Completed: 39. Allergy Test
This seems like a very typical scenario for Virginia residents: As a child, I never had allergies, but as I’ve gotten older, something changed. In my college years, my eyes began to frequently itch and burn and I’m in a constant battle with post nasal drip (I’m no doctor, but in my experience the post nasal drip is the reason why I get frequent sinus infections). I’ve taken just about every over-the-counter medication available (Flonase, Claritin, Allegra, etc.), but none of them seem to fully do the job.
I got fed up with my discomfort and decided that 2015 was the year I’d figure out what exactly I’m allergic to. I made an appointment for a standard allergy blood test. I felt pretty confident I would discover my allergen. They took three small vials of blood and told me they would call me back within a week with results.
Four days later, I got a voicemail telling me they have my results. I call them back and they tell me that they didn’t find anything. NOTHING! You’ve got to be kidding me! I then asked the nurse if I should continue to take the OTC medicine and they told me, “If I think it helps with the symptoms then yes, continue taking it.” Huh?
Needless to say, I wasn’t satisfied with the results. Next step: look into the skin test, which seems to be much more in depth and hopefully I can find out what my body is reacting to.
The blood test didn’t show anything, but I guess it did rule things out. It wasn’t a total waste of time.
– Kris