Have a plan.
First and foremost, calm your nerves. Realizing that you have an anaphylactic allergy can be very unnerving... If you allow it to, it will unravel the fabric of your being... But you're much stronger than that... How do I know? Well, all humans are 10,000% resilient -- everyone knows that. The only thing we can't do is regenerate limbs. Yet.
Once you've recomposed,
1. Do some research to identify at least three respected physicians specializing in allergies (most likely allergists or allergy immunologists). Identify a minimum of three so that you can
a) get a few opinions,
b) compare their answers and proposed approaches, and
c) pick the specialist with whom you feel most comfortable. This could be a long term relationship (if you've ever been married, you know what that means -- if not, there's time). Choose wisely.
2. Before you meet with your short list of specialists, prepare an allergy dossier. It should include information that will help the physician(s) piece together your history to lead to an accurate diagnosis (emphasis on "accurate" -- an inaccurate diagnosis can be as harmful as no diagnosis at all). When putting together my dossier, I started by focusing on supplying the answers to the following questions:
a) What medical records do you have in support of the anaphylactic event you experienced? What other allergy records do you have? Incorporate them into the dossier.
b) What other known allergies do you have?
c) What known allergies exist in your family?
d) What activities were you engaged in immediately before the anaphylactic event? What were you engaged in immediately after? How did you feel?
e) At the time of the event, was there a period of time when the reaction symptoms subsided, only to be reactivated later on? If yes, approximately how much time elapsed in between the initial reaction and the second (latent) reaction?
f) Create a food diary listing everything you ate on the day of the event. Do you have any idea what caused the reaction? Think back -- had you ever felt unusual when you had eaten these things before? "Unusual" could mean numerous things... Perhaps you had an unexplained feeling of anxiety, an unusual rise in body temperature, hives, difficulty breathing, itching/swelling in the mouth or intestinal distress that had escaped your notice until now.
g) Prepare a list of questions for the doctor -- it is your body, and you have the right to understand how it is functioning and why it is functioning this way.
h) Research the physicians on the internet. Make sure that they are credentialed and associated with reputable hospitals. Read patient reviews -- be sure to read through the most negative reviews, in addition to the positive ones. Extremes could be outliers/the work of those with agendas; however, reading both the good and the bad will help you get a more balanced idea of what it might be like interacting with the physicians.
Alpha. Bravo. Charlie. Now it's time to execute the plan.
First and foremost, calm your nerves. Realizing that you have an anaphylactic allergy can be very unnerving... If you allow it to, it will unravel the fabric of your being... But you're much stronger than that... How do I know? Well, all humans are 10,000% resilient -- everyone knows that. The only thing we can't do is regenerate limbs. Yet.
Once you've recomposed,
1. Do some research to identify at least three respected physicians specializing in allergies (most likely allergists or allergy immunologists). Identify a minimum of three so that you can
a) get a few opinions,
b) compare their answers and proposed approaches, and
c) pick the specialist with whom you feel most comfortable. This could be a long term relationship (if you've ever been married, you know what that means -- if not, there's time). Choose wisely.
2. Before you meet with your short list of specialists, prepare an allergy dossier. It should include information that will help the physician(s) piece together your history to lead to an accurate diagnosis (emphasis on "accurate" -- an inaccurate diagnosis can be as harmful as no diagnosis at all). When putting together my dossier, I started by focusing on supplying the answers to the following questions:
a) What medical records do you have in support of the anaphylactic event you experienced? What other allergy records do you have? Incorporate them into the dossier.
b) What other known allergies do you have?
c) What known allergies exist in your family?
d) What activities were you engaged in immediately before the anaphylactic event? What were you engaged in immediately after? How did you feel?
e) At the time of the event, was there a period of time when the reaction symptoms subsided, only to be reactivated later on? If yes, approximately how much time elapsed in between the initial reaction and the second (latent) reaction?
f) Create a food diary listing everything you ate on the day of the event. Do you have any idea what caused the reaction? Think back -- had you ever felt unusual when you had eaten these things before? "Unusual" could mean numerous things... Perhaps you had an unexplained feeling of anxiety, an unusual rise in body temperature, hives, difficulty breathing, itching/swelling in the mouth or intestinal distress that had escaped your notice until now.
g) Prepare a list of questions for the doctor -- it is your body, and you have the right to understand how it is functioning and why it is functioning this way.
h) Research the physicians on the internet. Make sure that they are credentialed and associated with reputable hospitals. Read patient reviews -- be sure to read through the most negative reviews, in addition to the positive ones. Extremes could be outliers/the work of those with agendas; however, reading both the good and the bad will help you get a more balanced idea of what it might be like interacting with the physicians.
Alpha. Bravo. Charlie. Now it's time to execute the plan.
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