My Experience

After I had my tonsils and adenoids out I was still getting sinus infections and generally not feeling well, so I was referred to the Asthma, Allergy, and Sinus center.

There was not much prep except for a week before I stopped taking my antihistamine (Loratadine).

After we filled out release forms and things, my mom came with me as we went back, and they did a short asthma test where I had to breathe through a tube a couple times. Then they made me change into a paper shirt and lay on my stomach, and they had a tray with plastic sharp tips with different allergens on them. The nurse used a pen to make marks on my back, then she quickly went through all of the plastics, poking my back where she had made the pen marks. It was uncomfortable but not painful, and it was very fast. It was a bit sensitive when she got down to my lower back and the sides, but not painful.

She then left for a few minutes. This was when I was most uncomfortable. I could feel the pokes burning. I had to work hard not to scratch them. But when the doctors came back they said I wasn’t reacting to anything, so they gave it 10 more minutes and came back. I still wasn’t reacting, so they cleaned me up, and I sat up. They decided to try the intradermal allergy test.

This one hurt a tiny bit, but barely. I sat up for this one. The nurse used tiny syringes and injected the allergens right under the surface of my skin on my upper arm. She did about 11 of these. They didn’t hurt much at all, I barely noticed any pain. They had to leave for 10 minutes, and during that time it burned a little more than the skin pricks did. I was feeling impatient waiting for them to come back because I really wanted to scratch. When they finally came back, the doctor used a tiny ruler, measuring the spots that came up. I only reacted to 4, and they were molds. They cleaned me up again, and I was allowed to put my clothes back on.

I felt OK after, I was feeling a little dizzy though. But that could have just been my sinuses because they do that sometimes. The doctor discussed things for us to do in the house (we didn’t do any of them except for a dehumidifier) and he made a plan for me to be on allergy immunotherapy. Then we left with prescriptions for a rescue inhaler for asthma, and epinephrine (EpiPen) with orders to stay on my Loratadine. A month later they put me on Nasacort AQ when they started me on allergy shots.