Allergies: Seasonal and Food

When we moved to Tennessee 19 years ago,  my oldest daughter started getting sick within a couple months.   I am telling you this child was constantly sick. She would come to me with these awful headaches.  I kept talking her to the doctor and they had no clue what was going on. Finally one of the doctors in the office asked if she’d been tested for allergies.   I was stunned. I had moved from California and never really experienced allergy issues. As a result, I had no idea what they were talking about. The only allergies I really knew about at that point were allergies such as: peanut allergies or food allergies.    This doctor was talking about what is referred to as seasonal allergies. There are lots of physicians that can help with this type of testing such as Dr. Summit Shah.

So off to the allergy specialist we went.  They set her up for the allergy skin test, which I had no idea was going to be such an event!   They poked this child with tons and tons of needless that contained different known allergens to see how she would respond to them.   We found out at the end of this testing that she was allergic to just about everything that I had moved her into. She was allergic to grass, pollen, dust, and several more.  I felt awful that I had made her go through months of suffering from this without helping her.

At that point after talking with the doctors and coming up with a treatment plan I set her up for twice a week shots.   We had to do those shots for several years , but the good news is it did lessen her allergies. I won’t say she was cured, however she doesn’t have as strong a reaction to the allergens as she used to.  She does still have bouts that she deals with as the Fall and Spring seasons roll around.

I have since learned in the years that I have lived here, that seasonal allergies are a huge issue for people that live in the South and Midwest areas.  Most people deal with it by taking regular allergy medication but occasionally they are severe enough that you have to seek out an allergy specialist to get further treatment like we did.

My children are all grown now and are having their own children.  So far, out of 6 grandchildren we have only had 3 of them that are now dealing with seasonal allergies.  The good news is that now I am educated enough about the issue that I know how to take care of it. In addition to that my children grew up here, so they are very aware of what to do.  Several of the grandchildren are still under the age of two and so far we haven’t noticed any food allergy issues.  Yet we are staying aware of the signs and symptoms for them.

I wonder how many people reading this post have also dealt with allergies in your family?   Let me know by commenting below! I love getting feedback from my followers!!