Foxy's Domestic Side

Showing posts with label Allergies. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

What Happened at My Allergy Doctor Appointment

Good morning! I told you last week that I was going to the doctors (although you can probably tell from the title this post), and today I'm going to tell you what I was doing. Of course it had to do with my allergies! I've talked about my food allergies, but never my environmental ones. I've been getting sick a LOT, every 3-4 weeks I would come down with sore throat and sinus stuff. This last round (last week) I couldn't take it any more, so I finally went to the allergy doctor again. The last time I went was back in 2007 when I was originally diagnosed with my food allergies. I needed a plan of action, cause getting sick every month was not an option.

So at this point in the post, if you don't want to see pictures of my back with a bunch of allergy dots, just push that little red x in the top right of your browser, or I guess it's the top left on a MAC? Hmmm...pretty sure that's where it is.

They told me to expect a 2-3 hour appointment, cause they were going to get me results that day. The last time I went (different doctor, different city) I had to make another appointment to get the testing done, which is silly, since you're going there because you think you have allergies, duh you want tests done. Anyway...on to the ~~fun~~ not so fun pictures. Mr. thought it was fascinating watching my back go crazy.

Here's your last warning, click away, if you don't want to see my back.

Here's Jonny, he was administering the test. I got 88 allergens the first go around.

First they number your back...so they know which allergen is what. They had stuff in two trays, this was the first one. All numbered up and ready to go. See the top left shoulder there? That was the control, he did that first to make sure the test would be valid, before even numbering my back.

Next comes the many, many pricks. Yes they did hurt, and he did it 88 times, I don't know if I could have done many more pricks, lucky just when I was at my breaking point he stopped.

So this is just after he finished pricking me, you cn tel some of them are already starting to react.

This is about 3-4 minutes later - See the really red stuff in the 3rd column at the top? Those are grasses.

7-8 minutes into the test - it's getting uncomfortable, my back is so itchy it's almost numb, you know that feeling?

10-11 minutes into the test, almost can't feel it, I just want to itch!

15 minute mark - Test is done! Those big welts, yep I would say I'm allergic to grasses. The part after the grasses and and the 4th column are all food related stuff.

Sweet relief! Cortizone cream, it felt so good.

Now the ones that turned out having no reaction, they had to make sure it was a true non allergy, so they actually gave me a shot. Don't worry, they just put it under the skin, no muscle, so it wasn't too bad. Easier than the back pricks.

They only retested the environment stuff, not the pets or food.

Forgot to take a picture of the after 15 minutes on this one. 6 of them came back with a positive. Darn. So basically there are only 4 things I'm not allergic to out in the world. JOY. Can you feel the sarcasm?

So what's next? Based on the results they put me on some daily allergy medicine, that's for the skin itchiness, which I had no idea that I scratched so often, but apparently I do. They have me on a nose spray and some special eye drops for when my eyes are super itchy. They also said that I was a candidate for allergy shots. Basically you go in to get at least weekly shots of all of the allergens you're allergic to, and then slowly build up a resistance to them. You are able to go every other day, to make it go by quicker if you have the time to do so. I think I'm going to go Tuesday and Thursdays, since that's when I'll be able to get over there. The first dose of shot is a 1:10,000 dilution, and they slowly work you up to a 1:1 ratio, so depending on how often you go in to get the shots, the quicker you'll get to the 1:1. When you get there, you then only have to go once a month for the next 5 years. They said that 85% of the people are completely cured of environmental allergies at the 5 year mark. No allergies? Yes please!

They also said that some of my food allergies might be because I am so allergic to everything that my body is perceiving certain foods as an allergen. There's hope! Only time will tell. Keep your fingers crossed.

That's it, if you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Any of you readers out there gotten the allergy shots? What was it like each week/between the shots?

Linking up with the girls for Tuesday Talk and with Faith, Sarah and Heather for Mommy Moments

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Food Allergies: Something is Wrong

When I was thinking of what I should write about today, I realized that I've only briefly mentioned my food allergies, here, here, here and here (when I say briefly I mean less than a sentence). So today I give you part one of my food allergies, how I found out I had food allergies.

Let's begin with the most asked question I get. No I didn't have this all my life. I found out when I was about 26, so yes I do know what everything tastes like, but over the years, I have started to forget what things taste like, like cheese, and ice cream, horrible I know!

So I'll start from the beginning. When Mr. and I were dating I had no problems. I would occasionally get a stomachache after eating, but justify the reason why. I ate a donut for breakfast, I ate too much Mexican food, I'm just really full. I kept explaining away my stomach problems. I was also getting sick a lot, getting sinus infections every 6-7 weeks. It was awful!

Mr. and I got married and were in wedded food bliss for about a year and a half when the stomach issues started getting worse. I decided to keep a food diary, I wrote down everything and how I felt afterwards. We narrowed it down to dairy, cheese, ice cream my beloved food. So we thought maybe I was lactose intolerant. I started taking those Lactaid pills. It worked! ...for about a week...

