noodle

I've taken every allergy medication known to man, I think. Flonase made my taste buds fry, Claritin was a joke, Sudafed made me sleepy, Benadryl had opposite effects depending on my mood that day and I had a very not-nice mental health reaction to Zyrtec. The only thing that worked for me was the allergy shots and this thread reminds me that I need to get off my bum, get retested and go.

I live in Florida (aka pollen hell) and I'm allergic to every tree, grass, and mold that exists in nature. Cats, dogs, and... cockroaches (this one brought a HUGE laugh from me and the staff as it was my biggest reaction). Glycerin, lanolin, iodine, fragrance, makeup ingredients. Woo hoo! The testing, for me, is quite awful since I react to everything (all 65 standard serums) and then require usually 20-30 more in my arm to make up the serum. Luckily there are no foods that I've reacted to on the skin tests. But, when I was getting the shots, I had reactions each time for about 3 months and then again at the beginning of each new bottle of serum as the does increased. Overall, though, I got sick less and less, my headaches improved, skin itched less and I could actually hear again. My whole family has gotten them for years. We don't have the sniffling/sneezing stuff... we get the clogged, thick, nasty crap in the entire head and I tend to itch like crazy. *sigh I think it's time. The initial testing only costs about $50 on my insurance, then $10 a week... but it's a lot less than the continual trips to the quick-care center and antibiotics/steroids in the long run.

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