Chronicles of my left arm III
Went to the allergist today finally. It was totally awesome to see some science in action!
I started by filling in some answers about living conditions [type of heater & floor, where I live, what I live in, type of bed, pets, hobbies, etc]. Had a brief convo with the doctor about type of work, allergy symptoms, meds, and that stuff.
Then the coolest thing ever happened. He brought in this kit with a different type of allergen and the tiniest plastic pipettes ever in each well. After drawing some dots on my left arm with a black pen, he then placed a drop of each allergen next to those dots and poked my skin with this sharp thing to break the surface of the skin so the antigens could get in and my mast cells could get on that. It's kinda you're voluntarily giving yourself 12 mosquito bites, it definitely felt and looked like it.
It was pretty crazy how quickly the reaction started to happen! Literally in a matter of seconds my skin started turning red and a white bump would begin to grow on the places where my skin was poked. Certain areas were more reactive than the others--the biggest reaction I had was to grass pollen. And some areas turned a little red [from the poking] but nothing else happened. I wish I took pictures 'cause it was like an allergy map on my left arm this morning.
So we let that fester for about 5 minutes although it felt like forever because my arm was literally itching in about five different places but the doctor told me not to scratch. Then the doc measured the parameter of the bumps and I guess that gives a measure of how allergic I am? I forgot to ask but that seems like a logical assumption.
The highlight was that of the 12 antigens he used, two of them were controls. There was a positive control--histamine--which everyone reacts to, and there was a negative control--saline. That was SO FREAKING AWESOME. It's like an experiment just happened on my arm--most awesome thing EVER.
Oh he also checked my breathing and everything but you get that at every doctor's office so--bo-ring.
At the end he gave me a list of antihistamines I could take, and gave me a sample of some anti-allergy eyedrops [whatev they're called] and a small pack of allergy pills. My arm got wiped off with alcohol and he applied this pink thing on my arm called calamine [I only know the name 'cause I was staring at that bottle for the entire 5 minutes that I was waiting from before and wanted to know what it was]. Man that stuff is like magic dude! My arm stopped itching pretty much right away--awesome!
Doctor's visits can be pretty cool when it's not for anything serious or embarrassing!
I started by filling in some answers about living conditions [type of heater & floor, where I live, what I live in, type of bed, pets, hobbies, etc]. Had a brief convo with the doctor about type of work, allergy symptoms, meds, and that stuff.
Then the coolest thing ever happened. He brought in this kit with a different type of allergen and the tiniest plastic pipettes ever in each well. After drawing some dots on my left arm with a black pen, he then placed a drop of each allergen next to those dots and poked my skin with this sharp thing to break the surface of the skin so the antigens could get in and my mast cells could get on that. It's kinda you're voluntarily giving yourself 12 mosquito bites, it definitely felt and looked like it.
It was pretty crazy how quickly the reaction started to happen! Literally in a matter of seconds my skin started turning red and a white bump would begin to grow on the places where my skin was poked. Certain areas were more reactive than the others--the biggest reaction I had was to grass pollen. And some areas turned a little red [from the poking] but nothing else happened. I wish I took pictures 'cause it was like an allergy map on my left arm this morning.
So we let that fester for about 5 minutes although it felt like forever because my arm was literally itching in about five different places but the doctor told me not to scratch. Then the doc measured the parameter of the bumps and I guess that gives a measure of how allergic I am? I forgot to ask but that seems like a logical assumption.
The highlight was that of the 12 antigens he used, two of them were controls. There was a positive control--histamine--which everyone reacts to, and there was a negative control--saline. That was SO FREAKING AWESOME. It's like an experiment just happened on my arm--most awesome thing EVER.
Oh he also checked my breathing and everything but you get that at every doctor's office so--bo-ring.
At the end he gave me a list of antihistamines I could take, and gave me a sample of some anti-allergy eyedrops [whatev they're called] and a small pack of allergy pills. My arm got wiped off with alcohol and he applied this pink thing on my arm called calamine [I only know the name 'cause I was staring at that bottle for the entire 5 minutes that I was waiting from before and wanted to know what it was]. Man that stuff is like magic dude! My arm stopped itching pretty much right away--awesome!
Doctor's visits can be pretty cool when it's not for anything serious or embarrassing!