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miss_lucy21Today is allergy test day. Woo. Actually, I cannot wait to get it over with because in order to do this, I've had to be off my main allergy medication since last Wednesday. I had honestly been wondering if this allergy medication- Allegra/fexofenedine- was actually doing much for me, since I struggled hard throughout the spring and am still waking up feeling allergy/sinus icky nearly every day. I now know that yes, actually, it was working pretty damn well, as I have felt like unadulterated poo for the past four days (Thursday wasn't too bad- there was still enough in my system to get me through). Good to know.
(The Allegra, even if it has only been taking care of about, oh, 65-75% of my symptoms is still my best option. Lortadine (Claritin) and cetirizine (Zyrtec) both make me very sleepy and unable to function at a reasonable level. There's really nothing else on the market that's reasonable for long term use and even if it was, it would either not work well for me anymore (trust me, I've been on them all at various points in the past 30 years) or make me too sleepy for it to matter- i.e., there's a reason why they use the active ingredient in Benedryl as the active ingredient in most over the counter sleeping pills. Note: a pack of generic Benedryl is way cheaper, too. Just a tip.)
But the actual testing process is Not Fun in a very special way if you are not a fan of needles. They drop little drops of saline with allergens in them (i.e., pollen, cat dander, food proteins) onto your skin and then poke the drop with a needle to get it into your skin and then they watch for some-amount-of-time-that-I-can't-remember-and-has-probably-changed-in-the-8-years-or-so-since-I-did-this-last to see if your skin reacts. If it gets red and bumpy and itchy, well, hey, you're probably allergic to it. If nothing happens, you are likely not allergic. There's false positives sometimes (the last two times my skin insisted I was allergic to dogs. I have never, ever had any sort of reaction, even a minor one, to spending time with a dog), but it's still the gold standard for determining these things.
So, what I'm hoping for is no surprises. It's not impossible to develop new allergies later in life- this is why they do the testing every 5 years or so, although I've been putting it off for 8 (this is Not Fun, as I said before, and I didn't have insurance that would cover it for most of the past 7 years or so). Discovering a food allergy would be Not Good (I have no reason to believe that will happen. I would have probably noticed if it was an allergy to something I eat regularly that was severe enough to really worry about because food allergies are really not that subtle). Most likely, it's going to tell me that I'm allergic to pretty much everything that grows and has pollen, to dust, to cats, and to mold, which I knew already. And then we'll discuss allergy shots for the umpteenth time and I will try that again with the hope that the 4th time is the charm (having money this time will probably help. As will having better controlled asthma).
(The Allegra, even if it has only been taking care of about, oh, 65-75% of my symptoms is still my best option. Lortadine (Claritin) and cetirizine (Zyrtec) both make me very sleepy and unable to function at a reasonable level. There's really nothing else on the market that's reasonable for long term use and even if it was, it would either not work well for me anymore (trust me, I've been on them all at various points in the past 30 years) or make me too sleepy for it to matter- i.e., there's a reason why they use the active ingredient in Benedryl as the active ingredient in most over the counter sleeping pills. Note: a pack of generic Benedryl is way cheaper, too. Just a tip.)
But the actual testing process is Not Fun in a very special way if you are not a fan of needles. They drop little drops of saline with allergens in them (i.e., pollen, cat dander, food proteins) onto your skin and then poke the drop with a needle to get it into your skin and then they watch for some-amount-of-time-that-I-can't-remember-and-has-probably-changed-in-the-8-years-or-so-since-I-did-this-last to see if your skin reacts. If it gets red and bumpy and itchy, well, hey, you're probably allergic to it. If nothing happens, you are likely not allergic. There's false positives sometimes (the last two times my skin insisted I was allergic to dogs. I have never, ever had any sort of reaction, even a minor one, to spending time with a dog), but it's still the gold standard for determining these things.
So, what I'm hoping for is no surprises. It's not impossible to develop new allergies later in life- this is why they do the testing every 5 years or so, although I've been putting it off for 8 (this is Not Fun, as I said before, and I didn't have insurance that would cover it for most of the past 7 years or so). Discovering a food allergy would be Not Good (I have no reason to believe that will happen. I would have probably noticed if it was an allergy to something I eat regularly that was severe enough to really worry about because food allergies are really not that subtle). Most likely, it's going to tell me that I'm allergic to pretty much everything that grows and has pollen, to dust, to cats, and to mold, which I knew already. And then we'll discuss allergy shots for the umpteenth time and I will try that again with the hope that the 4th time is the charm (having money this time will probably help. As will having better controlled asthma).