Considering alergy shots

Hello everyone,

I have had what I suspected were seasonal allergies for as long as I can remember. However, this year has been especially bad, so I finally decided to go to a local immunologist. I was very impressed with the doctor and he ordered an environmental skin test battery. I got my result sheet back and I'm allergic to all the grass pollens, most of the weed pollens, half of the tree and mold pollens, and cockroaches, feathers, dust mites, cats, and dogs. I'm not having a reaction to the point where I can't function, but it's clearly not comfortable. He said he usually recommends allergy shots for someone who is as broadly allergic as I am, but we're trying a combination of medicines. For the last several weeks, I've been using Flonase 1x daily, generic Claratin 1x daily, and Pataday eye drops 1x daily

I've noticed a huge improvement. I didn't realize how much the allergies were affecting me and I feel a lot better. I'm not nearly so congested in the mornings, for example. It's nice. I have some AllergyControl bed encasing on their way too, which should help. However, I still have problems when I spend any large amount of time outside. For example, I took a bike ride today and by the time I got home, I was congested and my eyes were turning red.

This makes me think that the medicine isn't doing enough on its own and I need to try to reduce the immunoreaction with the shots. I've read that about 90% of patients respond well and their symptoms improve, so I'm very optimistic, but I'm interested in hearing some first-hand opinions. I'm sure many of you have taken the shots; do they help you?

I'm also trying to figure out what to do about the initial ramp-up. My doctor offers both the traditional "couple of shots a week" method and the "do it in one long day" method. They work out to cost about the same, so I'm tempted to do the one-day approach. However, I'm a little concerned about the safety. It seems like assaulting my system with a bunch of allergens could be kind of dicey. Has anyone gone this approach and is willing to share their experiences?

Thanks in advance!

I did the two shots a week, but by month two I was having asthma attacks from it.

The doctor stopped the shots and told me I wasn't a cantidate for them anymore.

By the way I was allergic to everything in the environmental test, too.

I have to make due now with zyertec, advair, patenase, and albuterol.

Joy

I took allergy shots for 15 years with little success.  They kept me from getting worse, but did not eliminate my allergies.  I then tried a alternative medicine approach called NAET.  It eliminates related allergies in batches (like dairy), as well as individual allergies in one day and painlessly.  I finally got rid of my allergies and found I could quit my inhalers, etc.  I also have asthma and it developed from severe allergies. 

Post Edited By Moderator (Red_34) : 6/9/2010 4:51:55 AM (GMT-6)

I grew up on the shots, then my insurance did the horrible thing...stopped covering them. I noticed I started to get immune to them. You know, this takes a few years to devolope, but it will not hurt you in any way and any doctor should approve this. You can actually make yourself immune to your local allergies by doing a unique thing. Honey. Make sure you get local honey and have a tablespoon everyday. The bees make the honey, and it has all the pollens in it, but is usually small enough quanities that you can get away with no reaction. I now take beconase, and allerga. The other half takes claritan. And if you get drowsy from medications, use DYE FREE products. Like benedry, dye free. Ask your pharmast how to show you if it is dye free or not. The other half will be out cold if you give him a benedryl. We have to do dye free medication with him or he'd pass out.