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edit: oh yay, subject line typo. Anyway: I have had really bad indoor/outdoor environmental allergies for many years. I'm currently managing symptoms as much as possible with Zyrtec and Flonase, plus Opcon for itchy eyes as necessary, but it's far from perfect. It's seeming clear that the congestion from allergies is the primary thing interfering with my sleep quality, and that's what made me finally go to an allergist this past week, where they did the allergy test, and determined I was "highly allergic" to dust mites, mold, cats/dogs/roaches, most pollens, etc, and recommended a course of allergy shots/allergen immunotherapy. I know that this is a long-term, fairly inconvenient process, so I'm interested in hearing about people's experiences with allergy shots for immunotherapy. Have you had good results (better than medicinal symptom management)? Poor/non-results? Recommendations of weekly va twice weekly? Anything I should know? Thanks very much for any info/advice/thoughts! onefish fucked around with this message at 15:25 on Nov 6, 2015 |
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Nov 5, 2015 21:42
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I had really bad dust mite allergies growing up. In high school I got weekly (I think, it was 10+ years ago) shots for the dust mites and 2-3 other less severe things. Today I take antihistamines may be 3-4 times a year? The shots weren't that bad if you don't mind needles. There's a big itchy lump for a few days but it was definitely worth it for me. 10/10, would do again.
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Nov 7, 2015 05:32
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Pug Smugly posted:I had really bad dust mite allergies growing up. In high school I got weekly (I think, it was 10+ years ago) shots for the dust mites and 2-3 other less severe things. Today I take antihistamines may be 3-4 times a year? The shots weren't that bad if you don't mind needles. There's a big itchy lump for a few days but it was definitely worth it for me. 10/10, would do again. SWEET. Pumping me up. Thank you! When do you still have to take antihistimines? Randomly, or like when your place gets particularly dusty?
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Nov 7, 2015 06:41
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Yeah, exactly that or it's actually the start of a cold and just feels like allergies so I took one then.
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Nov 7, 2015 11:19
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I'm about 5 months into a regime for cats, dogs, dust and.... Willow. Which I had no idea I was allergic to, unlike 1-3. I chose to go an aggressive curve, where for the first 7 weeks, I came in with my epipen, after taking an additional antihistamine and got 2 shots (each combining 2 things I was allergic to) waited 30 minutes, and got a second round of the same shots. I can best describe my arms as looking like I was trying to smuggle a hardboiled egg in my biceps. Hot, egg shaped lump that started out lasting 4-5 days, then slowly decreased to about a day of it. After you hit maintenance level, it goes to every other week, then every 3, which is where I am at. I got my shots yesterday, and my arms are itch, red, and hot. But 2 years from now I hope not to take a fistful of pills, plus inhalors a day. I have 2 cats and 2 dogs and a carpeted awesome nerd den of a basement that I can only go into for a few hours before I am sick.
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Nov 12, 2015 00:10
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Wow--okay, I was never at inhaler level. And you had an epipen even before the shots? Your situation is definitely more intense than some other anecdotes I've heard--talked with a couple other people who said their reactions were never very significant. But wishing you good luck with finishing the course! (I'm, at this point, definitely planning to do it, two time a week.)
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Nov 12, 2015 03:18
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Before I got on flovent, I had roughly 5 asthma attacks a day. But the epipen was just part of the immune therapy, thankfully I have never had to jab myself!
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Nov 13, 2015 14:30
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I'm allergic to everything and am supposed to be receiving three shots twice a week. I take a Zyrtec (miracle drug!) before I go in and usually get topical cream to help with the itchiness. I've been on this schedule for about four years now but mainly because I'm non-compliant and have had to restart my shot regimen many many times. The goal is to get me down to three shots per week. I haven't had any issues with the allergy shots aside from itchiness and the general inconvenience.
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Nov 13, 2015 21:24
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Did three years of shots about ten years ago, and now I can have pets without being miserable. I was allergic to the usual suspects, dog, cat, dust, mold, and several types of tree pollen. I take a Claritin daily to handle dust/tree pollen, which I supplement with Sudafed (the real poo poo, pseudoephedrine, not that phenylephrine bullshit) in the two growing seasons here. Living in a desert makes dust pretty much unavoidable, but the Claritin is enough to cover it for me most of the time.
