While we finalized the move into a new home as our first line of defense against our perceived mold allergies, we also researched additional treatment options. To understand any mold (and other environmental) allergies we were facing, we scheduled skin prick tests with a local ENT and read into immunotherapy (allergy shots) as a desensitization treatment. To have an accurate immune response, we had to stop taking our daily antihistamine for 7 days prior to the test.
Easy enough! Or we thought…
These 7 days turned out to be no fun at all during allergy season. After 2 days my body clearly disagreed with the deprivation of its daily dose of antihistamine as I experienced a withdrawal effect and broke out into itchy hives. This was in addition to full blown allergy symptoms of a runny nose, itchy eyes and postnasal drip. We couldn’t wait to get this over with!
The skin prick tests were actually very efficient but incredibly itchy! We were tested for approximately 50 different allergens: local grasses, trees and weeds on one forearm and various epithelia (animal dander, dust mites, etc,) and molds on the other forearm. As you can see in the picture above, Dani was severely allergic to basically everything and immediately prescribed an EpiPen®. My results were slightly less severe but my positive mold result clearly explained the heightened immune response I’d been experiencing.
We finally seemed to be onto something and immediately signed up for weekly immunotherapy shots, with hopes of a slow and steady improvement.
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