Bob,

I do not believe I have had quite as strong of a reaction to tomato plants as what you experienced, but yes, it happened to me in about 2000. Did it last? Not completely. After the initial outbreak/reaction, it was a sporadic thing for a couple of years. It hasn't been as bad since that first year. For me, it is the worst when the sunlight is very strong...so it happens more in, say, July and August, but not so much in April or May, or in Sept.-Oct. With me, it only happens with green plants, so I have no problem making all the contact in the world with dead plants when I'm removing them after frost.

I don't know what to tell you except that I take Claritin almost every day and sometimes still have a tomato reaction. It hasn't stopped me from growing them or eating them. I do often wear one of Tim's old, white, long-sleeved cotton dress shirts when I am doing a great amount of picking tomatoes. It helps if I can avoid making direct physical contact between my skin and the tomato plants. Obviously, wearing thick or impermeable gloves (I wear nitrile gloves) helps too.

I think the amount of contact is what brings it on because I can run outside and pick 3 or 4 tomatoes for lunch and not have a problem, but let me stay out there picking tomatoes for an hour or two or three and I am in for itchy rashes on my arms and many of the other symptoms you described.

I have friends who aren't supposed to eat tomatotes (their tongue and lips itch and then go numb and they can even have breathing difficulty) but they eat them anyway. For them, cooked tomatoes are not as much of an issue as raw ones, so cooking them must deactivate some enzyme or something that is what their bodies are actually reacting to.

I hope your allergy is temporary or at least lessens in intensity.

Dawn