Allergy question?

Question

Hi everyone, hope you're having a good day.
As most of my friends on here know I had a servere allergic reaction, not the type where your throat closes up & you can't breath. I had blisters everywhere, my throat looked as if it had been slashed, & I had servere aptopic ezema. I was almost hospitalized to keep the blisters under control because they were becoming infected & making me ill. Anyway it was horrible, I had an allergy test 4 weeks ago & I got the results back this morning, it turns out I'm am allergic to Cats, dogs & housemites I have grown up with cats & dogs so I'm not convinced my two cats are the problem as this is the first time this has happened, housemites on the other hand maybe, I'm a very clean person but what else can I do to keep housemites minimal or non exsistance? I'm also thinking of asking to be tested for food allergies which I think the Dermotologist will deny me as he thinks the allergic reaction was airborn not food intolorance.

Do you think it's worth paying out money to be tested privatly or take his word for it that I don't have any food intolorances?

Sorry for the long question!!!

Actually I'm just babbling on, my question is what can i do to keep housemites minimal or nonexsistant in my house?

I thought I should also add that my cats are protected against fleas, ticks & worms always..

Answer 1

My nephew was allergic to house and dust mites. We've all got them no matter how clean we are. My sis-in-law took the fitted carpet out of his bedroom and had plain wooden floors which could be swept and mopped daily and used rugs instead so it wasn't totally bare-looking. She chucked out the feather pillow and got him a hypoallergenic one and every time she made his bed she would run the hoover over the sheets. His condition improved no end. These mites live on microscopic bits of dead skin which we're shedding all the time - so the less 'residue' you leave around, the less the mites have got to eat so you can starve them out - and the hoovering gets rid of most of them. You probably aren't allergic to the actual cat or dog, it's their skin residue that sets you off. I think it's called 'Dander'. A dog might let you hoover him, but the cats will probably protest. Maybe just a really good grooming every day will help. You'll have to cover your nose and mouth while you do it though. You can get tested for food allergies by a homeopath....might be cheaper than the dermatologist. Has your doctor told you to have anti-histamine handy for attacks? Might be worth having something like Piriton to hand for the occasional outbreak. I shouldn't think it's good practice to take something like that constantly unless you REALLY have to.

Answer 2

I used to use my nasal spray every day like 5 times a day and couldn't breathe at night, either. I was always taking allergy pills for seasonal allergies where I would sneeze constantly. Nothing was working at all. Then one day I decided to cut out sugar from my everyday use and started taking a sugar supplement that also had Stevia in it mixed. I don't know if it was the Stevia, or the sugar decrease, or what, but in about 2 months, I had stopped using the nasal spray completely and my allergies were completely gone. I even wondered what I was going to do with all those pills. I went back to the sugar and didn't use any more sugar substitute due to a skin allergy caused by the sugar substitute which is derived from corn. I went for a good amount of time , like a year, maybe, before I started to sneeze again recently. So I haven't dropped the sugar completely but am giving the Stevia a try again. Hope this helps me and anybody else who might be desperate enough to try it. Let me know what works, if you can.

Answer 3

If it had been a food allergy your windpipe would have swollen up and made breathing difficult.

Airborn and external allergens tend to cause skin reactions only.

You can become allergic to something at any point in your life, so even though you've been keeping cats for years, your body can still go into overdrive by having an allergic reaction.

You can minimise housemites by replacing carpets with laminate or sealed wood flooring, using blinds instead of curtains and keeping fabrics to a minimum. Use an allergen cover for your duvet and pillows and also cover the mattress. Make sure you damp dust your surfaces as well.

Buy a Dyson vacuum cleaner with a Hepa Filter - this will suck all the very fine dust out of the carpets and sofa.

Answer 4

I think that you should deff. get a 2nd test for food allergies.

However, if it was something you ate , then were exposed to something that is airborn, it could delay the reaction. I get that. I have a nut allergy, and useually I can be around dust and cat. I can not even be around it or I break out in a rash. Your system is in recovery, so be nice to it! lol
I would also take into consdieration that allergies do just pop out of nowhere. I never had any trouble with nuts until this year. Even over the summer, I ate them alot. all of a sudden I was going to the E.R. because my throa almost closed over! I now have to have an Epi-Pen, and I can't even be around nuts at all.
For the dust mites, I would deff. wash everything more often, and sweep more often. That's about all you can do. You can buy bedding pads, they do help.

