Allergy test done.
Aug. 5th, 2004 11:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brinshannaraAnd damn, does my arm itch.
What they did to me:
After talking to the doctor for a few minutes and doing a breath test (to test if my lungs were currently reacting to any allergen, I guess -- and they weren't, 'cause I got a 99%! Go me! I am very proud of my lungs.), he looked at my nose and agreed that my nasal passageways are slightly inflamed. He checked my glands and my thyroid and all that's fine. So then he had the lab person test me for the following things:
1) Dust
2) Cockroaches (I have no idea why. This is a standard thing to test for.)
3) Cats
4) Dogs
5) Lobster
6) Crab
7) Shrimp
8) Clams
9) Scallops
10) Mussels
That means she poked eleven holes in my arm with a plastic toothpick thing (and, btw, OW. And a TOTAL flashback to a dream of mine in which I had a bunch of GAPING HOLES in my forearms!) and then put a drop of each sample on the appropriate scratched piece of the inside of my forearm. They only tested for ten things, but they poke an extra one for the histamine as a control. You will react to the histamine and they judge your reaction to the others by how bad the reaction is in comparison to the histamine.
So after fifteen minutes of waiting for the reaction in the waiting room, while portions of my arm were BURNING and ITCHING, I get called back in, and she wipes off the samples and examines the reactions.
1) Dust - negative (one more excuse not to dust often. ;))
2) Cockroaches - negative (oh, good. I can get a pet roach, now.)
3) Cats - positive, a moderate allergy (I knew it. Frigging cats.)
4) Dogs - positive, a moderate allergy (Ack! Less than cats, but there was a definite allergic reaction. :( I may never have a puppy again. :( :( This makes me sad. But explains my reaction to my brother's dog)
5) Lobster - negative (surprising)
6) Crab - negative (surprising)
7) Shrimp - negative (surprising)
8) Clams - negative (surprising)
9) Scallops - negative (surprising)
10) Mussels - negative (surprising)
Why's all that surprising? Because my mom's allergic to seafood and so is my brother. It's not conclusive, though. More on this after.
So she then sticks me with a couple of needles (which wasn't as bad as the poking with the plastic, actually) to ensure I'm not allergic to dust or cockroaches. 15 minutes later, there's still no reaction, so I am definitely not allergic to dust. Or cockroaches.
What this actually means:
My stupid nose thing is definitely not allergic rhinitis. That's been completely ruled out, especially by the non-reaction to dust. So I do indeed have vasomotor rhinitis and I'm stuck with it.
The good news is that I got a prescription for a new nose spray thing. Actually, spray isn't a good word for it. It's Rhinocort, a Turbohaler. So it's in powder form and I get to use it twice a day, twice in each nostril each time, for a month. Results for it are good -- people who take it can sometimes be fine afterwards for months or even years without taking more of it. So I've got the prescription and we'll see if my parents want to actually pay for the medicine. That would be nice. ;) Seriously, though, even if it means a month without taking medication and being symptom-free, that would be totally worth my weight in gold.
As to the seafood/shellfish, reactions to injections (like the dust and cockroach ones I got today) are too dangerous, so if I ever want to be 100% sure about the food allergies, I should make another appointment and, prior to the appointment, go to the seafood counter at the grocery store and tell them I'm being tested, and ask for six small samples of the items in question. They'll do another skin test (poking holes with the plastic thing) and then rub the actual food item on the area and see if there's a reaction. I'm probably not going to do this unless I ever wind up going to a seafood-heavy region (Maritimes, New England, etc), but I know that I'm at least mildly allergic to some forms of seafood, because my eyes water around crab, lobster and shrimp.
Anyways, that was that. I'm going to try to get some work done today because I'm going up north tomorrow (confirmed with my dad and everything) after my driving lesson and, well, I have stuff to do.
I've already popped two Sinus Tylenols and am hoping to head off the sinus headache I can feel coming on.
