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  Is it Spring Yet?

  Apr 20, 2024

  Historically, I've been fortunate enough never to have suffered from the usual allergies that affect most other people.  That is, until now.  For many, Spring brings either allergies or turns their homes into "hives" of activity (and sometimes both).  Here?  Not so much.  As a matter of fact, the only hives happening here are the ones breaking out all over me.  Not all at once either.  One here, one there.  Two here, one there.  The cause remains a mystery but I'm itching to investigate.  You may groan... now.

  Anyway, it all seemed to start around the last week of December.  A visit to my dermatologist resulted in a diagnosis that my symptoms were the result of either insect bites or a drug reaction.  Seeing that it was in the dead of winter, he was leaning toward a drug reaction as the likely cause.  The only changes in medication during this period was the addition of a new drug to work in concert with one I was already taking for hypertension.  It was decided to temporarily stop taking the newest drug and observe the reactions.  As expected, blood pressure returned to previous levels.  The hives reduced somewhat but never went away completely.  After what we judged to be enough time and without definitive results, my doctor had me restart the newest medication and go see an allergist instead.   

  The allergist was very good.  After a series if 41 little pricks divided between both arms, the results were both unexpected and a bit puzzling.  It seems that I'm sensetive to the usual cast of characters like mold, dust mites and pet dander, but also to hickory and freshly cut grass among others.  He dislikes pets as well as HVAC systems and humidifiers (of which I have all three), and I'm to bathe my cat at least every two weeks.  I can disable the humidifer but clearly he's never had a cat.   

  From a big picture perspective, I'm back to square one since most of the things the allergist focused on were not things that would affect me during winter months.  Perhaps it could be the humidifier but I'm not so sure, which brings me back to a drug interaction issue.  We'll see.

   

   

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