Ariel Yining Loh: Allergy Testing and Office Potluck

*posted March 19

Blog Post for Feb 8th - 14th.

Anyway, it's been an interesting week, guys. I got an allergy test done Thursday (Feb 8) and had an office potluck (Feb 12). We chalked it up to it being a Valentine's Day related celebration, but nothing was Valentine's Day themed, so I'm pretty sure we just wanted food. Enjoy the updates.

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Allergy Testing

So if you don't already know, I'm not much of an outdoors person. Surprise.

Don't get me wrong, I LIKE seeing God's creation, but when you're as miserable outdoors as I am without the help of allergy medicines, you can understand why it's generally unpleasant for me to be outside. Autumn and Winter are literally the only times I can be outside and not be dying. Spring, as gorgeous as the flowers are, and Summer, as affiliated with "outdoors" as it is, are like a season of death for my respiratory functions. :(

I also have a worse reaction to just about any kind of bug bite compared to your average person, so...yeah. It's like, why make life worse for myself? I'm fine indoors and if I can watch my outdoorsy friends enjoy life outside and see their photos they bring back, I'm totally okay with that. :)

SO! In light of the fact that I'm still on my parents' health insurance for a few more months, I figured I might as well find out WHAT I'm actually allergic to. So that I could be better prepared in what to expect out of life, if nothing else.

I've met a few other friends who have allergies, but they were mostly food allergies. That said, I honestly had no idea what to expect. Also, I figured it'd be more interesting for me (reaction wise) if I didn't know what they'd do beforehand, so I didn't read up on anything prior to going.

Learned MANY things, guys. Lots of things. Let's go through this together, shall we?

The first of which is that I'm dermatographic. This means that you can literally WRITE on my skin. It's also evidently the reason why 1) I react to bug bites so badly, 2) I get eczema when I get too stressed out, and 3) why I bruise so easily.
The picture on the left here is from a giant X the allergist drew on my back with a plastic object with a rounded point. He pushed rather hard, grant you, but it was more of a "you're pushing pretty hard" instead of "ok, that hurts" kind of feeling. This is the result. Think of how scratches from cats have a tendency to swelling in a solid line and you get an idea of what this looked like on my back. Picture's intentionally blurred to spare you from the torture of my back pores in iPhone camera glory lol
It's also evidently a type of "chronic hives", which evidently means that I'm able to take up to 4 Zyrtec (or generic, whatever) for whatever reaction I get. This means that I can take 2 Zyrtec in the spring to counteract allergies if necessary, guys. This is a giant comfort for me and my miserable existence in the spring.

Then came the main allergy test. They pull a thing of 20 mini needle-ish items that are dipped in concentrated liquid versions of things that people are allergic to, including cats, dogs, mold, 4 different classes of tree pollen, etc. And then they essentially prick you in the arm with all of them.

They also have a "worst case scenario" one called Histamine (allergy meds are anti-histamines, so that makes sense) and a "control" one that I can't remember the name of. Basically, H (on my right arm, closest to my elbow) should have the worst reaction of anything on my arm and S (on my left arm, near the elbow) will swell enough for them to consider everything else on my arm that reaches that size as a "I'm not allergic" reaction.

Now that we're all on the same page and things make sense (sorta), here are photos lol

literally how I had to sit for 15 min, interesting and slightly uncomfortable to say the least.

5 minutes in, you can see that the histamine on my right arm is already freaking out

10 min in, we've got quite a few things happening, everything's definitely RED, but the right arm seems to have more stuff that's "growing" bigger

15 min in, my right arm looks like I just got bit by the mother of mosquitoes. Good Lord.

So, allergies are classified on a scale of 4, 1 being barely allergic (to the point that you really won't have much of a reaction unless you're practically eating, breathing, and sleeping it) and 4 being super allergic (think allergy shots every month, allergy meds every day, etc).

In conclusion...I'm allergic to: Ragweed (2), 2 classes of trees (3), corn pollen (2), and dust mites (3). It's been an interesting week and a half thus far, trying to remain mindful to keep my arms covered during the week so that I don't have people 1) asking me what happened to my arms or 2) assuming I did something...not good. lol

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Office Potluck

I could try to narrate something eloquent to discuss a potluck, but honestly?

Nah. without further ado, here's the food.