decided i was miserable enough to go for it, so i got tested last week. my only allergy is to dust mites, but i seem to be intensely allergic to them. that at least explains why my allergies are year round. it also explains the itching i've been having for the past 5 months or so. no rash, just spots of intense itching. apparently, that goes hand in hand with dust mite allergies. i'm on twice weekly shots for now. started those monday. no fun, but i'm hoping to eventually stop having these problems.

Awwww......Drui, that stinks!!! I really hope the shots work for you. It's got to be no fun whatsoever to have allergies. :(

Aww... and they're everywhere! Is there any special precautions you can take to totally get rid of them? Like, what kills them?

This has me thinking... I basically have year round allergies, too... now, it could be my dog (I'm allergic to cats, so maybe dogs, too) but I believe I had the allergies before I got her 10 years ago. What type test did you go for? I've been thinking of talking for my MD about it...

Has anyone here taken the full course of allergy shots? If so, how did it go? Are you better now, etc.?

I had tests in the fall and they told me I have a bunch of allergies, so I grudgingly began the shots. But then I got a cold, then a sinus infection, then strep throat, and they said I would have to start all over again! What a waste! So, now that winter is over I guess I should reconsider, but I'd LOVE to hear the experience of others first.

Deborah

answering two questions in one here..

first, both my dad and a coworker went through allergy shots and got immense relief from them. my dad has intense allergies as well, and he is the one who repeatedly encouraged me to check into the shots.

second..about the test, i had the skin test done. it wasn't that bad, though the ones for possible food allergies did hurt. it took about 2 hours, start to finish, and that included a thorough exam by the dr. before starting the tests. if you're unfamiliar with the test, a small amount of various possible allergens are injected just under the skin. they do a broad catagory one first, and based on whatever reacts in those (a reaction is a raised welt like a mosquito bite) you then receive injections of other substances. for the food ones, she used a different method to get the stuff into my skin..and those weren't fun. i wound up with 80 sticks by the time we were done.

i'm two shots down now, and so far i haven't had much of a reaction to th shots other than today's shot making a welt. i figure they can't make things any worse, and my insurance pays for all the shots.

Ok... so they're actually injecting something into your skin? I've had the skin pricks done... where they just scratch your skin, doesn't hurt at all. Is that what you're speaking of?

I was rather upset at the results of that test... found out afterwards, the doc wasn't an allergist, he just liked working in that field. Plus, the allergens / whatever were really old.. and didn't work very well. Still, maybe I'll try again with a different md.

Deborah, my ex and I both had the allergy tests and shots.

Like Drui said, they prick your skin with the allergens and wait to see if a reaction occurs. If so then they can narrow it down if the prick was a general one. On us, they had this board thing that looks like a square board with nails and pricked our backs with it. It took about 20 minutes for the reactions. On me I had just one - mesquite trees, which is a desert tree that grows abundantly where I live. On my ex, his poor back looked like a checkerboard. He's allergic to nearly everything.

I took the series and did well with it. The shots are a series, one set is stronger than the previous set, allowing you to build up your immune system. That's why if you miss out for an extended period of time, you will have to regress and begin anew. I had to do this once, because I was away on a long business trip. My ex, being so alergic, had to have two sets of shots each week. They couldn't mix all his allergens into one "recipe."

As you progress into the shots, the welts may become larger and more pronounced. It's VERY important that you stay in the doctor's office/waiting room for at least 20 minutes after the shot to make sure there isn't an adverse reaction. In most allergy clinics, you have to show a nurse your shot before she'll let you leave.

I would recommend anyone with allergies to get the shots. It's so much better than being sick constantly and ingesting large amounts of medications. My ex's eyes cleared up so much after he finished his series, he was constantly bloodshot and had those dry itchy eyes.

Yeah, maybe I should give the injections another shot (pun intended). I never noticed any difference from them, but I only had probably six or so, and I will need to start all over, so I guess I won't know if they are helping for quite some time.

When I had them the first time, the nurses decided that I reacted too much to the beginning doseage, so they dropped me down to some baby size dose of the serum. I'm not sure why that happened, but I'm sure they'll start all over again with the teeny dose now, so it will take me weeks even to get up to the normal beginning dose! Rats!

It's weird, because I have never been an allergic-type person. I'm 50, and NOW they decide that I have all these allergies and that they are probably a big part of my constant sinus problems. If I really have a bunch of allergies, why on earth did no one notice until now?

