Last week I mentioned that I visited an allergy/asthma doctor, and this week I had a follow-up appointment to have full allergy test to narrow down what possible gave me my first ever asthma attack.

Before the nurse administered the tests, the doctor came in and told me he checked out my blog and found it strangely addicting.

Before I give you some details of this test, I want to point out how much I like this doctor’s office.  The exam room not only had a plasma with DirecTV, but you even get to control what channel you watch.  Every doctor’s office should have such a feature.

The allergy test started off small with a small little injection in each forearm, one with a histamine and the other acting as the control substance.  After that I had to lay on my back where she injected me about 54 times with little bits of this and that to see what I’m allergic to.  I had to wait 20 minutes to see the reaction on my stomach without trying to scrach the irritation.  At that time the nurse returned to measure each reaction with a small plastic ruler.

After she informed the doctor of my results, he wanted an additional test to be performed and she walked in with this trey.

But this time the injections were to go into my arm which meant I had to wait another 20 minutes for the allergic reaction to take effect.

It’s funny, I always thought I was allergic to cats, but it turns out I’m not; however, I’m slightly allergic to dogs.  But there’s no way on God’s green earth am I going to get rid of my little fur-children.

On a related note, I found out that people are not allergic to the hair of cats and dogs, but to a protein found in their saliva, dander (dead skin flakes), and urine.

I’m most allergic to grass, just about all kinds.  But one thing that I’m really allergic to is mountain cedar which explains why North Texas is tough on those with allergies.  North Texas of course has common vegetation that pollenates in the spring, but mountain cedar pollenates from December to the end of February and thus provides continuous frustration with allergy sufferers.  On the night of my asthma attack mountain cedar was very high and it was very windy.