Health & Wellness Best Posts in Thread: Allergy test/specalist

Went to the ACE Hospital emergency room, the Dr. there DID take time to really look him over. Saw the other RX he'd been taking and said the doses were much to low for him (based on size and reaction).
So he said we are going to start over and my dad is on a regamine of Prednizone (as listed above) and a few other things. We'll call it American size doses. Thankfully we were able to get everything at a single pharmacy.
Also, since we are not 100% sure of what he reacted to, he is on a limited diet for a while.

Today he woke up and there is a mass improvement. Still praying it heals quickly and this can be a "fun" story, even if has taken 10 days out of their trip.

 

Pleased to know there is an improvement.

I supply the information below as a general (but brief) guideline on issues of allergies BUT obviously a patient would take note of what a qualified doctor says.

I once had a reaction about 50 years ago to taking a cough mixture - my body instantly came out in hives. I tested this by taking some more the next day and had the same reaction. That was NOT necessarily a good idea as can be read below. One ingredient was coal tar and I have avoided it ever since.

So, why should I have been more wary about taking the medicine again the next day? As many will know, a reaction to something taken into the body (which is termed an antigen) can become greater in time if faced with the same antigen again - and even could result in anaphylactic shock (which can be from very serious to fatal).

So if the antigen causing the reaction is unknown, it is necessary to be cautious when re-introducing it. Skin tests are usually done for allergies but I am not sure how available that would be here. An alternative is to stop all contact with the suspected antigens and re-introduce them one by one to see if there is a reaction. This is a slow process and also has dangers - as we know from reading about people with nut allergies, who can succumb from even the smallest amount. Re-introducing them usually means ingesting them and so they are now inside the body (unlike a skin test where they are on the surface) and that is the danger.

Common food allergies (there are, of course, allergic reactions to many other things, not only ingested foods, from cosmetics to ingredients within medicines to plants (by just touching)) include shellfish and fish and I would be suspicious of those in people who are new to a country and so new to specific varieties of them. But there are also new fruits, vegetables and other products, so it is not easy to know what is a cause. There may also be a use of medical products not used before (or a different brand used previously), e.g. mosquito repellent. Also, there could be a reaction to a bite from an insect, spider or any other animal (swimming in the sea may result in a bite that is not immediately detected). Many allergies can suddenly develop in adults.

Often it becomes a detective story without clear evidence and too many suspects - which sometimes skin tests can assist with.

But, as I said above, care needs to be taken if someone appears to have an allergic reaction (even if the first one is only observed as a rash) as it may lead to something greater. This is where medical advice from a SPECIALIST can be very important and the specialist may even suggest the patient carries an epinephrine pen (as mentioned by @cabb) as this is adrenaline and counters the effects of anaphylaxis. Adrenaline, as many will know, is the chemical naturally produced in the body in the 'fight or flight' reaction.

So concerned am I about anaphylactic shock (and the urgency in needing treatment) that when stung by about 30 or more wasps in my garden, I got my wife to immediately open our drive gates and turn our car to face outwards - because seconds can count. So something to be aware of, even though rare. The common symptoms are shortness of breath, hives, paleness - but I always say that the best symptoms to be aware of for any condition are things which are unusual or different.