71 shots

No, I didn't fall off the wagon. That's how many times my arms got poked last week when I visited the allergist. Though I've lived in Houston before, my seasonal allergies became unbearable last year. I lost most of April to the sniffles, sneezes and congestion. I had some challenges this fall but not as many.

So when I woke up on Feb. 28 miserable with hay fever, I decided enough was enough. I called my doctor and got a referral to Houston Allergy & Asthma Associates. My appointment was last week.

It was a pretty efficient experience. I was taken back to the exam room within 5-10 minutes of arriving. I had my vitals taken and had to do a quick breathing test. I scored 400 when 480 is ideal, so this day, I was not too badly affected.

The doctor followed pretty quickly after the nurse. He was willing to bet I was allergic to trees and grasses, and wanted to test me on everything (but food) to be sure. For the testing to be effective, you're supposed to be off antihistamines for five days. I took one Sunday morning, and this was Thursday afternoon, so I was borderline.

A quick first poke with the histamine (positive marker) showed I was reacting, and we could proceed. Before the poke, I was given 56 lovely lines up and down my forearms. Each line was a poke, and each poke, a tree, grass, mold, dust or other pollen. For the ones I had no reaction to, a second group of 15 more pokes were done on my right bicep.

The best news? I'm not allergic to pets (though I insisted if I was, I was still keeping Buddy!!). The bad news, I'm allergic to just about every tree, grass, weed, dust and mold ... except oak. The doctor said he would have lost money on that bet.

Since I am fairly healthy, he said I am an excellent candidate for immunotherapy. In the meantime, Zyrtec and Nasonex are my friends. This article which discusses the 100th anniversary of immunotherapy sums up why I'm willing to explore this option: sure, I can take meds for the rest of my life, and deal with losing days every year to illness. But if there's a chance that I could prevent the allergies from getting worse, avoiding possible asthma and possibly enjoy remission of my allergies, I think it's worth a try.

This will be a long-term commitment for me. I had to agree to stick with it for three to five years. I will begin at some point in the next month. I plan to start out with a rush treatment and take a day off work to get me to the monthly maintenance in one or two months versus six. It's more manageable on my schedule to take one sick day versus several hours a week for weeks on end, and may even save me some money doing it in one visit thanks to co-pays.

So a year ago, if you would have told me I'd be seeing my regular internist, plus an endocrinologist and an allergist twice a year, I would have laughed. But our bodies are like a car or house...you have to do maintenance to keep them running well. And I can't trade up for a new one if this one wears out so I'll do it.

I'm just thankful I have great insurance that makes this affordable. That could be a whole blog entry onto itself.