Allergies and desensitization shots

[Guest guest]

Hey all,

I was just wondering if any of you are getting regular allergy

shots to desensitize your response to allergens?

When I was a teenager, I went for skin patch testing, and was

discovered to have allergies to molds, grasses, trees, smoke,

dust mites, dust, mushrooms and acidic foods such tomatoes,

citrus, and mustard..the list goes on. I started allergy shots

and continued to have them every week..then month, for about

three years. It really did seem to improve my allergies after the

first year.

When I went back to a new doctor last year to have the skin

testing redone, I had all of the same allergies and more. But he

refused to give me allergy shots, because I told him about my

history of juvenile arthritis. At that point, I was still

enjoying a 13 year remission, and couldn't understand why he

wouldn't give me shots. But he insisted that it wasn't a good

idea to " stir " up my immune system and possibly flare my

arthritis by injecting things I was allergic to into my body. Too

risky. Have you ever heard of such a thing?

Problem is, my food allergies have become quite bad in the past

year, and there isn't much I can eat without getting hives. Being

a vegetarian for the past year, I'm used to living on fruits and

vegetables, soy, organic milk and free range organic eggs. Well,

now I'm allergic/sensitive to apples, pears, peaches, most

berries and all citrus fruits, soy, mushrooms, tomatoes..and milk

seems to flare my joints (is this possible?) and eggs seem to

flare my eczema. I can't win!

And I work with animals as a career (and I'm not speaking of

co-workers here!), and my allergy to dander has made it a tad

difficult to get through the day without feeling stuffed up.

I would love to start allergy shots again to see if it will help

improve or rid of my allergies, but would appreciate your

opinions on it. Think it's a safe option for those with

auto-immune disorders?

Also..I have yet to start antibiotics and am curious as to

whether any of you have found that your allergies improved after

AP?

Thank you,

Kyla MacKenzie

Toronto, Canada

celticfox@...