Does Allergy Immunotherapy Work?

    It has been one year since I started allergy shots (immunotherapy) for severe cedar, grass, and mold spore allergies.  I began a regimen of two shots a week, one set for the tree/grass pollen and one for the mold spores.  If you're not familiar with how allergy shots work, each shot contains a very small amount of the specific substance that triggers your allergic reactions. The amount is large enough to trigger an immune system response but hopefully small enough that it shouldn't trigger a full-blown allergic reaction (not usually the case for me).
Over time (a long time), your doctor increases the dose of allergens in each of your allergy shots. This helps get your body used to the allergens (desensitization) and helps your immune system to build up a tolerance with the goal that your allergy symptoms begin to diminish.   The best treatment for allergies is avoidance of the trigger but obviously with outdoor allergies avoidance is not a possibility, therefore many people turn to immunotherapy.
   Throughout the last year I have had a lot of people ask me if the allergy shots work or more accurately when will they start working for me.  That question is a difficult one to answer, the facts are that immunotherapy works about 75-85% of the time.  Is it working for me...YES! But it has taken the full year of treatment to even begin to see any difference and it does (or did for me) get worse before it gets better.  I am very thankful to say that after one year of treatment I am beginning to see a change.  This is NOT a miracle treatment, it's not an overnight fix!  However, it is worth the difficulties that come along with it when you begin to be able to live a normal life once again.  I'll go into the details of my year of treatment in the next post but I would highly recommend allergy immunotherapy if you are currently fighting a daily battle, trying to control what seem to be uncontrollable allergies. 
   Allergy shots are not right in every situation but here are some indicators that they might be right for you:

Should I Have Allergy Shots?

Maybe-- If you are allergic to an unavoidable plant, animal, or insect.
Maybe-- If you have to take large amounts of medicine to control your allergies but still have symptoms.
Maybe-- If your allergies are seriously affecting your daily life.
Maybe-- If you have lost days to fatigue and infection.
Maybe-- If you are willing to make a commitment of 3 to 5 years of year-round injections.          

The last paragraph of info found at this site: 
http://www.ccent.com/allergy-treatment-fresno-visalia-california.htm 

August Allergy Update

For those of you who have followed me as I have struggled to deal with sudden allergic reactions we are beginning to get some answers.  After months of trying to go through our insurance company for allergy shots and getting no where we have switched doctors and decided to pay for the allergy testing and shots on our own.  I love my new doctor Kristi Baker in Clinton, Oklahoma.  She spent over an hour with me at my first visit last Tuesday.  She started me on a new regimen of medications along with a 7 day "No Flour, No Sugar, No Artificial Sugar" eating plan and then this coming Tuesday she will tell me what foods I can add back into my diet.  

  She prescribed Flova for my migraines and praise the Lord it works!!!  I might actually be able to control the migraines that I know are awaiting me this November when the Mountain Cedar Pollen starts back up.  It is a preventative drug that I take when I feel a migraine coming on or when I know I'm going to get a migraine, like every time the pollen count is over 7.   I took one on Wednesday and it worked great!!!  Unlike the Imatrex that I tried a few months ago and had a bad reaction to.  

   The bad news is that my asthma has been aggravated by the allergy issues I've had and so I had to go back on a daily asthma steroid inhaler and an albuterol regimen.  It has been 18 years since I've had to be on daily asthma medicine so I was a little discouraged to know for sure that it's back.  But my doc feels that if we get the allergies under control the asthma will go away.   I'll write a little more about this new development in my next post.

   Anyways, we found out that it will cost $1500 for the allergy testing and one years worth of allergy shots so we now know what we're going to do with the money from my husbands bass boat once it sell ;)  Oh yes, he's excited about that...he wants a healthy wife right??  Yes, he's been great about it, that was his first idea for coming up with the money.  Don't worry he has a two man bass boat that he prefers to use anyways.  So hopefully by next month God will have provided the money needed to go ahead and start treatment.  Immunotherapy (allergy shots) is the only proven way to take care of these airborne pollen allergies.  I must build up my immunity.  

   For the time being I continue to take 2 Zyrtec-D, 1 Zantac and Flonase (nasal steriod)  daily to help prepare and strengthen my system for the battle against these pollens until I can build up an immunity with the allergy shots. 

Managing Severe Allergies (instead of them managing me)

   It seems like the majority of people deal with allergies during different seasons of the year.  In the last 2 years I have experienced some major allergy problems.  At first I felt that I would be able to go to the doctor, have her prescribe me some medicine and be done with it.  Wishful thinking...Allergies are more complicated than that for most people and I'm apparently not the exception to that rule!  So after 2 years of fighting with them while taking lots of Zyrtec-D, I am on a mission to learn as much about allergies and my body's reaction to them as I can! 

What I've done so far:

     Step 1:  GET AN EPI PEN or TWO!!!!!  After my first reaction just one week after my youngest daughter was born, I realized that I never wanted to feel the fear of helplessness I felt as my throat was swelling closed along with my eyes, my lips tingling and my respiratory system shutting down. All of the "what if's: that went through my mind that day like; What if I had been home alone with my four children? What if I had not thought to take benedryl before I left for the hospital even worse what if I hadn't had any benedryl in the house! What if the hospital had been further than 5 minutes away? Thankfully the Lord saw fit to have my sisters up visiting me while my husband was away in California.  I did have benedryl and although I had never had an anaphylatic reaction I did think that it had to have been some kind of allergy related reaction so I did take benedryl before heading the hospital and my sister drove me.  Now I always carry an Epi-pen and I started carrying a pill box with benedryl in all my purses (you would too if you knew it saved your life). I also gave benedryl pill boxes to my family members for their b-days because you never know when you or someone you know will have an allergic reaction to something and it will save your life.  I know, I know I should be sales rep. for Benedryl but I have a feel passionately about the subject.

