Allergies

Has anyone ever had one of those allergy scratch tests? Basically, the doctor pokes you over and over again with various allergens and then waits fifteen minutes to see if any of them create a welt. Thanks modern medicine!

Well, I had one last week. I am allergic to something/somethings unknown and it drives me insane. It drives Matt insane too and it was at his consistent prompting that I made the appointment. According to the test, I'm not allergic to anything. Humm, that's mighty helpful. The tests ruled out dust mites, mold, dogs, cats, eggs, wheat and 21 other potential things that I can't remember. The doctor said that we could either do the test again, this time with higher concentrations (which I think involved needles), or he could write me a couple prescriptions to get me through the fall and I'd be on my way. I'll take the needle-less option, thank you.

I went to fill my prescription and it was going to cost me $50 for a month's worth of allergy pills. That. Is. Insane. $50 to prevent me from sneezing for a month? I'm not so sure about that... I talked to the pharmacist and she suggested I try an over the counter pill. Claratin doesn't work from past experience so I tried something else. I forget the name right now. Basically though, it's a little bit of antihistamine mixed with meth. I took it and it definitely cured me of my allergy symptoms. No doubt about that. But it also gave me a raging case of cotton mouth and completely spun me out on pseudoephedrine. The next day I tried taking half a pill instead and it did exactly nothing in the way of helping my allergies, but still managed to give me dry mouth.

Now I have the choice of continuing to take the meth pills (and learn to enjoy the three hours a day that my eyes spin around inside my head) or I drop $50 on designer allergy meds and just get over the fact that I'm paying for some drug rep's Christmas vacation.

Decisions, decisions.