When I was younger, I would pray and ask for a pill that would make me healthy. I would tell my mom how much I wanted a "magic Jade" pill that would heal me and keep me from getting sick all the time, but we both knew that this "magic" pill was not logical.
For as long as I can remember, I have always been sickly. I was always in and out of the doctors offices, usually Urgent Care Centers because I would ALWAYS get sick on the weekend. Honestly, I was probably sick every other month with a sinus infection, ear infection, bronchitis, strep throat, or a nice combination of them. It was terrible! I don't know how many times I have been tested for mono, but the tests have always come back negative even when the doctors were positive that I had it. I was tired of being sick, tired of missing school, tired of taking medication, so I begged my parents to pay for me to go visit an allergist. I wanted to stop being sick. I just wanted to be healthy.
I found this picture online but this accurately
depicts all the boxes of kleenex we keep
around the house. I have boxes hidden everywhere,
but I don't use them anymore.
In December of 2010, I met with my new allergist. My parents paid a great amount of money for me to undergo this long commitment, but they felt that it would help. My insurance did not cover a good chunk of it. I went through allergy testing (which was terrible, for me) and I was allergic to 70 of the 72 things that I was tested for... I was not allergic to dogs or food. However, I was highly allergic to cats, trees, grass, mold, dust, and pretty much everything else. It was terrible. At my next appointment, I started standard allergy desensitization shots.
Let me just say allergy shots are a HUGE time commitment and if you don't think you will be able to commit to these for the 3-5 years then I think you need to look for other options that are shorter commitments (although they often cost more and my insurance didn't cover these options for me).
I started out by receiving four shots twice a week (two in one arm, one in the other arm, and one in my hip). I constantly had sore and bruised arms, but it wasn't a big deal.
Next, about six months later, I started receiving four shots each week. About this time, my arms would swell pretty big, about the size of my palm, at the injection site. It is not a pretty site to see. Sometimes they would swell more, while other times, I wouldn't swell at all. When swelling larger than the palm of my hand would happen, I would have to go down a dosage on my injections and work my way back up. It was at this point that allergy shots started being a problem. I wasn't sure if they really would be worth it, but there was no backing out after my parents had paid an arm and a leg for my testing and my serum and my appointments and my injections and everything else...
Once I finally got my dosage high enough, I moved to four shots twice a month. My arms went back and forth with the swelling, so I was constantly working to maintain my dosage. At this point, my allergy shots started making sneeze and have asthma problems later in the day. It wasn't a big deal, I just used my inhaler and started taking Benadryl before I went in for my shots.
Then just over a year and a half ago, I reached maintenance level. That means that I am finally taking the strongest dosage of EVERYTHING I AM ALLERGIC TO. I now get all of the reactions that I have mentioned above (the swelling is just the size of a quarter now) and I also get really sleepy a couple hours after my shots. My arms ache for a few days and stay swollen for just over 24 hours. My shots hurt. Sometimes they aren't as painful, while other times they are the most painful shots I have received. It isn't a feeling that I can explain because it burns and hurts and aches and it's just not comfortable. Most patients receive a numbing medication in their shots to help with the pain; however, since I now live a good four hours away from my hometown allergist, I am not able to receive the numbing medication any longer... but it is still worth it for me. I now go to a doctor of internal medicine, in my town, to receive allergy shots.
For the first time in my whole life, I have went over a year without being sick! It is amazing how much these shots have helped me. I no longer am on daily medication for my allergies or my asthma. It has definitely been worth all the pain I have undergone and all the money my parents have spent for these shots. When I am done in May 2015, I will have completed four and a half years of shots. For me, this will amount to over 600 allergy injections. No big deal. ;)
Now, don't let my story scare you away from it. I have NEVER had to use my emergency Epi-Pen. I was highly allergic to almost everything, so that is why I had to get four shots. Most people I know only get one or two at each appointment. Most people do not have all the reactions that I have. It is also not painful for many people. It has been worth it for every person I know that has gone through it. Each person is different and in a different situation, so some people don't take the shots for three years while others are on them for five years.
If you are taking or have taken allergy shots, let me know how yours are going or how they went. How many do you get? How long have you been receiving the injections? Do yours hurt, swell, or cause any reactions?
If you are thinking about getting allergy shots, feel free to email me and I can give you more in-depth details of my story or try to answer any questions you may have. There are many different options to consider. I am not a medical professional so I may not be able to answer all the questions, but if I cannot answer a question you may have, I can help in finding some allergists near you so that you can call and get some answers.
Cheers to not being sick any longer.
Cheers to my magic shots that made me healthy.
xoxo,
Jade
