I don't haz allergiez?

[mdlbear]

Went in for an appointment with an allergist this morning, and a skin test. Basically all negative for environmental allergens; they'll do a more sensitive test a week from tomorrow.

I did, however, get a lot of useful information: how to properly apply nose spray (the nostril opposite the hand holding the sprayer, so as to avoid spraying onto the septum) and the fact that my itchy legs are probably eczema rather than an allergy (with a prescription for a cream I can use on them that's more effective than 1% hydrocortisone).

Plus the fact that my history of TIAs makes me a bad risk for desensitization shots. But it looks like I might not be needing those anyway.

Comments

[mbumby.livejournal.com]

I was wondering from your description if it was eczema. I have "winter eczema" which means "gosh, we don't know what it really is" as I understand.

Very powerful steroidal cream applied topically helps. Weaker creams do zip.

Then a friend and coworker told me about "MSM" -- a compound often found in/with glucosamine -- it's primary application is joint health -- but it has a side effect of clearing up eczema. (I had a LARGE patch on my leg that wasn't responding to anything. At that point I would have sacrificed a chicken and drunk it's blood if someone told me it would have helped. It took about 2 years, but is completely gone now.)

I stopped taking it for a while because *something* had given me a metallic taste in my mouth, and my MD suggested that even though I'd taken 200 pills (from this batch -- I don't think I've been able to buy the same brand at Sam's club 2 times in a row -- this was the 4th different one) before I noted it, it could well be the cause. Over the next few months the metal diminished... but some eczema where I couldn't really apply the cream got so bad that I figured that taste be damned, I was going back on the drugs, and did. Fairly quickly things skin-wise improved.