Published on 12, July, 2020
Does anyone else have loads of allergies? I've got loads, and intollerances too, although to be honest I'm not sure theres always that much of a difference. I'm allergic to penecillin, flagyl, NSAIDS, aspirin, opiates, latex amoung the most serious, with latex the allergy is so bad if I have to have an operation I have to have a theatre specially cleaned for me. Even being touched for 30 seconds with a glove brings me up in red bumps. I seem to be allergic to PEGs which are in everything from laundry products to make-up, I spend a fortune on cleaning products because I can't use ordinary ones, likewise body care products, I wish I could go to Lidl and buy thier own brand toothpaste for 79p like everybody else, instead of a fiver on one that has none of the stuff that I'm allergic too. I can't go swimming and can't swim because I'm allergic to chlorine, other people perfumes are a nightmare. I dont' go out to eat or get takeaways because of allergies and intollerances. The allergies probably effect my life more than all the other health conditions combined, certainly the quality of life. I'm told that this is something common amoung women with autism, but it rarely comes up in anything I read about autism, I originally found the information about allergies and autism in information I was reading from a study in Australia, they seem much more clued up than we are. Another thing I can't take are anit-histamines, they either don't work at all or make me lactate which is a 1 in 10,000 side effect, if I really needed them because I was bitten by a snake or something then I would have them, but I can't use them on an everyday basis.
Doctors, dentists and hospitals all totally freak out when they realise how many thing I'm allergic too and I'm sure many think I'm making it up, Ive had several rows with people becase of it, I've been delisted by dentists and there have been some doctors who've given me penecillin even though they know I'm allergic, I always double check with the dispensing pharmacist when I get something from a new doctor. At my GP's surgery I'm known as The Woman Who's Allergic To Everything, but at least they take me seriously and do what they can to help me with meds.
Is anyone else so allergy prone and what do you do about it? Do you get much help and support for it?
TheCatWoman said:Is anyone else so allergy prone and what do you do about it?
My wife had a similar wide range of allergies for about 2 decades but had a handful of spells when they mostly stopped being an issue.
It turned out that anxiety was puting her immune system into high alert mode and once that was active, she was allergic to loads of stuff - not to the level you have but it still made loads of things quite painful for everyday life for her. It would just take one allergic response to trigger a whole raft of others that were not an issue before (eg taking antibiotiocs)
In the end we were able to drop out of the rat race and take time to really chill for a few years and this brought the anxiety down and had plenty of time to get fit, have a quality of life and move somewhere warm (Brazil). Now we know what the main allergic triggers are (these are masked when she is in high alert mode as she was allergic to almost everything) and we know to avoid these so the subsequent cascade reaction is never activated.
Things like carpets, food additives in the UK, central heating and soft furnishings are big sources of ongoing bad stimulants for allergies so getting away from all these has made life so much better.