AANNDD...my insurance company is now going to charge me $15 for each shot!! I'm not sure what I'll do.

Anyway, I'M IN A WHINY MOOD.. :mad: ..CAN YOU TELL??!! Okay, I'll go away now.

Deborah

I'm going to share my experience with allergy testing and allergy shots, but they are not supportive of them.

I evidently have a TON of allergies: inhalents and foods. I've been tested 3 different times (when I was 15, 19 and 25). Each time showed I was allergic to every grass, most trees, all pets, dust mites, molds, petroleum products. As far as foods, my first testing showed I was allergic to corn (severaly), oats, wheat, milk, beef, chicken, tomatoes, oranges, apples, etc, etc, etc,. I left testing being told I was NOT allergic to honey and turkey.

I had to stay off all of the positive foods for about 2 weeks (20 of 22 foods tested positive), then try one food, by itself, look for symptoms. This was to determine if the food alone, or in combination with others caused reactions. That was the most miserable 2 weeks of my life! I couldn't eat most foods in our house. Mom and I walked through the grocery store and found most foods were "no's" for me. I ate a lot of rice, turkey, and cashews. Neither the diet nor the following shots (or under tongue drops) helped relieve my symptoms. I stuck with that for several years.

A few years later, I went through the same process. THIS time I was tested as almost as severaly allergic to rice (my main grain staple) as I was to corn!!!!!! They didn't test rice the first time around, but told me I could eat it. I was HIGHLY hacked off! No wonder I didn't get any relief. I wondered what other foods I'd been eating (that weren't tested) I was allergic to.

They could only test so many foods/inhalents per day, and testing was expensive, and my butt got tired of sitting. I figured it would take WEEKS to find out what all I was allergic to. That was soooooooooooooo NOT worth it!

I took shots and under tongue drops again after that round of testing without improvement.

At 25 I had my tonsils taken out and my sinuses cleaned out (turbanates had been so swollen for so many years that the turbanates had grown TO each other and to the septum!!! NO air was going through my nose!) After that surgery I went back for allergy testing. AGAIN, I felt little to no relief.

I gave up!

Mind you, all of this testing took place in the 80s and early 90s. I'm sure there have been improvements in the testing proceedures and their ability to give relief.

At the first two testings, I was told they did not have a reliable way to identify allergies from a blood sample, they still had to do it by skin testing. I hope this has changed. If it has, then I might be open to re-testing.

My doctor has put me on sinus sprays to help keep my sinuses from swelling and getting congested. They do not work. I currently take prescription antihistamine and decongestants daily to keep my allergies down to mildly to moderately bothersome.

Maybe my allergies are a hopeless case.

I hate to be negative about this, but I had to throw in my 2 cents worth that allergy shots do not work for everyone.



I hope they DO work for you!

Thanks, TBear! It's good to hear both sides of the story. My younger DB just came back from the allergist, today... we always knew he was allergic to pollen and cats, but finally found out today that it's pollen from *everything* as well as some trees, dust mites, and just about all animals.

And we have a darling little beagle, which he loves. :( So, we're going to be doing what we can to help him. I'm really thinking about going, now, though, since we've both always been really congested and "sniffy" since childhood. We'll probably have similar allergies, darn!

decided i was miserable enough to go for it, so i got tested last week. my only allergy is to dust mites, but i seem to be intensely allergic to them. that at least explains why my allergies are year round. it also explains the itching i've been having for the past 5 months or so. no rash, just spots of intense itching. apparently, that goes hand in hand with dust mite allergies. i'm on twice weekly shots for now. started those monday. no fun, but i'm hoping to eventually stop having these problems.

That's exactly what tests show I'm allergic to, also. Many,
many sticks in my arm to determine that. I am debating
on getting the allergy shots and even started them about a
year ago, then abandoned it.

I am on Clarinex and Entex (decongestant) and RhinoCort
and still have to take benadryl or dayhist on top of that.

Funny, but that little chi that's my avatar also has allergies
and gets periodic cortizone shots and is also on benadryl
in the summer. :(
We suffer together.

Sometimes, it really flares up and I get headaches. I suspect
I must also be somewhat allergic to bermuda grass since
I seem to flare up when that stuff is growing.

It really can make you miserable, can't it? :evil:

I hate allergies. I had to add my two cents. Havent' ever had the shots, but I had always taken Claritin. This past winter I became allergic to the freakin' Claritin!!!!!!!!!!! THAT was not fun, had a severe reaction to it, first time I had taken it in two or three weeks and BAM!!!! Sick as a dog, doc says he had never seen that before.
Am following this thread with great interest as the shots and allergies in general are of note to me since I live eight months of the year with no working nose, due to allergies.

