Experimentation

I have allergies. Generally speaking, they're not so bad - mild seasonal allergies that, until this year, were hardly noticeable, as well as allergies to animals. Yes, this includes cats, and as you know from my prior posts, I have two cats. Call me crazy, but I'd heard that many people are able to develop an immunity to their own cats, even while remaining allergic to all others, and I was willing to take the chance, after seeing that it happened to my brother, after he married a woman with a cat. I figured if it didn't work, I'd know within a month or so, and I wouldn't be so attached to my babies as to make it unbearable to give them up if I had to. As luck (or fate, or whatever) would have it, it was a success. After two weeks of being horribly congested (and keeping the kittens out of my bedroom to give me an 8-hour respite from the dander-laden furballs), even while taking allergy medication, the allergic reaction seemed to disappear.

Or so I thought. A few weeks ago, I found myself the freeway at nearly midnight on a weeknight, driving roughly 15 miles to my parents' house just to use my mother's inhaler. That's right - an asthma attack. I've always had super-mild, barely noticeable, rarely manifested asthma, but I was never "officially" diagnosed, and I'd never had a need for an inhaler before. So the next day I got myself an appointment with my doctor. Naturally, the doctor told me I needed to kick my babies out of my bedroom, something I couldn't think of doing. Until I ended up using the inhaler 2 nights in a row - not a particularly severe event, and not one I probably couldn't have gotten through without the inhaler, but I just didn't want to risk the worsening of this condition. So last Friday night, I cleaned all the linens and removed the kittens from the bedroom. They haven't been back since (except the one who managed to sneak past me this morning before being promptly removed). I'm not entirely sure that removing them from the bedroom has made any difference, so I may decide to let them back in again at some point in the near future. This is just an experiment.

And one other experiment I may try - I've heard acupuncture can cure allergies, even asthma. I was hesitant at first, until my ordinarily skeptical physician uncle thought it was a worthwhile experiment. I'll let you know how it goes...