  Step 2: Allergy Blood Panel - Did this last October and learned a lot of good info.  After having had FOUR anaphylatic reactions my doctor and I were pretty sure I must be allergic to something I was eating but no foods came back significantly high.  I have a slight allergy to sesame seeds but not enough to cause a severe reaction.  However, I learned that I am severely allergic to mountain cedar tree pollen and mold came back pretty high as well.  I had NO idea that you could be so allergic to a tree's pollen that it could cause you to have a severe attack and even go into anaphylatic shock just from exposure to the outdoors. 

  Step 3: Change all of house and vehicle filters to allergen filters.  These do a better job of filtering out the pollens from outdoors.  I also changed my vacuum filter to Febreze allergen filtration bags.  Only $5.88 for 3 at Wal-mart and they smell really good when you vacuum too.  We also had our outdoor airconditioner unit cleaned too but I don't know if that affects the allergens indoors it is good for your airconditioner though :)

  Step 4:  Keep track of your good and bad days and what the weather and pollen counts were on those days to see if you can see any patterns forming. 

  Step 5:  Look into getting allergy shots and/or homeopathic treatment.  (I'm still working on this one).

My Conclusion of the Master Cleanse

   So it's been one month since we began the master cleanse and this is my conclusion:

Would I do it again?  YES!  But not anytime soon ;)  Lemons are not my favorite fruit right now if you know what I mean.

What did I learn?  I learned that I can discipline my body in a way I never knew I could.  I learned that if I can do this anyone can do it.  Even now it's hard to believe that I was able to go 10 days without eating any food and yet I did not starve to death :)

Did I keep the weight I lost off?  Yes, I did gain 2 lbs back within a few days but within a week it was off again.  So a total loss of 10 lbs. 


TIPS I learned from doing the Master Cleanse:

Salt water flush - Do with Hot water not cold or luke warm.  Use a straw and drink as fast as possible.  Yes, it's nasty!

Drink 10oz of lemonade at least every 2 hours - the key is to never allow yourself to get hungry, it's a lot harder to feel full once you get hungry.

Make sure to drink the detox tea and keep peppermint tea on hand to drink when you need something other than lemonade

Cayenne and Red pepper are NOT the same thing....red pepper is much grittier...use the cayenne!

Try to take a multivitamin for added energy each day

If you want to burn more fat then go on a couple mile walk or do a workout daily

Go to the health food store and pick up  probiotics to take after you finish up the cleanse to help restore the good bacteria to your system.

If you get a yeast infection you have probably cleaned out too much of the good bacteria and it's time to wean yourself off of the cleanse.

Be careful to break the fast properly but don't be afraid to begin to eat on the eleventh day.  We ate a full meal that night and did fine

That's all I can think of.  I am no expert on fasting as this was my first time doing so for this long but if you have any questions feel free to post.

Day 11 - Going well

Things are going well today.  We had some brocalli and orange juice for a snack and then my husband convinced me to make some of the Walleye he caught on Monday (his b-day guided fishing trip).  I baked it and served it  with some brown rice and sauteed onions with almonds.   We ate really small portions and an hour later I feel stuffed but NOT sick to my stomach so I think it's settling ok.  I've read a lot online about breaking a fast and it seems like everyone handles it differently.  Some have no problem going right back to normal healthy foods others really have to ease into it.  We're definately enjoying getting back to some good food (healthy of course though).

10 days ~ 10 lbs lost

Now I guess we'll see how much of that could be water weight...we'll see

Day 11 - Food ~ the Sustanance of Life!!!

    Today is a wonderful day!!!!  I had two glasses of orange juice this morning and then I ate a piece of whole wheat toast with just a bit of real butter.  I was only going to eat a half a piece but once I started I wanted to eat like 5 pieces so I went ahead and finished that piece.  It was sooo good.  It's been about 30 minutes and my stomach is feeling ok so that's good news.  We'll see how the rest of the day goes.

Day 10 - Rough Night

   You would think Day 10 would be an easy one to finish out because you are soo close to the end but I had to draw on a lot of strength to not give into day.  I think I should have spent more time this morning praying for strength to finish strong.   The first part of the day went fine after a little pep talk from my sister (who I'm still blaming for talking me into this ;0).  She reminded me that I am so close to the end and that if I try to break the fast the wrong way it would not be worth the pain suffered later.  But this evening I was not feeling well, headache, achy shoulders and neck and even some abdomnal pain which come to find out is from a slight infection I have due to an overdose of citrus (acidic) fruit.  Need to list that under the precautions for anyone doing this.  So I'm glad it's the last day b/c I think it would have had to have become my last day if not.  Tonight as I go to bed I am full after drinking one final lemonade about 2 hours ago and then a cup of peppermint tea about 20 min. ago.  However, I still have the headache and feel the achy "after the flu" feeling.  I wish I was having the euphoric wonderfully energetic feeling that many talk about having at this point in the game but what can I say??? I'm not everyone I guess.  I'm just proud that I've made it this far and I'm still around to blog about it :)  Thanks to all my friends out there that have supported me through this experience.