Question:
Soooo....the past 4-6 weeks has been downhill for me energy wise. I think tht
we found some of the culprit..mold... here in soggy california.. i receive iv
vit c wekly, butt hat is not keeping up...so since i can't clean the mold with
power bleach, we wipe what we could and now I want to see an allergist.
Anyone had rast testing and have injecitons for mod, cat dander, tree pollens,
etc? I want to try it as long as it won't be worse for my tender immune system
Answer:
I think the standard skin scratch testing is more accurate, and less
expensive, than the RAST test. My wife, who has CFIDS, had it done about a
year ago for about 80 substances and it turned out she was highly sensitive
to 72 of them. Because she was so sensitive, the doctor started her on a
very weak dilution in her allergy shots. Even so, the shots produced severe
asthma, so the doctor started her at an even weaker dilution and greatly
slowed the amount she would increase the shots each week. This has worked
well. It has taken quite a bit of time, but there have been increasingly
good results. About six months ago, she started being "energized" soon
after she got her shot. This was in sharp contrast to the aching and
weakness she usually experienced (for the first 6 months) for anywhere from
2 to 48 hours after her shot. She is also able to increase her dose more
each week now, so the progress is being made much faster. She is now at a
dose quite a bit above the dose that originally produced the severe asthma,
so a lot of progress has been made.
In general, make sure you see a "board certified" allergist rather than
another type of MD who has taken a few courses so that he/she can cash in on
this potentially lucrative patient population. Ear, Nose, & Throat (ENT)
specialists are notorious for doing this and often provide shoddy/unsafe
care.
I've read many places that although PWCs don't do well with immunizations,
they do tend to do well with allergy shots when there are documented
allergies.
BTW, the potentially "lucrative" aspect of this type of treatment is in
charging for the weekly shots in a clinic setting. If you can find someone
to give you the shots at home, and if the doctor will allow it, the shots
are amazingly inexpensive. It only cost us $20.00 for the 8 vials of the
serum that my wife needed (that's right, less than $3.00 per vial). She has
been taking the shots for a year now and we aren't even half way through the
8 vials. There are also many side benefits to taking the shots at home
including the energy saved by not having to go to the clinic each week and
the decreased exposure to people with colds, flus, and other contagious
illnesses. I think any doctor who was in it for his patients, as opposed to
the money, would allow you to take the shots at home once a reasonable
amount of safety has been established and the person who will be giving the
shots has been sufficiently trained.
I took allergy shots for over three years and only received very minor
relief. Gamma Gobulin shots seemed to provide better help by boosting the
immune systeme, versus trying to desensitize it. I haven't taken them for
about a year (allergy shots).
I've been taking allergy shots for 37 years (I'm 46). Originally
from Pennsylvania, I had the scratch tests when I was nine and was
taking their protocol for many years, which I believe included stuff
for molds, cat dander, and dust, along with more stuff for grasses
and pollen (which are my primary allergies).
I've been living in Florida for 12 years now. Everytime I went home,
I got an allergy shot, but after that long away from the original
testing area, I was afraid that those shots had lost their ability to
fight the allergins for where I was now living; so I had a rast done.
Well, the rast came back showing the same allergies I had up North,
but I took the rast that only showed grasses, pollins, etc., not
molds, as it was quite a bit cheaper.
I then went onto the Southern protocol (which I hated, as it involved
shots every 7-21 days vs. the 2-3x/yr I was on in Pa.){just another
way for Dr. offices to make $$$'s}?, but it did help.
After falling totally ill with CFIDS, while I was at the Mayo they
ran yet another battery of scratch tests re-confirming the rast
results.
So, in my humble opinion, I find no ill results from having allergy
shots along with my CFIDS protocol.
BTW -- since my CFIDS Dr. allows me to give myself my own shots, I
also give myself my allergy shots, saving $$'s from not having to go
to the Dr's office 15+ times a year for a simple allergy injection.
