Something New

Allergic to heat

Allergy test (everything whelphed because of the dermographism)

Dr played tic tac toe on my back

On Wednesday I went to the Allergist for an ongoing recurrence of hives and whelps on my skin. When I do simple things in life I notice that my skin whelps very easily. An example is when I play with my dog. He will jump from time to time and when his paws touch my skin I get a huge whelp on my arm. A normal person would receive a light scratch and mine looked like he viciously clawed me. I was beginning to wonder if I was developing a severe allergic reaction to dogs. Also one night Bryan rubbed my shoulders and arms and almost instantly I broke out in hives & whelps in the areas he massaged.
The dermatologist told me that I needed to get allergy tested so off to the doctor I went! The doctor had a med student and nurse in the room with me. He decided to play tic tac toe on my back...yes tic tac toe! So he reached in his jar and pulled out on of those dreaded sticks they gag you with to look at your throat. He drew the board, x's & o's, and began to talk to me. He immediately said its obvious that I have a skin condition. He put my shirt down and began to talk to me. About a minute passed he said I was prob a 2+ for the condition I have. About another minute after that I was a 4+ plus. I figured it was no big deal because in my head the scale was from 1-10 but....it was from 1-4! I felt pretty awful thinking ok so now something new is wrong with me but he kinda perked me up a bit! He asked me if he could take a picture of this because it was a perfect example of this condition. So he pulls out his iphone and began taking pictures. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry at this point haha! He texted me the photo above.
I was diagnosed with dermographic urticaria. I will be treated with shots (rush immunotherapy)and two one a day daily medications. Basically he says he can control this condition so hopefully it will be no concern to me in the near future. I will be taking Allegra in the morning and Zyrtec at night for the allergies. Basically I will go to him in 3 visits to receive 7 shots, 7-10 days between each visit, then begin weekly shots. The first three visits will be within the next 21-30 days and it will produce an outcome of what an average person gets in 6 months.
I have to say I wanted to tear up because I was so happy that I was finally getting treated for the hives. This has been a very uncomfortable experience for me. One night I even laid in bed with ice packs on me to numb the itching. I also found out that I am allergic to heat so that explains all of the hives I got at the pool this summer, in the bath, and hot tub. He tested me for 70+ other things and I do have other allergies but I think most of them are pretty common. He did blood work for the shellfish allergy since I have received hives with shrimp and if that comes back positive I will have to get some epinephrine pens.
Anyways I will post an update to see if this clears. He did say if this doesn't work then he will add another medication in the mix. I am thinking he will get this under control FAST! Hes a good Dr and has treated alot of my family for allergies so I know I am in good hands. Most importantly, Gods hands!