Allergy Shots

Dh and I traded work days - today for Saturday. We left home at 6:30am and got home right around 3:30pm. I had an appointment with my allergy/asthma specialist at 7:30am. He wants to see me every six months or so. Usually I go to my appointment then head into work, but dh had to take care of some business so it took much longer than it normally does.

Actually my appointment took longer than normal to begin with, I didn't leave the office until 9am. The last couple times I've seen this doctor, he arrives shortly before 7:30 along with his office people. They carpool in from another city. So like dodobrains we sat waiting from 7:22 to see if they would arrive. Finally at 7:31, dh asked if I shouldn't go in and see if they were already there. Duh. Yes, they were there, with an office full of patients already.

My dr. listened to my lungs and asked me how I've been doing. I told him I'd started taking Flovent again (November 2006) due to having a cold that lasted weeks and weeks. He asked that I please see him the next time I'm sick like that. He then brought up the subject of allergy shots.

When I first saw him in 2003, I remember very clearly him saying something very close to, "You're allergic to so many things it wouldn't be worth taking shots because you'd be on them for the rest of your life." Dh also remembers me saying the dr. told me this. I reminded my dr. he'd said this to me to which he promptly responded that I must have misunderstood him (that's actually possible since he is from India and has a heavy accent but I really don't think I heard him wrong) because he would never have said anything like that. He went on to explain that I can take medication for the rest of my life, or I could begin allergy shots which will last four years and would enable me to stop taking medication. He said 95% of people who take allergy shots find they are able to stop taking all medications and no longer have symptoms of asthma. He also told me I was probably exhausted all the time because of my allergies. He said I'd have to come in weekly for 10 months and then the shots would taper to every 2 weeks, then every 3 weeks, then monthly.

He told me in many cases insurance companies won't charge for the shots, because the dr. doesn't charge for an office visit. I guess they charge for the serum to be made initially. I explained to him that my job security is somewhat in question right now and he said if I thought I'd have the same insurance for 3-4 months then the monthly cost for the shots would drop to about $25/month. But it's expensive the first 3-4 months, I understood him to say.

I'm not sure what to do. It sounds great, but I will definitely be researching the whole process. And I never really considered my allergies to affect my energy level. When I was allergy tested four years ago, I wasn't allergic to cats. I mentioned that and he wanted to retest me, to see if I'd developed an allergy to cats. I got three pokes. One was "positive response" two was "cat dander" and three was "negative response". I thought 2 and 3 looked the same, but he thought 2 was a "5x5". The "positive response" was "20x30". Whatever that all means. The positive response was quite a good sized bump and itchy and red all around about the size of a nickel. So I guess it has to do with the size of the area reacting to the allergen. He also had me do a breathing treatment, measuring my lung function before and after the breathing treatment. When he saw me in his office to write me a new prescription for Allegra (which I only use 2-3 pills a month, if that - he gave me a prescription for 180 tablets, yikes), I asked him about my lung function and he told me it was better than his. I asked with or without the medication (breathing treatment), he said, "Better than mine, with OR without." I took that to mean my lung function is pretty good. But thinking more about it, how does that tell me anything really? What if his lung function is like, on a level of 1 to 100, an eleven? And mine's a ten? I'm going to assume my lung function is quite good and stop at that.

Dh and I went out to lunch today at a little Mexican food restaurant which was actually very nice. I am so often disappointed with restaurant food. This little place has been in business since 1950 so I guess they must be doing something right. I had a beef tamale and a cheese and green onion enchilada. Dh had a green chili burrito and an iced tea. They served us with a small bowl of tortilla chips as is the custom at most Mexican food restaurants, but they were stale-tasting. I told our waitress and she took them away and brought back some crispy, fresh ones. The meal cost us less than twelve dollars.

Progress on the hooded baby sweater... first, the lamb buttons arrived today. They are simply adorable. Click on the image to see a bigger shot of them.

I finished the hood last night and began tucking in the loose ends and marking the "right side". Today I finished tucking in loose ends, and began sewing seams. I got as far as the shoulders. The lamb buttons will match so perfectly. This pattern has been difficult at some points, but mostly because I didn't know what the pattern was asking me to do. Once the hooded baby sweater is sewed together, I'm supposed to trim the edges with the blanket stitch. I wasn't quite sure what that was, but just now googling it I discovered I have used that stitch often while hand sewing. I just never knew what it was called, nor did I know it was a popular stitch. I was reading about the stitches that can be used for sewing the pieces together earlier today in my Dummies book. I thought it was going to be another learning curve, some brand new funky stitching, but I've used the stitches before to put crocheted pieces together. And I never had a pattern or instruction. So this won't be as difficult as I'd anticipated. I can't wait to see it all together in one piece.

It's getting close to being time to milk. Dh put beef roast in the oven this morning and I guess I'll volunteer to clean the meat so we can have shredded beef burritos for dinner.

Until next time.