I agree with CM. I hope you find a great allergist. And I could be wrong but I think you can get RAST tested without going off meds. Our doc is not big on RAST and does skin usually but I think that's the case. Testing is not the be all and end all but it can be helpful. But it isn't necessary. If you walked into most allergists and described your past reactions they would give you a script for epis and emergency plan.
I can't remember your whole story but if you are having some mystery reactions testing via RAST could help you figure out the cause and so could in office challenges.
I would want the very best allergist I could get if I were you. Best wishes!
No mystery reactions, thank goodness. It's almonds. Every once in a while I think I get dinged with cross-contamination but that is all. We had almond flour EVERYWHERE in the kitchen, all over everything, so I'd be surprised not to have any issues with that.
I gave myself an oral food challenge by eating a single almond the day after this reaction [DO NOT EVER DO THIS] while I was still pumped full of steroids and planning on having almonds for dessert. At that point I was not sure what happened and thought maybe some sausage had some cross-contamination issues. I had an idea it might have also been the almond milk (worst case scenario, obviously, because a new allergen for me) and my hunch was correct and I reacted strongly. A week after that I had another bad reaction from cross-contamination that resulted in massive hives. After that hives reaction, I started blowing up to anything containing almond oil so it was pretty clear. And I have eaten every other component of that meal since then with no problem. That's enough confirmation for me with no testing.
You might be right about RAST. When I had allergy testing before, I was negative on skin and the allergist told me I was 100% not allergic to shellfish and I could eat it all I wanted. His assistant had a devil of a scare when the RAST came back positive and she could not contact me. So, maybe the skin did not work because I was not compliant enough with the protocol, because I had had skin reactions to shellfish before.