samedi, mai 08, 2010

ahhhh!

Hayfever, allergies, whatever you want to call them. Blech. The bane of my spring every year since I was in college. I never had any allergies as a kid, seasonal or otherwise. But once you live in the Willamette Valley you will get allergies - that's what the locals say anyway.

It's only gotten worse and worse as I got older. The over the counter stuff stopped working and each year I started taking stronger and stronger prescription allergy meds.

Last spring I went to my doctor and asked for something super strong, I was really suffering. She gave me the prescription but recommended to get treatment. I had never heard of allergy treatment but got an appointment with an allergologue in November last year. He did the usual allergy tests and indeed my only allergy was pollen. He recommended doing a désensibilisation treatment over the winter.

I had two options, the more traditional shot where you go in once a week to get one, or the newer treatment (that Miss Ksam did and told me about) which is an oral treatment. I opted for number two of course.

The treatment consisted of taking an eye dropper and putting X amount of allergy drops under my tongue every morning and holding it there for two minutes. That's it. No pain, no inconvenience - easy as pie.

Now allergy season is starting up and instead of being all stuffed up, runny eyes and so congested that I can't sleep... I'm as happy as can be!! Allergy free (so far, my worst allergies used to be a bit later in the spring...) After a follow up with the doctor he said that I may have some allergies this year but it should be considerably less than normal. I'll continue to take the treatment but twice a week instead of every day until December when I have another follow up.

So far I'm loving this option!!! (plus with the health care and my mutuelle I didn't pay a dime..!) I should have done it years ago!

5 commentaires:

Megan a dit…

wow. That's great. And amazing. I am bothered too by allergies, but when I had those tests they came back negative. I'm not sure if took my anti-allergy medicine too close to the test time though, which may have suppressed my response. Hope it continues to work for you.

Eileen a dit…

Oo, so glad you posted about this. My American allergist told me about this method last year when I mentioned I'd be coming back to France---apparently it's not yet approved in the States (annoying). Hopefully I'll get to try it if I manage to stick around. It must desensitize you to specific things like allergy shots do right?

Ksam a dit…

So glad to hear it's working, I was just wondering how it was going for you!! I've been trying to convince both C and Kendra to do it as well, maybe your story will help convince them too!

benny a dit…

hey ! glad you're not suffering this year... never heard of this method tho - weird... Damien did the usual shot things for desensibilisation - not sure it worked 100%...
But since i live in dubai - none of that ob anymore ! (i think its the AC... hehe).
by the way, are you gonna be around on the 14th-25th july ???
xxx

MilkJam a dit…

Benny - I'll be around!!! will be on holiday the first week of August but July should be here (working.. )