[Help] Allergies, cat and hay fever.

[Zeberdi]

(I had undiagnosed hives for years. Saw a dermatologist. Had a biopsy! The missus suggested hives. Not only do the antihistamines keep them down to maybe one bump a year, another problem, annoying bumps in the scalp, also disappeared. The skin is a weird beastie. Good luck!)

Ditto! Diagnosed after Covid because they got very bad but had hives for years.

Being on Methotrexate for autoimmunity helps but my IgE was over 3,750 last time I was tested!

@Insel affe As for allergies- bad allergy to dust mites. Mild irritation to dogs and cat dander but also severely asthmatic so take steroid inhalers and courses of cortisone which keeps the immune system slightly suppressed which helps the allergies,

Take fexofenadine and Montelukast for animal and dust mite allergens.

Worth checking it is cats - my respiratory consultant arranged skin testing for about 20 different allergens - it maybe anything from a change of air freshener to some new food ingredient.

 

[Blues Guitarist]

I've had hay fever for years, which was changing to watery eyes most of the time. I had a recent test for multiple allergies - and I'm not allergic to anything! Not tree pollen, grass pollen, cats (we have two long haired cats) - nothing. I'm waiting on results from a more detailed test for dust mite shit. If that comes back positive I'll use special bedding covers, otherwise it will be a big mystery.

 

[AZ Gull]

Talking of allergies....

I listened to an interesting episode of Freakonomics on NPR last Sunday: apparently around 10% of the population believe they are allergic to penicillin. However, studies suggest that only a fraction of these people (perhaps 1 in 10) actually are allergic [many are thought to have been misdiagnosed when they were children]. This misdiagnosis costs billions of dollars and can cause serious health issues.