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Monday, February 11th, 2019 11:34 pm
allergy update - this is my life
So, appointment with allergist today. Wait for it. Or not, I'll just tell you.
Forty-one separate skin tests--including rabbit--have yielded the following: I may be a little tiny bit allergic to walnuts and German cockroaches. Everything else was statistically insignificant and I have pictures of my back to prove it. Or, those things could be contributory maybe? but not really. I don't even like walnuts so not a problem there.
That said.
I have a mildly deviated septum which no one in my entire life of doctors looking up my nose has noticed before and needs special equipment to explore (my nostril. To explore my nostril). I had mentioned earlier in the appointment that my upper gums got swollen or tender or really sensitive on occasion as well as the roof of my mouth and I still had problems smelling things sometimes or I smell the wrong things, sometimes unpleasant. Her expression should have warned me but whatever.
So working theory: I have had a chronic sinus infection most of my life, which apparently is true of forty-nine percent of the population who comes in for allergy tests, specifically one that reacts badly to changes in barometric pressure, humidity, temperature aka weather changes and becomes irritated and inflamed and worse and contributory to my misery. There is no season for this; it's all the seasons.
...yes. I am allergic to weather. To weather. That's a thing.
(Like, won't lie, a part of me was like "YES I KNEW IT WOULD BE SOMETHING STUPID AND WEIRD AND WHAT" but...I was joking about being allergic to the weather. I didn't know it was a thing. But it is a thing.)
Now why on earth insert concept here: no idea. I've had diagnosed sinus infections before, so that part is at least there, but the rest, no fucking clue. She added an antihistamine to the flonase for daily use that I need to take at an angle because the taste is horrific if it gets to the back of my throat. I also have an appointment with an ENT in March to do deep nostril exploration--nostril exploration--and also need to acquire and learn to use a neti pot???? and ponder universal irony.
Like, I have no idea where this goes but you'd think someone, somewhere would have said "Gosh, that's one deviated septum I wonder if shit is getting up there and infecting????" Like, any time since fourth grade?
Okay, but. Why do antihistamines work? Why does hay make me sneeze? What is the sound of one hand clapping? We just don't know.
Update: I am making two quarts of tea, three parts Yorkshire Red/one part Lady Grey to deal with my life. Extra sweet: I deserve it. Recommended for existential nasal complaints and need of high-calibre caffeine.
Forty-one separate skin tests--including rabbit--have yielded the following: I may be a little tiny bit allergic to walnuts and German cockroaches. Everything else was statistically insignificant and I have pictures of my back to prove it. Or, those things could be contributory maybe? but not really. I don't even like walnuts so not a problem there.
That said.
I have a mildly deviated septum which no one in my entire life of doctors looking up my nose has noticed before and needs special equipment to explore (my nostril. To explore my nostril). I had mentioned earlier in the appointment that my upper gums got swollen or tender or really sensitive on occasion as well as the roof of my mouth and I still had problems smelling things sometimes or I smell the wrong things, sometimes unpleasant. Her expression should have warned me but whatever.
So working theory: I have had a chronic sinus infection most of my life, which apparently is true of forty-nine percent of the population who comes in for allergy tests, specifically one that reacts badly to changes in barometric pressure, humidity, temperature aka weather changes and becomes irritated and inflamed and worse and contributory to my misery. There is no season for this; it's all the seasons.
...yes. I am allergic to weather. To weather. That's a thing.
(Like, won't lie, a part of me was like "YES I KNEW IT WOULD BE SOMETHING STUPID AND WEIRD AND WHAT" but...I was joking about being allergic to the weather. I didn't know it was a thing. But it is a thing.)
Now why on earth insert concept here: no idea. I've had diagnosed sinus infections before, so that part is at least there, but the rest, no fucking clue. She added an antihistamine to the flonase for daily use that I need to take at an angle because the taste is horrific if it gets to the back of my throat. I also have an appointment with an ENT in March to do deep nostril exploration--nostril exploration--and also need to acquire and learn to use a neti pot???? and ponder universal irony.
Like, I have no idea where this goes but you'd think someone, somewhere would have said "Gosh, that's one deviated septum I wonder if shit is getting up there and infecting????" Like, any time since fourth grade?
Okay, but. Why do antihistamines work? Why does hay make me sneeze? What is the sound of one hand clapping? We just don't know.
Update: I am making two quarts of tea, three parts Yorkshire Red/one part Lady Grey to deal with my life. Extra sweet: I deserve it. Recommended for existential nasal complaints and need of high-calibre caffeine.
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From:Sinuses are crappy pieces of crap and when they get swollen they stay swollen, causing pain and harbouring infections etc. So the antihistamine may be helping by tamping down minor allergic reactions that are making your chronically crap sinuses worse, and hay is probably causing a reaction because tiny particles are getting up there and causing more irritation and thus more swelling (do other dusty environments cause issues too?)
So what I do is take antihistamines every day, use a steroid nasal spray every day, and use pseudoephedrine when I have an added issue like a cold or an allergy flare-up or a sudden drop of barometric pressure. I can't use a neti pot for vertigo reasons, but family members who have the same sinus issues really like them. I just use a saline nasal spray instead.
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From:I am so weirded out this has never come up before. I've had doctors checking my nose for years!
Sinuses are crappy pieces of crap and when they get swollen they stay swollen, causing pain and harbouring infections etc. So the antihistamine may be helping by tamping down minor allergic reactions that are making your chronically crap sinuses worse, and hay is probably causing a reaction because tiny particles are getting up there and causing more irritation and thus more swelling (do other dusty environments cause issues too?)
I wondered if it was acting as irritant instead of allergic, so thank you for confirming! I didn't know how to phrase it.
She asked me the same thing about dust: I honestly haven't been around enough dust for it to come up, or at least in enclosed spaces that I can remember or at least, remember specifically. Probably yes? But not recently.
However, for the last year I've had a Honeywell HEPA air purifier that catches kind of everything if the filters are anything to go by (it's like nightmare fuel when I change them) and the rabbit enclosure has had a pet air purifier for the last few months, so I'm not sure dust gets a chance to gather in my apartment in any quantity anymore.
So what I do is take antihistamines every day, use a steroid nasal spray every day, and use pseudoephedrine when I have an added issue like a cold or an allergy flare-up or a sudden drop of barometric pressure. I can't use a neti pot for vertigo reasons, but family members who have the same sinus issues really like them. I just use a saline nasal spray instead.
Yes, I used to use psuedophedrine all the time; looks like I'll have to grab more. Gah, it just makes me so sleepy but needs must.
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From:They can get worse over time! Mine has been in the same position since I was 12, but my brother's was only slightly off at that age. Now they're both just as bad.
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