felis_ultharus | (no subject)

So last Thursday I had what could only be called an accidental allergy test. I call it accidental, because the-CLSC-doctor-who-couldn't-get-anything-right wrote me a referral for the guy thinking he was a dermatologist.

I know have a complete list of what I'm allergic to, and I was right about most of the things I'd guessed. But my most severe allergy is to dust mites, which means I'm going to have to keep this house as dust-free as possible.

Much more disturbing is that I have a mild cat-fur allergy. I'm getting prescription medication for this one.

montrealais says this explains why cats like me so much.

These two allergies probably explain a lot. I've felt like I've had a permanent head cold the last two or three years, which I just chalked up to work-and-school fatigue.

Anyway, the allergist was also crazy -- there are plenty of sane doctors around, but I never seem to get them -- but his nurse performed the test, so I trust it. And I now have a referral for a real dermatologist.

In other news, NaNiWriMo is over, and I seemed to write much less, not more than my usual output. 50,000 words is about average for me, but this month I only managed 16,000 on the non-novel (not counting jettisoned earlier versions).

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I tend not to trust allergists, since around here they tend to be "holistic allergists" or "homeopathic allergists" or naturopath doctors, who want to tell me I am allergic to everything in the known universe, which is silly. Once one tried to tell me that I was allergic to cats, which is ridiculous, as I sniffle lots more now that I'm at college and in a building full of idiots who track germs everywhere than I ever did when I lived with my parents, who own a minimum of two cats (ranging to their one-time maximum of ten, when one had a litter) at all times.

Still, if you've got one that makes a modicum of sense, give it a whirl. It's fortunate that nobody's ever told me I'm allergic to dust mites, as I'm only infamous for dusting in the sense that I don't, but if you have the motivation to keep house go to it. ^_^

And also, good luck with the dermatologist. Who is hopefully actually a dermatologist this time.

That actually sounds like this guy -- that's why I said that I trusted the test because it was performed by his nurse.

She was very by-the-book and seemed to know what she was doing. She explained how it all worked, and told me in advance what the bumps appearing on my arm would mean (because my arm swelled wherever there would be a reaction). I could see for myself the results.

My allergist, however, was what Douglas Coupland once called "a Bleeding Ponytail" -- an ex-hippie who'd kept the paraphrenalia, the disorganization, and the obnoxiousness, but jettisoned the high ideals. He seemed to think that Tai Chi might help my acne when I turned the subject to dermatology, and (looking at his giant pictures of a smiling guru) suggested a vegetarian diet and a few very New Agey books.

(Not trying to mock alternative medecine -- I know some people who've had good results with it. I've just never been one of them.)

...just so you know, that skin test is bunk. A plethora of things produce reddening and bumps when applied to or injected under the skin. Just about the only thing that doesn't is distilled water. You might check www.quackwatch.com to see if they've got anything on the specific procedure performed, just in case.

To the best of my knowledge, the only way you can really, medically tell if you're allergic to something is to not go near it and see if you feel better. If you do, either you're allergic to it, or you're deluding yourself. The only real known 'cure' for allergies is to not go near it for the rest of your life. (You don't see hospitals giving 'anti-allergy vaccines' to people who go into anaphylactic shock after bee stings, do you? Thought not. They give you a metric shitload of antihistamines and ephedrine, and possibly intubate you, and tell you not to go near bees anymore.) Happy hunting.