Allergy Shots

[Raindog]

I have some questions for those of you who have had allergy shots.

I have had chronic sinus infections for years. Three or four a year for years. I was in misery. I finally found a doctor who wants to help me fix the problem instead of trying to help me deal with it. I am on a course of steroids and 21 days of antibiotics and I am feeling really good. So it started me thinking, on top of the sinus problems I have allergy induced asthma. I am allergic to cats and dogs mostly. I can spend maybe an hour or two in a house with animals before I need to leave. Normal allergy symptoms as well as asthma ones. So that has been my life for 30 plus years.

So now I have a doctor that might not tell me to just avoid the triggers. He had even mentioned allergy shots as another step for the sinus problem.

So my questions are:

How bad were your allergies before the shots? Mine are pretty bad.
Did the shots help?
How much did they help?
Could you have a cat or dog after, if it stayed in certain rooms and the house was kept clean and still be healthy?
How much did they hurt? Kinda squeamish about needles.
Any input good or bad would be really helpful.

I have not yet talked to my doctor and I know its not a magic cure.

Besides wanting to be healthy I have an ulterior motive. My boyfriend has a cat and I will never say "its me or the cat!" because if he said "its me or the hedgehog!" I'd say "See ya sucker!" (and I love his cat too)

 

[GorillaJTA]

How bad were your allergies before the shots? Mine are pretty bad.

I lived in a farm town where there was always dust and random chemicals in the air. During the spring, I was constantly coughing stuff up from pollen, and in the fall, all the dust from harvesting made my eyes stream and I didn't know what it meant to breathe through my nose.

Did the shots help?

absolutely. I would not have been able to work on the farm without them.

How much did they help?

Enough that I could go from avoiding those things that left me unable to breathe to actaully working around them.

Could you have a cat or dog after, if it stayed in certain rooms and the house was kept clean and still be healthy?

Depends on how well it works for you, but mine knocked my allergies down pretty well.

How much did they hurt? Kinda squeamish about needles.

Just a slight burn. Nothing major. After a couple, you don't worry about it any more. I took a page from when we gave cows shots, and slapped the area where I was getting the shot really hard right before I got stuck, and the lingering sting covered up the needle sting a bit.

Hope I helped. I tried tons of herbal remedies and allegra and claritin only worked for a few days before i tolerated them too much, so shots was my only option besides "move to the antarctic."
:breath:

 

[menagerie]

I used to be deathly allergic to cats. My throat would close up and I'd have a hard time breathing. I got poked in the arm by a whisker once and my arm swelled to double it's size. After having the shots I can now pet a cat with no problem as long as I don't get any fur in my eyes and I wash my hands.

Have you tried a Neti pot for your sinuses? Using one periodically has made a world of difference when I feel a sinus infection coming on.

 

[Sandi]

I'm another allergy shots (immunotherapy) believer. I get 5 shots (for what I'm allergic to) every week. I have noticed a huge difference, especially around our dog and during ragweed season.

 

[caiti]

I've never had allergy shots, but probably will because that's my last hope. But my dad had them some years ago.

He is a very allergic person, mostly to dogs and cats--so it did work good for him...for a few years. After his allergies started getting back to what they were before but we've had cats all my life so at the very least he got a few years of relief and then his allergies never got worse than they were before.

My problem is I am allergic to many things. I had an allergy test and was allergic to 36 or 38 of the 42 allergens they put on your arm. Though I'm sure narrowing down the 5 I'm most reactive to would still have a good chance at helping. If you're mostly allergic to cats and dogs, you might get a lot of relief from it.

I'd say go for it. Really, besides home remedies and antihistamines there the only thing I know of. I really need to try the shots as well, I've been taking antihistamines daily for probably 15 years and I go through about 3 boxes of tissues a week...I feel your pain.

So for people who get them...is there a histamine shot? So you wouldn't have to get shots with specific allergens in them or is that too detrimental to your immune system or something? I'm not really sure exactly how allergies and medications work just the basics.

 

[MyLilPintoBean]

I don't personally receive allergy shots, but when my mom isn't here I give them to my step-dad. For the most part, they work to reduce the severity of the reaction you have by slowly building up your resistance to them. He has to use allergy medicine with the shots to help control outbreaks. I don't think there is general histamine shot other then epinephrine used for emergency situations... but I'm quite possibly wrong there. My step-dad's allergy shots are based off of the allergy test, so his shots are tailored to dust, molds, dander, trees, and grasses. He gets 2 shots a week, one in each arm. The same medicine is supposed to go into the same arm every time. He's been receiving them for almost 7 years now and hasn't had a bad outbreak since he started.

 

[Raindog]

Thanks for all of your info. It was very helpful. I am going to talk to my doctor and am very hopeful.

 

[Lmbswimmer]

If you are severly allergic just be aware that in rare cases the shots can cause anaphylaxis! Speaking from experience. Happened 5 times - yep 5 times. They could not get the dose of dust shots down low enough for me not to go into anaphylactic shock.

The cat one worked to a degree -
I can now actually enter someones home who owns a cat.

 

[Chin_Pig]

dont know if this helps but this is what i went through:

i had tests done, 60 needle pokes in my back then 9 in my arm they itched like crazy! but that is what they determined for my cocktails. my mom and i both did the shots together and we did what was called a 'Rush' which sucked. but that is because i hate needles and i had to have a catheter put in my arm and get a shot every couple of hours for an entire day...

i never made it past the first vile in my rush so i then went daily then weekly and eventually got up to once a month.

when i was little my eyes would swell shut when i rubbed my face against a cats fur (i LOVE CATS!) i cuddled my friends cat all the time. then one day i was allergic to him... also horses too they make my eyes swell shut. but when i was on the shots i never had my eyes swell shut. i just had miner reactions like hives or sneezy. while on my shots i never had a sinus infection (had like 3 in one year b4 i started the shots) i was on the shots 3 maybe 4 years.

anyway i tried to get what was left of my cocktails transferred down to MO from IA and the Immunology/ allergy doc here in town was a lil to old school for me. she swore up and down im not allergic to cats and there is no way i could be. she was wacky! so i stopped them. i now get sinus infections all the time i use a corticosteroid (Nasocort) daily and im on zyrtec. if i miss a dose i am miserable and my eyes get itchy and watery and my ears and throat get super itchy!

also when i have a sinus infection or in the winter i rinse my sinuses out with 'nielmed' sinus rinse kit (kinda like that neti pot thing but you can force the water better-i haven't tried the neti pot but i like the squeeze bottle anyway) . it feels so good and gets the crap out plus keeps my sinuses moist in the winter.

i still am okay with cats and dogs. horses still give me problems but oh well... i still go see the Lipizzaner stallions anyway... i mean why would i not want to see these beautiful, majestic horses doing really cool moves?

i would love to start them back up because i now have found out i have a Deviated Septum. which is the cause for my reoccurring sinus infections. i said no to the surgery cause holy cow it sounds painful and miserable! plus the % chance that it fixes it was not high enough for me to be worth the surgery.


i do know a friend who finished her cocktail and was allergy free for years then she had a baby and all heck broke loose on her allergies and shes now almost as bad as she was before the shots...