Pomelo Peels,Mosquitos & Heath Care

Be careful with pomelos! Here is what the little pomelo looked like after I peeled it.  Only about the size of a regular grapefruit, and every bit as delicious as the best red grapefruit you could find.  If you look at about 12 o'clock, you see the fruit.  The rest is all peel and pith.  Some take the peel and make marmalade with it, but the pith is just trash.  Be careful with the white fluffy stuff (pith) in a pomelo.  That seems to be where you are going to have an irritant if you are inclined.  I know from experience.

I did enjoy the fruit, but unlike eating an entire grapefruit, I could only eat about half of it before I thought I would explode. I had to put the rest in the fridge for another nosh.  Something else concerned me as well.  While I was peeling the fruit, my hands began to tingle, then burn, and then, after I had eaten the fruit, I had hands the size of hockey gloves.  I attempted to wash the irritant off but with no luck, they just kept burning and growing in size.  I also had a quick look at my face and where I had touched the pithy stuff near my mouth I had developed lips that could challenge any collagen injections and win.  Nothing would stop the sting and the burn.  Lucky for me I have a pharmacy of antihistamines here.  Not wanting to be drowsy, I took a claritin and waited.  No improvement, but not getting worse either.  Four hours later, I decided that I needed to get something done about this. I could not close my hands, I could not touch my lips.  Avoiding the local clinic, I drove myself to JB to a private hospital.  Upon arrival, they greeting me and took me immediately to an exam room. I guess the big lips was an indicator that something was amiss.  Blood work and monitoring done, they prepared to admit me. No thanks.  They insisted I stay once the blood work was returned. Seems I had another bite or two from virus laden mosquitos. Dengue Fever back.  I know I had been feeling crummy lately, with muscle cramps and headache. I also recall a couple of itchy spots - must have been bites, but never thought anything of it.  I refused to stay over, so with a fresh supply of claritin and heavy duty pain killers I got back in my buggy and headed home.  No fever to speak of, I think I only had a mild case of Dengue this time.  I will return in a week and have blood work done again.

So I guess it was a good thing to have a reaction from the pomelo. I would not have gone to the doctor otherwise.  And then I would not have known that I once again have Dengue.  As for the pomelo, I guess it is somewhat common to react as I did.  I have found I cannot touch lemon or lime peels without the same reaction so I have bought a citrus press. But a pomelo will never fit into one of these, so full contact was the result.  I have a stash of vinyl gloves so the rest of the fruit will be peeled carefully so that none of that mean pith touches my princess mouth again.  I still have one and a half here and intend to eat them all.  

antihistamine caution

There was a caution advised. Only use non drowsy antihistamines when needed for pomelo reaction. Apparently the mixture of this fruit and the drowsy form of antihistamine can cause severe liver or kidney damage.  

Glad I went to the hospital instead of the clinic. I know they would not have known these cautions and I know too that I would not have been checked for Dengue.  They do not have the facilities to do that.