These Are Not The Allergies You Were Looking For

I got allergy tested today. Took all morning, from 8 to noon. For those of you who don't know about allergy testing, this is what they do:

They use a sharpie and draw on your back, little marks with numbers for every fifth one. That's just to save time, instead of numbering every one. Then they bring in trays of these things that each look like a grouping of needles, maybe 4x4, I didn't count, embedded in a plastic handle. The ends of the needles have been dipped in an allergen, one for each of the marks on your back. They take these by the handles and stab you in the back with each one. Because there are multiple needles, it doesn't really hurt all that much for each ... but by the last time you're wondering why you did this.

Now you have to stop taking your antihistamines a week before. It's actually a specific number of days for each specific drug. I got two of mine mixed up, plus I couldn't stop taking one (for other reasons). So they did a control, which was a needle set with straightup histamine on it, not an allergen type (like "oak pollen").

Oh boy, did that one ever react. Got a nice red blotch about an inch square for it.

But the astonishing result for the rest of my back? No reactions. None. According to my back, I wasn't allergic to anything they'd tested for. (We'd skipped the food I knew I was allergic too, as I can simply avoid eating that. Now I'm curious as to if they would have reacted or not.) Apparently, I have grown out of my allergies.

Well, not quite, actually. You see, if your back doesn't react, but you know from your daily life that you're allergic to something, you can step up the dose they give you and see if you react to that. The first time I had allergy testing I reacted to many of the things, but not the lowest dose of the cat allergen. I reacted to the more concentrated dose.

The nurse asked if I wanted to go up to the next level, and on what, and that is what we did. They've run out of room on your back by now, so the next level gets done on your left arm. Since your upper arm doesn't have the space on it your back does, they start grouping the allergens. And you don't get the "nice" multiple needle stabs. No, this is an actual syringe with a tiny (she said) needle. That gets injected under your skin.

That hurts.

Two of those reacted. Ah ha, you say, the cat allergy, right? Nope. Two types of dust mites. The cat allergy one didn't react at all. This is very strange, very strange indeed. I was completely baffled.

So there is a third, even more concentrated level they can go to. This one uses your right arm, and is the syringe needles just like the left arm version. We did that, because, well, I was there, I was going to exceed my deductible anyway, and now I was curious and very puzzled. Allergy to dust mites does not explain the sudden increase in symptoms this year.

Two more spots reacted. That's the cat allergy one, right? Um, no. Even the third most concentrated level of the cat allergen did not react.

So that's the astonishing, good news out of this. I'm not allergic to cats. At all. Not anymore. Whoo hoo! (When I got home, I startled Thimble by rubbing my nose in his fur and taking deep sniffs of his neck fur, which is something I've always loved to do but had stopped doing because of the allergies. Thimble reached up one huge paw and placed it on my forehead and pushed me away, giving me this look of "what are you doing, mama?")

But here comes the bad news. Those final two spots were mold allergen groups. One of them includes the mold that grows in books. There is silence in the library. My library. Almost two thousand books. (The other group had the mold that is found in vinegar and pickles and some cheeses, which I already knew about.)

Well, I'm going to get allergy shots because I'm not getting rid of, or replacing electronically, all my books. I'm also going to see what books I can bear to part with, in order to at least reduce the number in the house.

And that explains the increase in allergies as the cats increased in size. At the same time, we were heading into a warm, humid summer, and both heat and water increase mold growth. (So hopefully in the winter I will have fewer allergy problems in the house.)

Also, I was tested for asthma and my lungs are just fine. It's the passage from my nose to my throat that's the problem. It's apparently actually narrowed from the congestion.

But hey. I'm not allergic to my cats. Hallelujah!