A friend from Andrew's work, Marc, got some allergy tests done recently and got photos as well, which were really interesting, so I decided I should get tests done as well. As I mentioned previously, I get really itchy arms, and get lumps that look and itch like mosquito bites, and I wondered if it was caused by an allergy to something.
So, here's the results - redness and lumps indicate allergies.
As you can see as it turns out I have a fair few allergies!! It's always good when the doctor comes in and says "oh my God, you're so red!" :) They have to measure how wide/long the redness is, and the girl doing the test was having issues figuring out which redness belonged to which test, so her and the doctor both had to examine me trying to figure out which was which! The big welt in the middle of my back is a big reaction to grasses. The column to the left of that which is almost all red, is a rection to all but one of 12 weeds they test for. On the far left column is animals - toward the top is reactions to horses and cats (d'oh...), and toward the bottom is a reaction to dust mites, on the far right is a couple of trees. The main things were the dust mites and grasses, weeds and trees.
So we need to do a few things to get rid of the dust mites (bye bye woollen underblanket!), and I have a heap of steroidal creams to put on my arms. The doctor also recommended immunotherapy (ie. a series of shots to build up immunity to these things), particularly the grasses, weeds and trees.
Unfortunately I can't start the immunotherapy until my cardiologist gives me the all clear, because the shots are a contraindication to the beta blockers I'm taking, and I need to make sure that if I have a reaction to the shots, whatever the stuff they give is ok with an aortic aneurysm (which apparently it may not be).
I still feel itchy, but I don't know if I am actually still itchy, or if it's in my head (you know how if you see a movie where spiders are crawling over someone, you keep feeling what feels like spiders crawling over you...).
Monday, March 20, 2006
Allergy testing
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4 comments:
woah - there's some torture for you! Hope you actually get a few results after all that :)
cool... what's that game you play where you get to connect all the dots before the other person! :-)
Glad you've uncovered some real allergies, and good luck with resolving/avoiding them.
Hi Sarah,
I was just searching the net for some help with the itching on my arms. Sounds like I'm experiencing close to what you had, itchy raised bumps like mosquito bites. I have talked to several doctors, a dermatologist, and had a patch test done that showed a negative result. I asked to be referred to the allergist to have prick testing done, like you. However, the dermatologist refused to give me a referral because she said I would have a false positive reaction due to the existing condition of my arms. I was wondering if you had to same problem getting a referral?
If you have any thoughts about this please send me an email at sisterproctor@gmail.com Thanks!
I was searching for "mosquito bites" on Google and came across your blog! BTW, it's Moz from The Cat Site. Sure looks like your back hurt!
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