Question:
I am the caretake of my cat that i love so much.. But i have a + 4 allergic
reaction to him.. The actual "score" is 17,682.. And my allergist said if
I had another cat in that house i would die... Even though i take allergy
medication (clarinex) everyday.. I still have problems with him.. I'm only 27 years old and i'm developing these heart and breathing
problems.. Has anyone else had this with a cat? I want to keep this cat as
much as I can.. I love him dearly.. But i feel like it is life or death for
me now..I checked out the symptoms of a heart attack, And I have ALOT of
them.. Even though i am in good health , i dont smoke , blood pressure is ok
and everything.. Its just that this allergic reaction must be causing other
aspects of my heart system to be all screwed up.. The doctor said i had
bruised lungs because of all my severe allergies.. I'm allergic to so
much..... airborne and indoor.. I dont know what to do.. And i dont know
for sure if it is all related to the cat.. I didnt have these kinds of
problems before the cat.. They just slowly started to get worse and I have
had him for 2 years now.. Lately it is getting worse and worse.. I go to the
heart doctors and they say everything looks good but i know for sure it is
not... I develop the difficulty breathing for no reason , heart pains ,
chest pains , back pains by the heart... Any advice would be much
appreciated... I love this cat so much and dont want to get arid of him..
He's like the only one that makes me happy these days..
Answer:
if you could arrange a week away from the cat (and all cats, of
course) it might well help you to make up your mind about this. I think you
will find that all of us here advise you to give it up, but it helps to be
able to demonstrate to yourself what contribution your pet maks to your
difficulty. In general, cat allergy is the most severe problem allergists
have to deal with in the US, in terms of ubiquity, sevrity of symptoms and
mental anguish associated with the diagnosis. All symptoms tend to get worse
with time. I don't know about killing you; I doubt that. But, it could esily
make you unemployable and unable to have a real family or leisure life.
do you know exactly what happens inside the body when a person is
allergic to cats and are exposed to them? I know another person that cant
breath when their around cats.. But she has asthma... I went to virginia
beach a few weeks ago for 5 days and i felt great.....no problems... But
alot of doctors find it hard to believe that my heart problems are because
of allergies.. Isnt it true that allergies cause an increase in the heart
rate? If so , maybe thats why my heart is always beating at 85BPM.. I'm
allergic to everything even inside the house like dust etc.. I love my cat, too.
1. I bought cheap trim-to-fit filters and taped them to the outside of
all the air vents-including the air intake vent.
2. I run air conditioning all the time.
3. Keep the cat off the bed, and out of the bedroom is even better.
4. I stress this the most. Buy a kitty litter that is 100% dust free.
99.9% dust free is still one hell of a lot of dust. Buy "Swheat" or the
cedar kind or the 100% paper kind-do not buy anything with clay in it or
on it.
5. I use a hoover vacuum cleaner with hepa filter and vacuum more
frequently.
6. Oddly enough, one of those rubbermaid push and pull ?butler's
helper's? picks up an incredible amount of cat hair. The vacuum cleaner
is for the dander.
7. Wash the cat. I am told that if you start with a young kitten, they
will get used to it :-)
8. When it is time to change the litter, set it up in such a way that
you can toss the old without "pouring" it out of the container. If
possible, change the litter outside. I also use a dust mask when I
change the litter, mostly habit now.
9. Any kids around? Pay them to brush the cat every week and change the
litter.
10. My mom actually rolls one of those sticky lint rollers over her cat
:-)
11. Even with all of that, I can't stand it without an antihistamine.
12. Make sure you leave your home each day for 8-10hrs minimum to get
some better quality air, be it a job or the mall or whatever.
13. Exercise away from the cat's environment so you arent inhaling the
allergen more deeply. I had this cat before the allergies. No allergies with the two cats I
had during my teens. If I ever thought I had found the perfect home for
her, I might consider giving her up, but it would be very difficult. It
is a risk, just like smoking drinking etc. Is your cat allowed in all rooms of the house? I have a cat allergie as
well, although not severly yet, but my cat is not allowed in another room
than the livingroom annex kitchen. He is not allowed upstairs to go to the
bedrooms, because that might affect my allergie. The idea of being a week
without the cat might indeed help you to see if the reactions get less. I
wish you all the best.
It is difficult but you have to put aside emotional issues at some
point and think about the situation in terms of what it is doing to
you. Since you have multiple allergies to start with, it is going to
be difficult to control all them at once. However, there is no hope
of even starting as long as the cat is in the same dwelling as you
given the severity of your symptoms. Stress and anxiety can certainly make it appear to the person that
there is a cardiac problem. Lots of symptoms will clear up by the
time you get to a clinic simply because you are away from the source
long enough for some relief.
I would not focus so much on the heart issue, the real problem you
are facing in the long run is development of chronic asthma. This is
well documented. Cat dander is extremely fine and penetrates very
deeply into the lungs. The particle size is in the range desired for
maximum penetration for inhaled drug delivery. If skin exposure will
cause a welt, think about what it is doing in the very sensitive
tissue lining the lungs. If the inflammation continues of a period of
years, it will progress to bronchitis > then allergy induced asthama
> then chronic asthama. You apparently haven't yet woken up at 2AM
with the feeling (and beathing sounds to match) that someone has
poured a milkshake into you lungs. You have to get your feet up, head
down and let it ooze out. Been there, done that. Trust me, you don't
want to go there.