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Nov 16, 2015 06:15
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If you have congestion, definitely go for Sudafed or Claratin-D. I used to take alavert but it never helped with my stuffy nose and I'd end up snoring with a terribly dry mouth by the time I woke up. Depending on where you are it might be kind of pain to get but if you can take it try some of that in the meantime. The shots are a good idea from people I've talked to who've had them but if the congestion is messing with your sleep pseudoephedrine is really good at clearing that up. Keep in mind it might have some side effects early on (the first few days I took it I kept waking up in the middle of the night) but they tapered off for me. Most places in the state you just have to fork over your ID, sign the paper and get check to make sure you're not over your limit for the month. In Oregon and Mississippi (and maybe other places, I dunno) you have to have a doctor's note. The doctor's note is also kind of handy if you're there anyway since it'll let you buy a 30 day supply at a time. Stanos fucked around with this message at 22:44 on Nov 18, 2015 |
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Nov 18, 2015 22:37
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Stanos posted:If you have congestion, definitely go for Sudafed or Claratin-D. I used to take alavert but it never helped with my stuffy nose and I'd end up snoring with a terribly dry mouth by the time I woke up. Depending on where you are it might be kind of pain to get but if you can take it try some of that in the meantime. The shots are a good idea from people I've talked to who've had them but if the congestion is messing with your sleep pseudoephedrine is really good at clearing that up. Keep in mind it might have some side effects early on (the first few days I took it I kept waking up in the middle of the night) but they tapered off for me. Thank you for this info! I will try the pseudoephedrine -- haven't tried before, and didn't actually know this process to get it. onefish fucked around with this message at 07:17 on Nov 19, 2015 |
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Nov 19, 2015 07:12
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I did three years of shots when I was around 9-12 yo. As a child it was a pain as I was very affraid of needles back then. When they made the tests I came up allergic to 24 things: dust, dogs, chicken egg and the one I blame the most... cedar tree pollen or something (Cedar being the most common tree in Mexico City). I never really felt a substantial difference. But I can tell I can at least not feel like dying when I'm around dogs for a while. But I still have problems sleeping and when spring comes I say goodbye to my sleeping hours. As a side note, my work implies traveling to other countries for months, and I have noticed that I feel way better when traveling to another place not being Mexico City (Bogota was great for me). This has caused me to consider the idea of moving from Mexico City to another place just because of this.
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Nov 20, 2015 19:03
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onefish posted:edit: oh yay, subject line typo. Anyway: I've had allergies since I was a year old, been getting shots since age 5. I am now 36. I am unusual in that it's taken a LONG time for there to be a reduction in the number of things I'm allergic to. I used to be allergic to dust, cats, dogs, sheep (and wool), horses, ragweed, mold, 3 types of grasses, and birch, elm and oak trees. Now I am only allergic to dogs, mold and ragweed. Although it's taken so long to see those reductions, getting the shots has helped control my symptoms. While my symptoms may still be very bad at times, they're not unbearable. I tried going off the shots years ago and I was so sick I couldn't even work. I get them weekly or bi-weekly in the summer, and once a month in the winter. When you get a new vial of serum you will have to go weekly (or twice weekly) regardless of time of year because you need to be "built up" slowly on them so your body doesn't have a bad reaction. I have to wait in the office 15 minutes after every injection in case there ever were a bad reaction. The injection sites always get a little itchy and red, but this wears off after a couple hours. Any questions, feel free to ask me. I've been doing this a long time.
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Nov 24, 2015 19:23
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I'm allergic to almost everything and have been getting shots for 2+ years now. My congestion is getting better slowly, and I can go outside without being totally miserable most of the year. The shots haven't helped with my pet allergies much, but I guess they often don't. I still take Flonase, Zyrtec, and singulair everyday and use a humidifier at night. During spring and fall I do nasal flushes too. I still have to deal with my allergies a lot but I feel way better than I used to. While I'm building up with fresh serum bottles I get 2 shots 1 to 3 times a week, my regular schedule is every other week. A friend of mine had anaphylaxis after his shots, twice, so be aware that when they say you should wait in the waiting area, you really should.
