Have been called a liar, drunk and hypochondriac by many doctors. I averaged 3-4 near fatal anaphylaxis attacks per year for about 20 years.
An emergency room doc in suggested avoiding the combination of exercise, full stomach, stress, wine, and exposure to dust. Since all my attacks occurred around holidays that kind of made sense. So for the next twenty years I took Benadryl around the holidays and never exercised with a full stomach. I also gave up red wine.
I did find an allergist at that time who was determined to find out what was going on. He put me on allergy shots for dust, mold. I seemed to be doing better until this Thanksgiving. Had an episode at 6:00pm which never happened before. All previous attacks occurred between 12-2:00 AM.
Called the allergist from 20 years ago and he was so excited to hear from me. "Get in here right away! I know what it is!!!" He asked me what I had for lunch that day- a small piece of beef stroganoff and a salad.
There it was! Blood work confirmed alpha gal. Lucky for me that I was never a fan of red meat anyway. Only ate it around the holidays! It may be that I was infected twice. Recovered for 20 years and then reinfected.
I am a dog owner, outdoorsy person so ticks are always a problem and getting worse every season.
Was so glad to get a diagnosis!
Nearly dying 3-4 times a year and being chastised for it by the medical profession was not easy.
I actually started having the anaphylaxis episodes in the mid 70's. So it was over 40 years ago that it began.
Ticks and chiggers were everywhere as we were building a lake cabin in the woods. We also had dogs. I remember being highly sensitive to chigger bites but also had lots of tick bites.
No comments:
Post a Comment