Phun with pharmacology
Feb. 19th, 2014 02:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
icepixieSo apparently--and I cannot say that this comes as a surprise to me--I'm allergic to everything under the sun. The allergy/sinus clinic did a standard 40-item test, and I reacted to almost thirty of them, primarily in the grass and tree area, but also some weeds (ragweed, my ancient enemy, how you made me swell), dust mites, cat, and (sigh) dog. But I can be around mold and cockroaches without problem. For joy.
One of the nurses literally made a series of o.o :O :( faces, while the other called me an overachiever. Most of the prick welts have gone down (minus the timothy grass, or generic lawn grass, which is still pink and raised five hours later), but the intradermal parts are still kind of scary looking.
Barring moving to a bubble in the the desert, my best bets for prevention are to keep on staying indoors a lot, get dust mite covers for my mattress and pillow, wash my bed linens a lot, replace carpet with hardwood, and vacuum all upholstered furniture--while wearing a mask. Yep, I gotta wear a mask to do housework now. I also got a crapload of oral and inhaled steroids, a prescription antihistamine, and a nasal rinse bottle that's supposed to be better than my neti pot. The oral steroids are thankfully temporary, because the long-term side effects sound horrifying.
The LPN said I was a great candidate for allergy shots, and since the clinic is less than a block from my office, I think I'll go ahead and do that. It's a 3-5-year commitment, which is less than ideal, but apparently the success rate is very high.
That said, I don't appear to have a sinus infection, which was my original reason for going in. They said my tooth pain might clear up with all the anti-allergy stuff they're going to throw at it, or it might be dental in origin, even though it responds better to decongestants than painkillers, waxes and wanes with the weather, and in all respects acts like a sinus infection. But what the hell, I made an appointment with my dentist for next week to get it looked at.
And on the other end of things, my gyn originally thought I didn't have endometriosis because the symptoms didn't sound right, but did an ultrasound anyway and found what looks like an endometrial cyst. I get another ultrasound in six weeks. Whatever it is, she prescribed me the minipill after basically asking what I wanted the first move to be, and I cannot WAIT to start taking it.
The year I turn 30: The year I stop falling apart! Maybe!
One of the nurses literally made a series of o.o :O :( faces, while the other called me an overachiever. Most of the prick welts have gone down (minus the timothy grass, or generic lawn grass, which is still pink and raised five hours later), but the intradermal parts are still kind of scary looking.
Barring moving to a bubble in the the desert, my best bets for prevention are to keep on staying indoors a lot, get dust mite covers for my mattress and pillow, wash my bed linens a lot, replace carpet with hardwood, and vacuum all upholstered furniture--while wearing a mask. Yep, I gotta wear a mask to do housework now. I also got a crapload of oral and inhaled steroids, a prescription antihistamine, and a nasal rinse bottle that's supposed to be better than my neti pot. The oral steroids are thankfully temporary, because the long-term side effects sound horrifying.
The LPN said I was a great candidate for allergy shots, and since the clinic is less than a block from my office, I think I'll go ahead and do that. It's a 3-5-year commitment, which is less than ideal, but apparently the success rate is very high.
That said, I don't appear to have a sinus infection, which was my original reason for going in. They said my tooth pain might clear up with all the anti-allergy stuff they're going to throw at it, or it might be dental in origin, even though it responds better to decongestants than painkillers, waxes and wanes with the weather, and in all respects acts like a sinus infection. But what the hell, I made an appointment with my dentist for next week to get it looked at.
And on the other end of things, my gyn originally thought I didn't have endometriosis because the symptoms didn't sound right, but did an ultrasound anyway and found what looks like an endometrial cyst. I get another ultrasound in six weeks. Whatever it is, she prescribed me the minipill after basically asking what I wanted the first move to be, and I cannot WAIT to start taking it.
The year I turn 30: The year I stop falling apart! Maybe!
no subject
Date: 2014-02-22 04:39 pm (UTC)Another thing that happened is that for a few years, when the grass pollen count was really high, I reacted to that particularly which I had not done previously. I am allergic to a whole slew of pollens in my area (like you, it sounds like - and I should add that despite having moved around for college and grad school I am now living in the town I grew up in again, so I'm back where my allergy shots were targeted for, yay!). I think the allergy shots were effective at reducing my response to tree pollen significantly, but that may also have had the effect of making my response to grass pollen stand out. Like you, I am also very allergic to timothy grass - and I have the bad luck to live in the county next to the county that calls itself the "grass seed capital of the world," so there are a lot of fields of grass including timothy in my general area.
Anyway, what this ramble-y reflection is getting at is that I think I am less reactive now to trees and dust mites, and that it's hard to say how much reduction there was to grass. In a high pollen count spring/early summer I have miserably itchy eyes, but so do people who don't normally report grass allergies, so perhaps the allergy shots were effective at taking that response down to normal if not nil.
no subject
Date: 2014-02-24 01:17 am (UTC)WANT. *grabby hands*
I have the bad luck to live in the county next to the county that calls itself the "grass seed capital of the world," so there are a lot of fields of grass including timothy in my general area.
Oh, yuck. Lawns just need to go away, honestly. There is no need for them. LET US ALL HAVE ROCK GARDENS. Or native crabgrass, whichever. Though I'm probably allergic to that, too.
I definitely notice my reaction to grass the most--I can count on being full of snot and having my eyes itch a bit when my dad mows every Thursday from April through October--but I know there are trees and weeds out there that cause their own misery at different times. Ragweed and elm in particular--I can always tell when those are pollinating.
perhaps the allergy shots were effective at taking that response down to normal if not nil
That actually sounds really nice right now.