I've got multiple allergies and the single thing that helped me the most was bioresonance therapy. Take a look here for "details":

http://www.naturaltherapycenter.com/bioresonance_therapy/

I put "details" in quotes cause I have yet to read an explanantion on this subject that doesn't make it sound like snake oil to someone with scientific background (I'm a physicist). Most publications I've read so far are geared towards patients and seem pretty "new age" to me. The rest is written for medical professionals and simplify the physics behind it to an elematary school level ...

Anyhow, I had chronic throat inflammation for nine(!) years. I found out that I'm severely allergic to mould and that my bedroom had a damp wall which resulted in mould behind all furniture and glass framed pictures in that room. It was so bad that it would have made any non-allergic person sick as well, and it very likely caused my allergy in the first place.
Three years of living in another place didn't cure the allergy or the chronic sore throat. But one year of bioresonance therapy did, although I did not "believe" in the concept BTW - my mum talked me into it and paid for the therapy, so I had nothing to lose. I'm forever grateful for that :D
My throat is still my weakest point, all colds start with a sore throat for me until they move to my sinus or whereever. But I can live with that.

The two things that helped immensely with my dust mite allergy and hay fever was avoiding those allergens completely for about 15 months. That was a lucky coincindence though: I moved to Brisbane, Australia to do some work at the local university, got to live in a place with a wooden floor and got myself a waterbed and all new bedding there (main causes for dust mite problems are old carpets, bedding and upholstery). The different climate and thus completely different vegetation made me just forget about my hay fever.
Even after I came back my allergies have never been as bad again, although I now live in an appartment with carpets and sleep in a normal bed again. This summer I've had next to no hay fever which I also attribute to the MSM I have been taking for a couple of months now.

I had the allergy tests when I was younger, and I was also Dx w/ dust mite allergies. I had to take shots for YEARS; the shots never helped. I finally started combining over-the-counter tylonal sinus/allergy pills (when needed) with better air filters, and letting someone else clean the dust. This helped immensly. I have less problems just letting the dust sit than when I clean it (it gets stirred up and I breath more in at that time.)

I hope you find a routine that works for you.

Cheryl

I just wanted to comment on the food allergy testing with the prick test.


About a year ago, I was looking into getting allergy testing for my food intolerances and allergies. When looking into that, I found out that the food test by pricking is only at best 50% effective.

I had a different kind of food allergy testing with a blood draw, where I came up allergic to approximately 15 out of 150 foods tested for. By eliminating these foods, my life has improved a million times over.

So yes, TB, food allergy testing has come a long way, baby :)

Oh really, that's interesting, Karen! I didn't know the skin prick tests weren't all that accurate for foods.

One of my friends and I have both had allergies since we were very young. We both had the allergy tests, and both had allergy shots to help. In my case, the test said I was allergic to every single animal tested, except for horses, but that I was allergic to the hay that they roll in *sigh*, that I was allergic to just about every single common allergen (dust, pollen, etc.), and that I was allergic to some foods (mushrooms and chocolate spring to mind). For a long time after that, my mother wouldn't let me have any chocolate or mushrooms (which drove me bonkers!)....As far as I can tell, neither mushrooms nor chocolate does anything to me (luckily!). The allergy shots seemed to help a bit with the "seasonal" allergies (dust, mold, etc.).... I've been off the shots for several years now, as has my friend, and we're both taking accupuncture now. It seems to have helped my chronic nasal/sinus congestion a bit, but it's done a world of good for my friend's congestion (his extends to throat, and is much worse than mine). Also, he *was* allergic to chocolate and eggs before he started accupuncture, and is no longer allergic to them!

I know this is a very old thread but if is not locked then... ?

I am very interested in hearing about those of you that have FOOD allergies more than inhalants. I have a serious list of food allergies and am always looking for help, recipes, ideas, etc. (All the threads I have found on allergies so far are more about inhalants than food. Just so you know, I did go looking. :) ) I would also like to know if any of you have any new testing techniques you've experienced or heard of. The world of allergenics is a wide open field. Allergens and combinations can be sooo complex that they are very hard to identify and treat.

In addition to my quest, I am looking for ways to boost my immune system. I keep hearing over and over that food allergies are caused by low immune system. I can see that to be true, but how to boost it when you are allergic to all the "best foods"??