Thankful and Bummed...

Thankful and Bummed…

For those of you who didn’t know, I qualified for a medication 10 years ago, called Xolair. It is for my asthma and allergies. Won’t go into all the details of it, but it was an incredible blessing just to get on the medicine in the first place! It took so much testing and waiting and praying. I go to the doctor 1 time a month to get 2 shots. Like I said before, I have been doing this for almost 10 years now.

I met with my doctor back in November, and he wanted to take me off of it for several months so that we could do updated allergy testing. I have been doing so well on it, so the thought of getting off of it was so scary, but I do trust him, and I am thankful for having the same doctor all these years!

So we agreed April would be a good time to stop, and then get testing done in August, to see if my allergies have gotten any better, maybe even grown out of some! (I have to be off the medicine for awhile for it to fully get out of my system. It will skew the results of my allergy testing when on it, to make it seem like my allergies are essential not as severe).

So now we are in July.  For the first little while I felt good, really good! Continued with my workout routine, even upping my workouts, and overall just doing well! I  was pretty excited! I could tell that my nasal allergies started increasing about 3 weeks ago, so after about 2 months of being off of the Xolair, I started taking Zyrtec again (which I stopped taking well over a year ago), which has helped some. Last week I noticed my asthma starting to flair up, so I made sure I had an updated inhaler, because I honestly don’t use my inhaler, because I don’t need to.

And then it happened, what I was hoping wouldn’t happen, but it did. I had an allergic reaction last night. Thankfully it wasn’t bad, but benadryl and inhaler were used (so glad I got an updated one last week!). I am pretty sure it was a cross-contamination thing that I ate (at home), still trying to pin point it.  I had a reaction last year, but I knew that was a direct contact with eggs- not eating, but contaminated service, and again, didn’t require a hospital visit, just benadryl and a sleepy Aimee. J Other than last year and now this time, I haven’t had to take benedyl of have any type of reactions in a very long time (I’m talking years, which for someone who went to the hospital several times EACH year, this was life changing stuff!)

So what am I taking from all of this…

1.     Was this a bad reaction? Absolutely not! That for which I am very thankful! I have had way worse, but of course those hives sure are no fun!

2.     I was thankful before to have been on the Xolair, and I continue to be thankful for the medicine!

3.     I’m bummed… yep, I said it… bummed…I wasn’t thrilled about doing testing again, because it goes one of 2 ways- 1: you grew out of something 2: you didn’t grow out of anything. For me I have accepted it. I have accepted my allergies, I have accepted that this is part of who I am! It doesn’t define me, just part of me!  For me, it is opening old wounds… old wounds that I haven’t had to deal with in a long time. For anyone that suffers with allergies there will always be a part of them, hoping, praying, wishing, that they would all go away! But I accepted a long time ago, that mine wouldn’t, I would have these things for the rest of my life. And the thing about it is, that I am ok with it, I have been ok with that for a long time!  It is just the fact that I have to face it again, be reminded again… it hurts, and well, it is just a bummer.

So yes, I am incredibly thankful: for doctors, for modern medicine, for a support system. But I am just feeling a little bummed: I know this to shall pass, and I will continue to thrive, just how God made me to thrive, but He knows too… just bummed.

Will continue updating over the next couple of months as to how things are going!

Always Going,
Never Giving Up,
Trusting,
Loving,
Believing