Look at me, being all healthy

I went to an allergist this morning, and so far, things have been very fun. My blood pressure is exceptional! Yay! My pulse? 60. At the doctor’s office. I am very, very calm.

My liver function test came back, and I scored on the low end of normal. Which means 1) I am not a drunk (nor do I have mono, hepatitis, or a number of other things) and 2) I can absolutely increase my gin intake. Which is the best news ever.

All of my blood is healthy and happy. (You want to see my test results? Let me know! Yeah, I’m talking to you, Mom.)

The less good news.

I apparently have the very controversial, and not yet medically recognized Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Syndrome. I may or may not have other allergies. The doctor was going to do a skin-scratch test, but in preparation he scratched me with a stick (kinda like a sharp tongue-depressor) and my skin got all raised & irritated (in fact, it still is, and it’s been over 5 hours), and apparently since I’m probably not allergic to tongue depressors, it’s more likely I have some long word condition that starts with “derma.” So, I got to do the blood tests! They needed 11 vials of blood. My body was reluctant – and it took two tries.

Also, I will be doing a pulmonary function lab, which sounds like a lot of fun. Apparently I have to breathe a lot – and that is something I’m very good at. A pro, you might say.

In the meantime, the doc didn’t have a lot of advice on Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Syndrome. He gave me an inhaler and an epi-pen, and I’m going to continue my quest to eliminate ALL chemicals from my house (the carpet needs to go very soon), and was wondering if anyone has advice on dishwasher detergents. Also, I know that vinegar & newspaper are great for cleaning windows (and I must clean windows soon), but I’m allergic to newsprint, so that doesn’t work. Any suggestions?

(Also, Crazy Aunt Purl has done some super posts lately on natural cleaning, and I bought some supplies yesterday.)

So – I’ll be sure to keep you updated when I get the call from the lab listing the 5,000 things to which I’m allergic. (The doc said the list would likely be too long, and to not panic…from there we do a fun experiment with elimination…and as long as gin isn’t on the list, we should be fine. I’m not holding out hope that cheese will stay on the ‘okay’ list. That’s a lie, I’m completely holding out hope that my new investment in lactaid will be the answer to all my dairy woes.) I know that the prospect of a 2-week wait for the allergy results may seem a bit daunting, but I’ll try to occupy your time with shoes. A new DSW opened in Portland yesterday. For the interest of the public, I will have to check it out as soon as my shopping moratorium ends at the end of the month.

I know – I’m such a giver.

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