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miss_lucy21Well, that was a doctor's appointment full of good news. I was at the allergist this afternoon. My lung functions are fine, so the "new" meds are working better than the old ones (I've been on them for 6 months, so they're not really new anymore, but I only see the allergist every six months, so this was the first scientific confirmation that they are working better. I knew they were, because I'm breathing better, but it's nice to have the pulmonary functions bear that out).
And then I finally got the results of the immune system testing. Like the nurse told me on the phone, the IgA and IgM immunoglobulins are fine (we didn't test IgE, but since that's the immunoglobulin responsible for allergies, we know I have high enough levels of that one. Too high levels, probably). My overall IgG levels are within normal limits, but there are 4 subclasses of IgG immunoglobulins, and two of those subclasses are below normal. Which is not a huge deal- it means I get more infections that the average person, which we already knew. It's only a real concern if my immune function is also below normal. And in my case, it's actually above normal- the pneumonia vaccine titer came back really high, which means that my body doesn't have any problem making antibodies. So, basically, the immunoglobulins I do have are very hard workers and there's really nothing we need to do about it. There's an asthma medicine that tends to help immune function in people with an IgG deficiency, but I was on that med back when it first came out, and not only do you have to take it 4 times a day with food, it also gave me horrific headaches. So, no. My doctor actually rejected the idea of putting me back on it before he saw me because he checked my chart and saw we'd already tried this. So, really, I just need to do the sort of stuff I already do to keep myself from getting sick- take the vitamin D, take the vitamin C, get enough sleep, wash my hands, get my flu shot, etc.
I also got my first allergy shot in *counts*...about 9 months. So, I'm starting those up again. Yay. (not really. They are an unmitigated pain in the ass. But, it's the closest thing to a cure that I'm ever going to get, so.)
So, that's one set of blood work down. Just waiting for the results of last week's. Usually it's only a couple days, but I think my doctor isn't in the office on Monday and she has to review them before they post them to the patient site. So, maybe tomorrow or Wednesday.
And then I finally got the results of the immune system testing. Like the nurse told me on the phone, the IgA and IgM immunoglobulins are fine (we didn't test IgE, but since that's the immunoglobulin responsible for allergies, we know I have high enough levels of that one. Too high levels, probably). My overall IgG levels are within normal limits, but there are 4 subclasses of IgG immunoglobulins, and two of those subclasses are below normal. Which is not a huge deal- it means I get more infections that the average person, which we already knew. It's only a real concern if my immune function is also below normal. And in my case, it's actually above normal- the pneumonia vaccine titer came back really high, which means that my body doesn't have any problem making antibodies. So, basically, the immunoglobulins I do have are very hard workers and there's really nothing we need to do about it. There's an asthma medicine that tends to help immune function in people with an IgG deficiency, but I was on that med back when it first came out, and not only do you have to take it 4 times a day with food, it also gave me horrific headaches. So, no. My doctor actually rejected the idea of putting me back on it before he saw me because he checked my chart and saw we'd already tried this. So, really, I just need to do the sort of stuff I already do to keep myself from getting sick- take the vitamin D, take the vitamin C, get enough sleep, wash my hands, get my flu shot, etc.
I also got my first allergy shot in *counts*...about 9 months. So, I'm starting those up again. Yay. (not really. They are an unmitigated pain in the ass. But, it's the closest thing to a cure that I'm ever going to get, so.)
So, that's one set of blood work down. Just waiting for the results of last week's. Usually it's only a couple days, but I think my doctor isn't in the office on Monday and she has to review them before they post them to the patient site. So, maybe tomorrow or Wednesday.