Thursday, August 12, 2010

Allergens and Me

So yesterday, I woke up.  I felt pretty good, but thought to myself.  "Let's not tempt fate.  Just do yoga today.  When all is well, then tomorrow we'll hit it hard."  Uh yeah.  30 minutes of yoga then after 10 minutes of sitting.  Red, itchy hives covered my cheeks.  Within 30 minutes, my entire face, down my neck and my chest.  I called the regular doctor who said "Why did you workout?"  I reminded him that he said I could if I didn't itch.  He said, "no more working out until you see your allergist." I said, "what allergist?" 

It turned out he meant to (but didn't) tell me to make a follow up with my allergist, of which I am/was without one because my old one (who I went to once) is in Atlanta, and my even older one (from when I was 16) is in my hometown where I haven't lived in quite a rather long time. The doctor refused to see me saying that the Solumedrol shot he gave me was still in my system and that I could take an Atarax every 6 hours (which would have put me at 1 pm).  He then told me to get in with the allergist to be seen.  I couldn't because well they're specialists who are completely booked up.

When you work from home and the only other "person" in the house is your dog, your face is covered in hives and your tongue is swelling but you're not having breathing problems, it's a little disconcerting to be told to just wait and see what happens, and if you need to just use your epi pen and then go to the ER.  I don't think it's a great idea to drive yourself to the ER after having given yourself a shot because you can still pass out.  I almost died when I was 16 from eating onions and shrimp and then going for a run, so I don't really like to "wait and see."  But that's what I did.

Mr. Darcy ended up coming home after I pretty much begged him to come home.  I couldn't declare it was an emergency, but I was also freaked out by the chance of it becoming an emergency.  He was willing if it was an emergency, but well I couldn't say it was an emergency because I wasn't keeling over, but still...

By the time he got home, it started subsiding.  So I felt a little bit bad, although I was annoyed that I had to beg to begin with.  But that's another story.  Then the doctor's office called and said, "do not work out again until you have your food allergy testing done, and we made you a doctor's appointment with a different allergist."

So this morning I went to the allergist they set up the appointment with.  I will not be going back there.  The doctor was fine, but there were no nurses - or if the woman who helped me was a nurse then she is a bit incompetent as I had to spell pretty much every medicine and medical issue I have for her.  And I had to explain what endometriosis was and what IVF was.  Not to mention that there were signs in the office related to getting allergy shots and having to just wait because they were given in between scheduled appointments.  And when they brought me back to weigh me, they walked me into the same room as 2 other people who were getting shots while I was in there.  And the floor was dirty.  I am not a neat freak by nature.  I don't care 99.7% of the time if something is a little bit dirty.  There are 3 exceptions: doctors offices, dentists offices and the grocery store.  While the doctor seemed to know what he was talking about, I wasn't comfortable.  I may be overly picky about doctors, but I've heard enough stories about (and had my own run in with) bad doctors to listen to my feelings of discomfort.

So I made an appointment for September 10th with the initial doctor they recommended but who I couldn't get an earlier appointment.  The problem?  I'm not supposed to exercise at ALL until I go to have my food allergies tested.  Why?  Because as you get older your allergies change, so while we think it's the onion flakes in the Mrs. Dash it allegedly could be something else.  The other thing the allergist told me today - I am not allowed to workout EVER without a buddy.  Realistically, this is not something that can happen.  I can't always have someone working out with me because it's just not practical.  And I don't necessarily want to wait until September 11th to be able to workout again (especially since I have a triathlon in Clermont scheduled for September 12th).

I'm contemplating going to my old doctor back in my home town if he has earlier availability.  My parents still go to him.  And I can't help but wonder if I can get in there earlier.  And I know his floors are clean.

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