Most frustrating doctors appointment ever.

Spent three hours at the allergist's office this morning. She felt positive that it was a food allergy. So food allergy testing we did. I'm posting this for the googlers who want to know what to expect at the allergist. I couldn't find anyones experience when I searched.

The nurse came in with a rather large tray of needles. This made me nervous. I asked if it would hurt -- she said no. LIAR. She had me stretch out my arms and she drew a grid on the inside of them and numbered 1-50. Then she began pricking me with all the needles. Sure, it's not an 8 on the scale of pain, but being pricked 50 times on the sensitive skin of my inner arms is not something I would describe as pleasurable. Then she wiped off the excess liquid (from all the test substances) and told me to keep my arms stretched out for 15 minutes and not to touch or scratch. Now, I already was itching from the hives (the reason I was there) and then she goes and pricks me 50 times and tells me not to touch. I just laid my head down on the table and waited. ...and waited ... and waited.

Eventually she came back and used a little ruler to measure all 50 little pink dots. Nothing was positive. I asked her about number 2 which had formed a welt. That was the control histamine. Gee, thanks for giving me more things to scratch...

So no, doesn't look like Karen is allergic to any foods. It does, however, look like Karen is an obsessive compulsive junky considering she has a grid of track-marks up her arms.

So the allergist said it could be some infection somewhere in my body. So tomorrow I go for blood tests, urine analysis and sinus x-rays. These are really just to rule things out though. Apparently, in cases like this, they don't find a cause 85% of the time. In that case, all they can do is let it run its course and try to manage the symptoms. How long is its course you ask? The average is 18 months and it could just last forever. Wow, what WONDERFUL news!

Really, I thought medicine had come further than this. 85% of the time you can't figure it out? What the hell is that? I asked her what we do if the tests all come back fine. We do nothing. NOTHING. Are you kidding me? My eyes and throat are swelling closed and we do nothing and just let it run its course? Gee, I'm so glad everyone convinced me to go to the allergist!

She said she sees this happen to a lot of people who had recent surgery. She said there's just some trauma in the body and all you can do is let it run its course. I swear to god this all sounded like medical advice I would give someone. I honestly thought medicine was WAY further along than this. "Well there's something wrong with you somewhere because of something and all we can do is let it run it's course and manage your symptoms."

So, on to managing symptoms. Zyrtec and Zantec each twice a day and Benadryl as needed -- oh, and epipens, but I already have those. And dude, nurse lady was so weird. I told her I already had epipens and that the doctor had already shown me how to use them. She didn't believe me! She went and got one of the testers and said "show me." Ok...

So anyway, I left with some prescriptions and frustration. On my way home I dropped off said prescriptions and asked how much they would be. THEY WERE ALMOST FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS (that's $500.00)! There are not enough ways for me to say no. No no no no no no no. Cancel it.

I know anyone who reads this blog is already aware that I pay $250 dollars a month for Effexor, and really I should still be on Klonopin but I couldn't afford all the prescriptions so that stopped getting bought. Now you want to make my prescriptions SEVEN HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS (that's $750.00) a month? Christ no! If that is the case then I'm just gonna have to go on a prescription fast and be a very anxious suicidal itchy person with swollen eyes and trouble breathing.

Am I allowed to ask what the hell this doctor was thinking? Was she just unaware of the PRICE of this shit? I mean you may be a doctor -- but I'm not. Some of us are what is known as "poor." I will not even consider buying those prescriptions -- the only reason I'm willing to pay so much for Effexor is because it has the very obvious effect of keeping me from killing myself -- and even with that, I still question if it's worth the price every single time I get it refilled. So after some back and forth with the (very nice) pharmacist, they said they would call the doctor and get her to change it. She had prescribed me the brand name liquids, they're gonna call and ask if they will change that to tablets that I can just crush up. Now, I told that doctor that I could crush up tablets because she asked me if I could take pills and I specifically said no but that I could crush up tablets. If they don't change it, then I'm just not getting it. Period.

So now I'm just left frustrated and still not knowing what is causing me to have this reaction and I have much less hope of figuring it out. Life sucks.

Oh yeah, and I was looking at the test orders (they give me the paper work, I go find someone to do the tests) and they were totally wrong. First, I asked the doctor why urine test wasn't on there because she had told me I needed that. She said it should be and she corrected the form. Then I was looking over it and I asked her if she could explain to me what these tests were for. As, I've said many a time, I don't know crap about anything medical. So she looked over the sheet with me and began to explain what they were -- only she realized that the whole form was almost completely wrong. It had tests I didn't need and was missing lots of tests I did need. What the hell? Doesn't anyone even glance over these things to make sure they are correct? I know errors happen, but come on -- the only reason anyone caught this was because I'm the one who asked her to look over it and explain it to me. Everything about this appointment totally frustrated me.