought I would pass along the info.

Jenn