Mr. and I discovered that BJ's had the BEST happy hour ever (not sure about now, since this was quite a few years ago). We were frequenting it at least once a week. Each week we would get different mini pizza's (half off), a beer and of course their famous Pizookie

yum!

Anyway, one night we met there after a particularly hard day at work and went about our usual order of 2 mini pizza's (one of them was the Southwest Pizza, and I think a BBQ chicken one) to split, beer and of course the Pizookie. We finished, I was feeling fine and we got into our cars and followed each other home. By the time we got home (about an 8 minutes drive) I was in so much pain I could barely walk. Mr. had to practically carry me upstairs to our condo. The pain was so bad, it felt like a million knives were stabbing me and then someone was twisting the knife. It was horrible, I was in so much pain that I eventually passed out and slept the rest of the night.

When I woke up feeling much better I knew I just wasn't lactose intolerant, that it had to be the cheese...little did I know. I made an appointment with an Allergist for just after the new year. I went in, she asked questions about my diet, what I ate the most of, did I eat this or that..first we took a blood test to see if anything would come up in my blood work. It turned out negative, I was disappointed, I knew something was wrong.

The next step was to do the famous "scratch test". Let me tell you it's as awful as it sounds. Especially if you are allergic to everything like I am. I had over 80 scratch test performed. And by the time she was done even putting the allergens on my back, the first ones were already starting to react. But we had to wait 20 minutes to get a full reading. My mom was with me and she was staring at my back saying, wow this is amazing, you are allergic to a lot. I told her, I know, it hurts! Around the 10 minute period the nurse came and and with wide eyes, said, I think you're allergic to his, let me wipe it off to give you some relief. They were starting to bubble. 20 painful and itchy minutes later the doctor came and "read" the results.

Want to know what it said? Come back next week, haha, just kidding. It said that I was allergic to EVERY tree, plant and grass in Southern California. Crazy right? It also said I was allergic to milk, soy, corn, peanuts, chicken and most nuts. I can eat cashews, but I just don't like them. I'll let all those allergies sink in for a second.

Think of everything that has corn syrup in it...yep all those things gone. Doing a quick search I found this site with a list of corn products and a list of potential corn products. Did you know that food labled with anything 'ose, like dextrose, sucrose can be a corn derivative? Also carmel color, ascorbic acid, sorbitol (used in gum), citric acid...those are just to name a few others. It's everywhere.

It was a hard adjustment, but I think this has gotten long enough, next time I'll go into the first few months and how I dealt with it. Let me just tell you, there was a lot of pity parties, party of one going on.

Linking up with Faith, Sarah and Heather for Mommy Moments

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Keeping in Shape with a Toddler...or Two

I've talked about post pregnancy body, and how I got back into shape after the baby, but now I'm going to touch on the subject of staying in shape.

Getting back into shape I was at home, I didn't have to go to work everyday, so I could just wake up, get the kids up and go work out with my Stroller Strides group. Which I did 3-4 times a week.

Do you see me?

But now that I'm back at work I have to make time. Carve out specific time to work out. I'm not going to lie, it's hard. It's hard to not come home from work after 12 hours and want to just lay on the couch or play with the kids. We joined a new gym and that motivates me right there, I don't want to waste money in paying for a gym that we're not going to use. So that helps, but right now my schedule is working out on Monday and Wednesdays. I'd like to carve out some time on the weekend for an early morning run, but so far that's happened twice.

I think it's important to make time for yourself. Yes I'm gone for 12 hours a day at work (granted 4 of those hours the kids aren't even awake yet), but I need some time so that I can feel good about me. How does it help my family, if I just feel lousy about myself and how I look/fee? If that means that I get home to turn right around to go workout, with Baby Fox in tow, then so be it. He's come to expect that at least once a week we're going to the gym after work. Lately on Wednesdays Mr. has been working late, so I'll have my parents come babysit after work while I go to the gym for an hour. It's such a blessing to have them so close, so they can come over for an hour or so to watch the kids.

Diet is big too, I try not to over indulge, knowing that I'm only working out 2 times a week, 3 times if I'm lucky. Having food allergies helps too because most things that are really bad for you, I can't eat, so that helps too. I just realized I've never done a post about my food allergies...I'll have to do that soon!

Once Mini Fox is not taking that late evening nap, I'll probably take the kids out for a walk/run on those days that I'm not working out at the gym. I think that no matter what it's important for you to make time for yourself, some time to feel good about who you are and how you look, cause let's face it we all have those fat days when you just feel blah, and if working out twice a week helps lessen those blah days, then I'm all for it!

How have you fit exercise into motherhood? Check out the other mama's blogs for their stories. And be sure to link up with us below if you also have a post on this topic.

In the difficulty of motherhood, it's so important to find other mamas to relate to. Toddlers can be a handful and leave you wondering what to do next. This series is here to help you navigate through toddlerhood while being able to relate to other mamas going through the same thing. We may not always know what we are doing but we give it our best shot anyway. Come back each week to check out our new topic and read along with the other hosts of our One Year and Beyond series!