March 9, 2015

Allergy Testing

March 9, 2015

On the way to the doctor's office

The morning was very rainy.  I was up a little early and it was raining, but not too heavily.  When I got ready to leave for the doctor's office for my allergy testing appointment it was pouring.  It was a good soaking rain.  Water was standing several places along my route to the doctor's office. 

I was seeing an allergy specialist who has a small office in the doctor's office.  The lady doing the testing is named Cynthia and is a kind, talkative young woman.  We chatted away 2 hours.  She was late arriving since she was driving from McAllen in heavy rain and slowed by 4 accidents on the freeway along her route. 

I had filled out a multi-page questionnaire about my allergies prior to seeing her and interestingly, doing that helped me see some things about my allergies I had not fully noticed.  I do suffer on very windy days, but in general, I am better off outside.  I enjoy being outside and am bothered by mosquito bites, etc. when out there, but in general, I am OK with the environment.

The testing involved 50 pinpricks on my arms with 48 different allergens being introduced through those pinpricks.  (The first and last pricks are control samples - the first reacted as it should and the last did not react as expected.)  Then we waited for about 30 minutes to see what the reactions were.  I found it funny that she did not read my forms until after the testing and then they showed that I pretty much knew what the problems were.  One question was about what I thought caused my allergy attacks.  I listed: dust, cats, dogs, and windy days.  In another question I mentioned musty, dusty areas as problem inducing. 

My #1 strongest reaction was to dust (that is why I hired a housekeeper about 3 1/2 years ago).  At the time I told her that her main job was dust.  She always remembered that and especially in the beginning, I tried to leave or work in the yard while she worked in the house.  Now that she has things better under control, I try to be at least in the other end of the house from where she works.

I doesn't show real well in this photo but there are three

 pricks just below my elbow that kind of run together.  

Those are dust, cat, and dog.

The #2 was a tie between a particular mold and cats.  I am strongly allergic to cats.  Dogs rated #3, along with a particular type of weed.  I reacted to all but one item in the testing.  They did not test for perfume substances which probably would have come out as number one or two.  Ron and I are both very allergic to scented products.

Next week I will start on allergy shots and hope that in time, they will help me have less of a reaction to these things.  I have no plans to get a cat or a dog, but would like to be able to visit a home with them without getting hoarse.  If I am in a house with dogs especially, within about an hour I lose my voice.  I avoid petting animals even though I have had pets in the past both indoors and outdoors, we no longer do.  I consider getting an outside dog sometimes, but it would have so little human contact that it would not really be fair to the animal.  I think cats and dogs are beautiful and love photos of them, but am not interested in owning or petting them.

My appointment was at 9:45 and it was just after 1:00 when I left the doctor's office.  Another interesting thing that I learned had to do with the Singular that I have been taking for my allergies for a couple of years.  I had to be off all antihistamines for 2 weeks prior to the test and within 36 hours, two things happened.  The first was expected - I started getting stopped up.  The second was unexpected.  I noticed that my knees started hurting and were getting worse each day.  I did not know of anything that could have caused that and it finally dawned on me that it was when I went off the medication.  That seemed silly.  Why would my antihistamine have any connection to my knee pain?  It does reduce swelling.  She had said it had a steroid in it but she was not correct on that; it does not have steroids in it, but some of the results from the usage are similar.  Basically it is to reduce swelling in the bronchial tubes, but in my case it seemed to work on swelling my knees.  I will see if the knees get better as I return to taking it.

On the way to the office, I picked up some lunch.  Our oldest grandson was at the office and did some filing for me and some computer work.  I had him work on some business cards and hope to get that taken care of soon.  While having the allergy test, the headache I started with got worse and worse.  Also I wasn't feeling good by the time it was over and those were just reactions to the allergy overload.

At 5:00 I left the office and went by Mom's to take her to the grocery store.  She needed a variety of items and I needed a few things.  We did our shopping and then I took her home.  Carmen was there to unload her groceries.  I came home and after putting away the few things I had bought, I was too tired to fix supper and went to sleep in the recliner.  I moved to the bed about midnight and woke at 4:00 which is when I started writing this.  Of course, about the time I get Ron up, I will be ready for a nap.