Hello all.
I've been searching around for forums regarding allergies as I have some questions and would like to stay on top of what's new. I'm 30 years old and I live in Newfoundland, Canada.
Growing up I always knew that I was allergic to cats and some of the usual culprits like dust and stuff but never had many problems. No food allergies growing up. In the past 10 years I realized there was something happening when I ate apples and kiwi so I just stayed away from those things, thinking I was at least mildly allergic. In the past year or two i've had a couple more concerning reactions (mouth/face/tongue swelling) and didn't really know what caused it. I've also got some annoying stomach issues and being gluten free (doctor approved) seems to be helping, but to be honest i'm quite confused by it all. (I originally went gluten free to see if it would help the pain that was soon after diagnosed as gall bladder related, surgery took care of that but I decided to stick to the gluten free lifestyle and have been for a year now).
A month ago I was finally able to see an allergist. The first day I had food allergy testing, and it turns out that I am allergic to almonds and hazelnuts, and I also had a slight reaction to barley. I was surprised to see no allergies to any fruits, but when the allergist started talking about OAS it totally made sense to me. The next day I went in for environmental allergy testing and both arms went crazy, with about 30 different welts, and the allergist jokingly concluded that I need to live in a bubble and have a cockroach as a pet. Supposedly i'm allergic to pretty much everything, including grass and the tree pollen responsible for the OAS. The odd thing is though, I love being outdoors, and I can roll around in the grass, climb trees, go camping, and all that stuff, without any problems. Weird.
My main concern right now is my new-found nut allergy. Peanuts are fine, apparently, but i'm officially allergic to almonds and hazelnuts. Previous to the test I ate nutella all the time, so the hazelnuts came as a surprise (and major sadness, how am I going to live without nutella??), but I had a feeling about the almonds. I'm pretty sure it was the almonds that made my face swell up on two different occasions. It's been a month now since the test, and although i'm avoiding nutella and things that obviously have almonds, I haven't been diligently studying ingredient labels unless i'm looking for gluten. And i've been fine. I do wonder, though, if my allergies (if ingested in small doses) are doing the most damage in my stomach... is that possible? Are my nut allergies going to get worse over time?
Another concern is the possibility of getting the allergy shots. The allergist told me to call in the fall, to be put on a list to start next year in the spring. Apparently I just missed doing the shots this year. I'm not sure if this might be due to my location, they only do it once a year, or if that happens everywhere. I've been doing some research on the allergy shots, and know the basic information... but i'm not sure what questions to be asking. I'm pretty sure i'm going to go for it.
Well, sorry that was so long. Navigating a new message board can be daunting so if my questions would be better somewhere else i'll be happy to look there instead. Thanks for reading.