Any experience with allergies and allergy shots?

I developed allergies to our animals a few years ago. So now I take Zyrtec twice a day, antihistamine eye drops twice a day, have steroid eye drops when they start to feel bad, and also erythromycin eye gel when they really get bad. 

I want to go back to the allergy clinic and see if there are any shots or anything else we can do to help lessen the frequency. I typically get blepharitus about every 6-7 weeks. It's not comfortable. 

I'd like to be able to wear contacts and sunglasses again. Just curious if anyone else has experience with this. The first few times before going to the allergy clinic I ended up in the ER with swollen lips and goopy eyes, but taking the Zyrtec and using the eyedrops that doesn't happen anymore. But still get the blepharitus, which is an infection of your eyelid ducts. 

Yeah, I've had  blepharitis several times.  It sucks.  Also, in reaction  to one of our cats, I used to get chemosis a few times a week.  That's where the conjunctiva gets blisters on it... not comfortable at all, and itchy as hell.

It was just that particular cat, so I managed it with Zyrtec as well.  He eventually passed on and it hasn't been anything like that bad since.

I don't know anything about shot for your case, but I have a coworker who's son was very allergic to nuts.  The allergist got him over that with a careful regiment of managed exposure and treatment, so that may be possible for your case.

Good luck.

Have you been able to determine which animal(s) is/are causing the problem?

Removing the cause is likely the most effective (and cost-effective) way to remedy the problem.  May not have to be absolute--hypothetically, if you're sleeping in a bed with cats, keeping the room cat-free might work.

I did the shots for awhile in my 20s. Good news is I'm not highly allergic to that stuff anymore, bad news is a whole slew of new stuff has taken its place so I also live on Zyrtec/Claritin/Allegra--I switch it up when one seems less effective, doubt it's a real thing.

I had a period of chronic blepharitis, then an awesome eye doc recommended I wash the edge of my eyelids/along the tear ducts with a q-tip dipped in warm soapy baby shampoo water morning and night. Really helped cut down on the incidence and got me to the point I'm at now, where I just give 'em a little scrub with the washcloth when I'm in the shower. Haven't needed antibiotic drops in many years. Not sure you'll wear contacts again, though. I can't anymore.

Best of luck.

Margie

1988RedT2 said:

Have you been able to determine which animal(s) is/are causing the problem?

Removing the cause is likely the most effective (and cost-effective) way to remedy the problem.  May not have to be absolute--hypothetically, if you're sleeping in a bed with cats, keeping the room cat-free might work.

 

According to the allergy report more allergic to the dogs vs the grass/tree pollens. 

We already rehomed our cat last year because he kept getting more and more aggressive toward the dogs. He had full claws, so he could do some damage and I didn't like him doing that. I was also afraid at some point our 80lb pit mix would stop being passive about it and use her bite to inflict real damage. And I didn't want anyone to see that. The family that took the gato was very nice and has kept in touch with us. I think he's doing much better being the only animal in the house. 

 

Marjorie Suddard said:

I did the shots for awhile in my 20s. Good news is I'm not highly allergic to that stuff anymore, bad news is a whole slew of new stuff has taken its place so I also live on Zyrtec/Claritin/Allegra--I switch it up when one seems less effective, doubt it's a real thing.

I had a period of chronic blepharitis, then an awesome eye doc recommended I wash the edge of my eyelids/along the tear ducts with a q-tip dipped in warm soapy baby shampoo water morning and night. Really helped cut down on the incidence and got me to the point I'm at now, where I just give 'em a little scrub with the washcloth when I'm in the shower. Haven't needed antibiotic drops in many years. Not sure you'll wear contacts again, though. I can't anymore.

Best of luck.

Margie

So the shots helped?

Three of my kids and my wife have all done allergy shots. It's a pain to go often to get the shots, but they've seemed to work so far. Allergies for them are seasonal, grass, dust, and dogs (we have two dogs).

z31maniac said:

Marjorie Suddard said:

I did the shots for awhile in my 20s. Good news is I'm not highly allergic to that stuff anymore, bad news is a whole slew of new stuff has taken its place so I also live on Zyrtec/Claritin/Allegra--I switch it up when one seems less effective, doubt it's a real thing.

I had a period of chronic blepharitis, then an awesome eye doc recommended I wash the edge of my eyelids/along the tear ducts with a q-tip dipped in warm soapy baby shampoo water morning and night. Really helped cut down on the incidence and got me to the point I'm at now, where I just give 'em a little scrub with the washcloth when I'm in the shower. Haven't needed antibiotic drops in many years. Not sure you'll wear contacts again, though. I can't anymore.

Best of luck.

Margie

So the shots helped?

Yeah, short answer, the shots worked.

I was pretty allergic to cats and wanted to keep having cats; that happened thanks to the shots. But you will likely develop other allergies to replace them as time goes on; it's a bit of a long-form game of whack-a-mole. Just saw my rheumatologist today, as a matter of fact, and he confirmed: If you are a person who develops allergies, you're gonna keep on doing that. But since you have a targeted goal, like I did, highly recommend the shots.

Margie

My ex took the shots.  I used to give them to her regularly.  Without the shots, she broke out in hives, eyes swelled shut, or otherwise sneezed herself to death from every possible trigger... animals, pollen, dust, unicorn farts, you name it.

With the shots, she was 100% free to experience anything and not have a single allergic reaction to anything.  Well, except Penicillin, but that's a different pot of worms.

In her case of really severe allergies (red-headed Scotch/Irish gal), she was miserable without them, and absolutely normal with them.  That's just one story, but it was a complete success story in her case.  Her only side-effect was a drier mouth sometimes.

I had these shots as a teenager and they helped immensely.  Prior to them, I would walk into a house with cats and my throat would start closing up in a matter of minutes.  I lived on Benadryl (literally a dose every six hours or so) to control the reaction to pollen/mold/whatever.  Prior to the shots, the reaction test came back as 4+ (highest reaction level) on nearly everything they tested me on.

Now, I have minimal reactions to things.  I owned a cat for 14 years, do yard work, go hiking, etc, with hardly any reaction.  I take an OTC allergy med maybe once a month.

One odd side effect is that I have lumps of what I assume is scar tissue in the back of both my arms where the shots were given.  This is an exceptionally minor thing considering the reduction in allergies the shots provided.

I was getting the shots for the past two years and they seemed to help. Then I stopped getting them. My advice is make sure your allergy clinic is on top of reordering your serums when they're close to running out/expiring.

My clinic whiffed on it and by the time they could have ordered more I would have had to essentially start over from the beginning.

I can write a book here. Years and years of shots. Moving to different places. Different shot concentrations. Allergies are better but also worse in some aspects.