Now, if only my arm would stop itching...
What they did to me:
After talking to the doctor for a few minutes and doing a breath test (to test if my lungs were currently reacting to any allergen, I guess -- and they weren't, 'cause I got a 99%! Go me! I am very proud of my lungs.), he looked at my nose and agreed that my nasal passageways are slightly inflamed. He checked my glands and my thyroid and all that's fine. So then he had the lab person test me for the following things:
1) Dust
2) Cockroaches (I have no idea why. This is a standard thing to test for.)
3) Cats
4) Dogs
5) Lobster
6) Crab
7) Shrimp
8) Clams
9) Scallops
10) Mussels
That means she poked eleven holes in my arm with a plastic toothpick thing (and, btw, OW. And a TOTAL flashback to a dream of mine in which I had a bunch of GAPING HOLES in my forearms!) and then put a drop of each sample on the appropriate scratched piece of the inside of my forearm. They only tested for ten things, but they poke an extra one for the histamine as a control. You will react to the histamine and they judge your reaction to the others by how bad the reaction is in comparison to the histamine.
So after fifteen minutes of waiting for the reaction in the waiting room, while portions of my arm were BURNING and ITCHING, I get called back in, and she wipes off the samples and examines the reactions.
1) Dust - negative (one more excuse not to dust often. ;))
2) Cockroaches - negative (oh, good. I can get a pet roach, now.)
3) Cats - positive, a moderate allergy (I knew it. Frigging cats.)
4) Dogs - positive, a moderate allergy (Ack! Less than cats, but there was a definite allergic reaction. :( I may never have a puppy again. :( :( This makes me sad. But explains my reaction to my brother's dog)
5) Lobster - negative (surprising)
6) Crab - negative (surprising)
7) Shrimp - negative (surprising)
8) Clams - negative (surprising)
9) Scallops - negative (surprising)
10) Mussels - negative (surprising)
Why's all that surprising? Because my mom's allergic to seafood and so is my brother. It's not conclusive, though. More on this after.
So she then sticks me with a couple of needles (which wasn't as bad as the poking with the plastic, actually) to ensure I'm not allergic to dust or cockroaches. 15 minutes later, there's still no reaction, so I am definitely not allergic to dust. Or cockroaches.
What this actually means:
My stupid nose thing is definitely not allergic rhinitis. That's been completely ruled out, especially by the non-reaction to dust. So I do indeed have vasomotor rhinitis and I'm stuck with it.
The good news is that I got a prescription for a new nose spray thing. Actually, spray isn't a good word for it. It's Rhinocort, a Turbohaler. So it's in powder form and I get to use it twice a day, twice in each nostril each time, for a month. Results for it are good -- people who take it can sometimes be fine afterwards for months or even years without taking more of it. So I've got the prescription and we'll see if my parents want to actually pay for the medicine. That would be nice. ;) Seriously, though, even if it means a month without taking medication and being symptom-free, that would be totally worth my weight in gold.
As to the seafood/shellfish, reactions to injections (like the dust and cockroach ones I got today) are too dangerous, so if I ever want to be 100% sure about the food allergies, I should make another appointment and, prior to the appointment, go to the seafood counter at the grocery store and tell them I'm being tested, and ask for six small samples of the items in question. They'll do another skin test (poking holes with the plastic thing) and then rub the actual food item on the area and see if there's a reaction. I'm probably not going to do this unless I ever wind up going to a seafood-heavy region (Maritimes, New England, etc), but I know that I'm at least mildly allergic to some forms of seafood, because my eyes water around crab, lobster and shrimp.
Anyways, that was that. I'm going to try to get some work done today because I'm going up north tomorrow (confirmed with my dad and everything) after my driving lesson and, well, I have stuff to do.
I've already popped two Sinus Tylenols and am hoping to head off the sinus headache I can feel coming on.
Now, if only my arm would stop itching...
