Saturday, October 26, 2013

Allergies

*Peaks head out from behind curtain* I know, I know. I'm a sucky bloggist. It is what it is. I hate trickling information but it probably would've been more informative to keep up as it went along.
Nothing much ever came of either scan. I have no clue what the bone narrowing was or wasn't as the bone scan was clear. It was a very cool test, but clear nonetheless.

The sinus cyst appeared to just be mucus (gag) deep in my head and she said the symptoms I felt weren't from it but from allergies and sent me for the injection test. I believe I was stuck in the arm 51 times, with 19 allergens and reacted positively (allergic) to 16 of them.

Furthering that, the office where they did it tells you to avoid antihistamines the week before but also beta blockers (mine) and additionally, milk and some others. I had to reschedule because I got a sinus cold and took meds that I couldn't (on the list) after being off milk/dairy a few days then going back on it, and had a reaction. Then after I completed the test (going off dairy again) and eating dairy again, I had another reaction. Adding that, plus the arm results, and the way I react to pumpkin, she sent me for a RAST test (blood allergy). The results were 3 pages long.

The summary, I'm borderline allergic/sensitive to egg white, milk, cod, wheat, peanut, soybean, corn, orange, chicken, apple, scallops, clam, oyster. Actually full on allergic (low level) to tomato, crab, crayfish. Moderately allergic to shrimp, tuna, and lobster. I have other low to "very high" environmental allergies (detailed in the skin test PLUS the ones that were negative on the skin test, were positive/borderline on the blood test). I left her office with a prescription to an epi pen.
At first she wanted to do allergy shots but changed her mind when I reminded her I'm on beta blockers (since they specifically said not to take them for the test because the meds they give for an allergic reaction won't work). She's afraid the shots would give me an anaphylactic reaction and the beta blocker would hinder treatment. Nice huh. So shall I AGAIN repeat what I say every few months about one treatment of mine canceling out another?

Now most people may wonder how I didn't know about the moderate seafood allergies, those at least are more bothersome (especially if "borderline" milk makes me react after not eating it for a few days) and the answer is simple. I don't and never have eaten shell fish. Ever. But my goal recently was to get over my picky ways and eat more foods, had actively, if slowly started, with success, started trying and liking new foods I'd never tried. So eventually I'd have probably tried it.

Right now I'm midway through week 3 of a modified elimination diet. I haven't had dairy, egg, soy, wheat, tomato, seafood (tuna or any other non shellfish I've ever tried), SODA (I've had 5 sips/swallows, literally) in almost 3 weeks. Today is day 19, and as an fu to the NP who told me to simply cut soda, my heart still races and skips beats, yes no soda is much healthier, but it did NOTHING for my heart rate. I had an oops where I was exposed to cheese on Wednesday though. I went somewhere with Mom and they had breakfast foods and I stuck mainly with the meat but mom and her boyfriend said to just pick the cheese off the potatoes as there wasn't much so I did thinking it'd be ok. Wrong! I only ate a few pieces and within a few minutes felt awful (and for the rest of the night). So contaminated food, made with dairy, even if you remove the cheese STILL COUNTS NEWBIES. Lesson learned. "Luckily" dairy intolerance is just GI for me and not anaphylactic. Around the beginning of November, after a month of no everything listed, I start slowly reintroducing to see how I react. I'm still going to officially test dairy. I noted my oops but I'm going to still officially test it.
This was REALLY itchy.