EDIT: Food allergies can cause blisters and rashes only! Not always does it mean your thorat will swell shut the 1st time, although eventually it will!

Answer 5

Hi, I dont know if this will help or not but its worth a try & if this doesnt work then you know that there is definately something else that is causing the allergies as this is brilliant. I suffered my whole life with allergies to fur & feathers, also dust mites. It made visiting people so miserable. My eyes would swell up, i had dificulty breathing, i wouldn't be able to stop sneezing & although I have eczema anyway, it would get considerably worse, often coming up in huge hive like lumps. I used to have to stay in hotels if I ever visited my family as they have cats & dogs & i couldnt stay in the house for an hour without feeling terribly ill but then i heard about FLIXONASE nasal spray. You spray it up each nostral twice every day & it prevents the allergy from entering your system. I was very skeptical coz I had tried EVERYTHING but i was amazed at the results. I can now even sleep at my mums house, even recently visiting for 5 days without so much as a sneeze. Its quite pricey if used regularly but i would pay triple to continue having peace of mind if I go to a friends house, i no longer have to worry about whether they have pets. I suffered for 30 years before this became available to buy over the counter & it really has given me a whole new lease of life - Anyone out there who knows how bad an allergy like this is will understand. Best of luck.

Answer 6

Almost anything could have caused your allergy, but given the dermatologist suspects an airborne cause I'd lean toward that ruling and look at any exposure you have had to aerosols, if you live in an area where they spray crops etc, or even pollinating plants. Other possible causes could be herbal medications or teas.
As for testing for food allergies you can do that yourself. Simply go on a restrictive intake for three days of basic alkaline foods and then add one by one (and in small quantities) the foods you suspect yourself. Good luck with it.
p.s. also if you have a history of allergies then you may find that you will over time react to things you once had no probs with due to toxin accumulation in your system. Be careful of anything new too and I suggest washing all new clothes prior to wearing them. I know its a pain, but I have had similar reactions as well as anaphylactic shock and now have to wear an SOS bracelet because of multi allergies and a high sensitivity to most everyday things.

Answer 7

HI!
I can perfectly relate, I too am very reactive. For the dust mites, even if you think you are very clean( and you certainly are!) You have to litteraly disinfect your house, period. There are cleaning products that contain pine oils, they are very smelly, but they kill micro-organisms better. These mites thrive in a humid environment. As for your cats and dogs, you may be truly allergic, it may be new. Have you tried homeopathy? It's very efficient. And if you have rugs, you should get rid of them because it's a breeding ground for allergens of all kinds. Beiing tested for food allergies is a great idea, who knows? Maybe that reaction was due to a food source. I have that kind of reaction from touching fish.
Anyway, I encourage you to seek, doctors know little, so be patient. In my case, Iwas born with multiple allergies and some nearly killed me a couple of times, I can't live where there are furry animals, so I have turltes and canaries.

Take care and good luck to you!

Answer 8

I would ask to get checked for more than you did, including food. You may be like me, some of us can develop new allergies to things we never were allergic too. One day I was eating a kiwi (and I had one the day before) and bam, my throat swelled shut. My brother is allergic to rice & shellfish. Shellfish makes his throat swell, but rice makes his body itch pretty bad & he turns red.

As for the cats, bathe them regularly (every 2 weeks) and mites, vacuum and dust all the time (get a hepa vacuum) and maybe even a hepa filter on your furnace.

What's the worst that can happen if you get tested for everything they have tests for? But be aware that they don't have tests for everything (kiwi for instance, they had to buy a kiwi, prick my arm and put a drop of juice on the prick.)

Answer 9

My grandson has the same problem......PLEASE get rid of your cats.....and don't eat any peanut products, and no white bread or wheat products, and stop eating eggs, PLEASE,,,and as for dust mites, you can vacuum your mattress often, and wash your sheets in hot water with bleach, and do this very often, don't use a lot of bleach, just a dab, just enough to kill germs, but with your skin, you shouldn't have a lot of bleach touch your skin, and don't eat wheat products....I pray this will help

Answer 10

Soap and water will do. Take off the rugs and other places where the mites can hide. Daily mopping with soap and water will help you out of your blues.