So.....my allergy test today

[Darrell KSR]

Skin test applied. Nurse returns.

"Gasp."

"You're allergic to everything."

Doctor returns. "Mr. Cartwright," he says, "It's easier for me to tell you what you are not allergic to than to tell you what you are allergic to."

Not that bad really. But environmentally, strong allergies to trees. Almost every single tree on the planet. Grasses. All of them. Weeds. Pollens. Molds. Cats. Dogs. Dust mites. Cockroaches.

Food--every shellfish--crab, lobster, abalone, clams, sea urchin, periwinkle, crawfish, mollusks, mussels, octopus, oysters, scallops, shrimp, prawns, snails, squid, fish stock, bouillabaisse, seafood flavoring, surimi, and derivatives of all of those. Also sunflower seeds, sunflower oils. Also peanuts and peanut butter and peanut oil and derivatives. No skin test done for oats, but blood drawn at the end, and will test for that as well.

We have worked out a plan for me to, like, live, that consists of daily nasal sprays 365 days a year, daily antihistamines for the same time period, daily eye drops, carrying two epi-pens (he preferred a generic brand to prescribe), and doing a 2nd blood test on the peanuts to see how close I can get to the line, and whether oatmeal and such can be eaten. Oh, and don't sit close to a kitchen because the cooking fumes from shellfish could, like, kill me.

All in all, a terrible visit and result. But as he told me, his goal is to make me feel normal when doing normal things. I've suffered through stuff without complaining (my wife would disagree) for years. This may fix a lot of that. Maybe I'll be nice. Who knows?

The food, I'm just up a creek without a paddle, I'm afraid. But there are some treatments that he may want to work on that might change that, too.

Next stop is the podiatrist in my quest to keep and stay healthy.

[KentuckyWildcat]

You are not alone in the allergies! Food and seasonal. Doctor said I probably have the worst seasonal allergies he has ever seen. The combo of Flonase/Xyzal/Singular has been great for me the past year. On top of allergies shots for way too long.

As for food. Thankfully I never loved seafood anyway. It was okay, but I don't miss it.

But thankfully you are getting answers!

[Darrell KSR]

Told my wife about the cats (we have two, have had as many as four), and doctor recommended they be removed from the house.

She asked me where I would be moving.

[CitizenBBN]

Told my wife about the cats (we have two, have had as many as four), and doctor recommended they be removed from the house.

She asked me where I would be moving.

lol. I'd recommend against anything next to a Red Lobster.

[CitizenBBN]

Seriously, sorry for the result, but better to know and get treatment for it. Could make you feel a lot better as you've probably been having an ongoing reaction to these things on a constant basis, just not strong enough to make it clear. At least until the oats thing started.

I knew about your seafood allergy, but that seems to now be way more than shellfish. I find that interesting in that you didn't always have it. Maybe it was just mild and became worse?

[blueboss]

Told my wife about the cats (we have two, have had as many as four), and doctor recommended they be removed from the house.

She asked me where I would be moving.

Man, that sucks. You have to move and all you can eat is jello. Silver lining, wherever you move to doesn’t really need a kitchen, just a fridge for the jello.


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[KentuckyWildcat]

Told my wife about the cats (we have two, have had as many as four), and doctor recommended they be removed from the house.

She asked me where I would be moving.

Cats are horrible. Unfortunately, one thing I am not allergic to is dogs...

Our house is as allergy free as we can get it. No carpet, no curtains, air filters, etc...

[dan_bgblue]

I am allergic to streptomycin, all antihistamines, seroquel, poison ivy, and have the general head stuffiness many people get in the spring from tree/grass/ pollen, mold spores etc. The spring time stuff and poison ivy are just a nuisance, but the others could be serious if not attended to. Other than that, I give the finger to the idea of other allergies and go my merry way.

I do have a lot of compassion for others that are not as lucky as I am. Many members of my close family are afflicted with a number of allergies and they make certain aspects of their lives much less enjoyable than what I am used to.

[KeithKSR]

I always wondered what happened to the boy in the bubble, now I know. He escaped the bubble and has been living in Birmingham. Looks like he is headed back to the bubble.

[Darrell KSR]

Blood test lab results back, and they say they are "optimistic" that I can eat peanuts, and have foods cooked with peanut oil unless cold pressed.

I cannot have any oats, however. Flunked skin prick test and blood test, so my daily steel cut oats is forever gone.

I have been substituting eating a plain baked potato (with Tony Chacheres seasoning) for lunch every day, but it's not nearly as good, and I get tired of it, whereas I could eat steel cut oats with peanut butter and honey every day for the rest of my life. Except, apparently, the rest of my life could be rather short if I continued on that path...

I am happy about the peanut butter. We're going to do an oral food challenge next to get more definitive on it.

FWIW, I'm not terribly disturbed about the environmental issues. Heck, I've had them and tolerated them all the time. I'm not a camper; I'm not a woodsman; I'm not even a hunter. I play golf on rare occasion. I attend outdoor sporting events. I go running, but it's an hour outside at a time. All of those things are tolerable. I'm not supposed to mow the lawn, but I spend an hour to 90 minutes doing it, too. I wear a mask now when I do (I know my neighbors must think, "gee, he's really scared of Covid" lol).

The food things are the only things that bother me. The environmental things I can generally manage with medication, saline rinses, and just not worrying much about things like eyes watering, gloppiness (my word), nasal discharges, sinus headaches, etc. I've dealt with that for years, and now I have somebody telling me what medications to use to address it, so I should be better than ever on those.

[bigsky]

How else would have a food challenge? (Re: "oral food challenge"). Seriously, though, I hope you can back down the massive reactions you're having. And I'm optimistic you can. It might take some ultra care and steroids for a while but I'm confident you won't become bubble boy. It always seems that there is something I do that blows up my health in ways nobody anticipated. Who knew the Scots' steel cut oats would be one of those times for you? Certainly not me as oats have been preached for their "colon blow properties" all my life. I wish you a contented patient mind as you wait out this health emergency. There is plenty of life to enjoy.

[Darrell KSR]

Much appreciated, bigsky.

I have survived a whole lotta years with some version of most of these, I suspect, so I'm not terribly torn up about it. The oats really suck because I'm a creature of habit. If I'm working at home, every day at lunch I had steel cut oats with peanut butter and a teaspoon of honey or a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar. Every. Single. Day. I don't like to think about it, it's good, nutritious, the "colon blow properties" you reference is a big benefit, and it's super easy to make the way I do (I use an electric tea kettle for the water, throw the serving amount in a Campbell's soup mug, pour the water in it, put a Yeti cup top with a hole for a straw on top of it (allows the spoon with peanut butter on it to go through, and the peanut butter to "melt"), and after some minutes, it's done.

I will set an appointment for the peanuts, though, and I guess I'm glad that he is optimistic about it.

On the "oral food challenge"--I guess I get what they're saying. They did food skin testing, then followed with food blood tests, so I suppose if you view test and challenge as the same, "oral" is needed to differentiate it between the skin prick test and the blood labs test. So if it's a "food challenge," in theory, it could be done via a skin test or blood test (well, really skin test, now that I think of it--the blood is already out of my system. The skin test is really the only challenge part; to see if I get all "welpy" and itchy. Who knows, but that's what they call it.