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Nov 25, 2015 03:13
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Part of Everything posted:I've had allergies since I was a year old, been getting shots since age 5. I am now 36. Thank you for this (and also thanks to Joburg for the reply). I've been getting them since the week after this post. Was initially going twice weekly, and then switched to weekly since I was having itchy/red reactions to the shots on one arm (no raised bump reaction, but it would last 24-36 hours of itchiness). Was told that I should switch to weekly if I was reacting at all. But whether you had itchiness after the shots was definitely one of the questions I'd ask. It does seem odd that a reaction would make going less often the requirement, rather than increasing more slowly or something, but whatever. That was from a nurse, not the doctor, so we'll see what the doctor says when I have my check-in there. Glad to hear they help even in a situation like yours, though obviously a bummer that you've had to be on them for so long.
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Jan 3, 2016 07:40
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onefish posted:Thank you for this (and also thanks to Joburg for the reply). You said you were taking Zyrtec, are you taking that an hour or so before the shot? Doing so (at the recommendation of the doctor) has helped my wife with reactions from the shots. I'm currently on my second round of shots (first round was as a child), and it's been a pretty significant improvement for me (spring and fall are no longer miserable!).
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Jan 3, 2016 22:17
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I got shots when I was in my mid-teens. I'm 38 now. Honestly I can't say it did any good at all. Allergic to grass, ragweed, pollen, dust mites. I've taken just about every prescription antihistamine you can imagine in the past 20 years. Last time I saw an allergist he recommended doing the shots again. 
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Jan 4, 2016 03:15
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I actually have an appointment with my doctor tomorrow and I was going to ask about allergy shots. When you say you need to have the shots weekly or bi-weekly, do you have to physically go to the doctor every week? This might make the whole thing impossible for me since I'm a grad student and I don't think I'd be able to swing paying his co-pay every week on my stipend.
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Jan 5, 2016 12:06
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I highly recommend considering getting shots. You can give them yourself if you're comfortable (it's very easy) or you can go to the doctor. You do have to go to the office to get prescriptions refilled. My reactions were, initially, very pretty intense and I had to start on the lowest possible dose or my arm would get a huge welt at the injection site. By the end, I had zero or near-zero reaction to a dose of something like 5x the original. I'm allergic to cat, dogs, dust, and mold. I grew up in a house with multiple cats and dogs and still have one cat today. I have a HUGE improvement in my quality of life. When I started, I was taking xyzal, nasal sprays, and eyedrops daily, benadryl when I'd get particularly irritated (like during shedding season), shots twice weekly and had an inhaler in case. I took them about 5 years. By the end, I'd have a small dosage once a month or so? Or whenever I started noticing them pick up some. To be fair, at the end I did have only one cat in the house, so that is one thing that helped a lot. When I visit my parents now I only need to take some xyzal a few days prior and during my visit and everything is generally fine. In my daily life, I don't take anything, maybe some eyedrops now and then. It also really cleared my head and I honestly don't know how I got through school as foggy as I was. I didn't realize it then though. I think I could have continued to take them for a bit longer and gotten even better results, but I moved a few times and just never got another allergist, honestly. Still, it was a really excellent decision and you should consider it.
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Jan 5, 2016 13:07
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IratelyBlank posted:I actually have an appointment with my doctor tomorrow and I was going to ask about allergy shots. When you say you need to have the shots weekly or bi-weekly, do you have to physically go to the doctor every week? This might make the whole thing impossible for me since I'm a grad student and I don't think I'd be able to swing paying his co-pay every week on my stipend. You have to physically go to the doctor's office, and once you get the injection you need to wait at least 20-30 minutes to make sure you don't have a life-threatening reaction.
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Jan 5, 2016 16:05
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I go to my allergist's office but a nurse gives my shots. I don't have to make an appointment, just go during their open hours and check in, get my shots, wait 30 minutes and wave goodbye. After insurance (barebones) it's $11 per shot visit and something like $500 to get new serum.
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Jan 5, 2016 16:16
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So, how does this whole thing work? Is there like a set treatment process and then you're good for x years, or does it only persist as long as you're getting the treatment regularly?
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Jan 5, 2016 19:48
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The goal is that you won't react to your allergens at all at the end of treatment and so you'll essentially be cured of those allergies forever. My doctor said that pet allergies usually get better but don't always go away with shots so it depends on what you're allergic to. Pollen allergies do the best. Anecdotally, my siblings have all had shots and they are still doing well years after the fact.
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Jan 7, 2016 15:50
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