Dr. Beverly Hills: The third time's NOT a charm

My appointment with the alternate allergist I'd found got cancelled at the last minute last Friday, so I decided to keep my appointment with Dr. Beverly Hills today. I could not wait to hear his "big plan for me" - the suspense killed!

Honestly I shouldn't have bothered.

Highlights:

• Another 30-40 minute wait in the lobby


• 15 minutes with the Dr.--interrupted twice for him to go do other stuff


• He tells me his diet plan--it's basically slightly less restrictive than what I'm already doing


• And yet--the 19 days of my diet I've already done don't count because I didn't fill out his fancy diet form--which is basically a grid where you fill in the date and a score from 0-10 of how your symptoms are that day. Note that he just handed me this within a stack of other papers--did not explain it in any way.


• Other paper #1: A list of things that contain wheat such as "wheat flour, wheat grass, couscous, and seminola [sic]" which I can only assume is a mistyped "semolina". Groundbreaking.


• Other paper #2: A referral to a local allergy-friendly bakery (yay!). I am so excited about this that I look them up during one of the times he leaves the room. Turns out they bake with rice flour. Which I'm allergic to. Which we had discussed two seconds before. How helpful.
  


• I was not able to get many questions in before he booked it out of there, but I did get a chance to ask about soy lecithin and soy oil--both of which reputable sites and books I'd read say have a very small chance of causing allergic reaction because they only contain traces of protein. Soy oil is the only thing holding me back from all the Chipotle Bols I can eat, and soy lecithin is in most chocolate, so you can see how this is of the utmost importance.
  
  Dr. Beverly Hills tells me I still have to avoid those. But then in practically the next breath he says he has no problem with me eating egg yolks after I separate them from the white part I'm allergic to. Now I probably just looked like a very good egg separator to him (which I am), but even with my mad skills, I'm pretty sure those yolks still contain at least traces of egg white.

Needless to say, Dr. BeverlyHills and I are not meant to be. The only question now is whether to pick up with another allergist now, or just to go it alone for a bit and work the plan of elimination followed by challenges. Oh, and whether to write about my experience on Yelp, knowing they'd be able to connect it to me if they saw it.

On the bright side, I finally found the right streets to use to get to the westside in the morning!

Environmental Allergen Results

Plus a link to a self-portrait of the test on my back if you're into that sort of thing. (you're not allowed to move during these things, but I got a decent shot over my shoulder with the iPhone front-facing camera).

I reacted to 49 of the 73 things we tested today. Also, my reactions appear in a mere 5 minutes, instead of the normal 15. I am an allergy over-achiever.

From Eat Me Allergies

Dr. Beverly Hills, Part Deux

Another day, another scanned report of stuff I'm allergic to (this time in pink!)

Turns out I'm allergic to all grasses, most weeds and trees and molds, and most things in my environment :) Reactions I found particularly entertaining--palm trees (hello LA), flaxseed (goodbye, my planned egg replacer), and tumbleweeds (is there any climate I'm not allergic to?)

(actually, the quote of the day from Dr. BH was "well, you could always move to Alaska and be Sarah Palin's neighbor")

Generic dog and car hair were both mild 2A reactions, and I did not react to my dog Toby's hair at all in the scratch test. But then Dr. BH's nurse injected some of that fur intradermally (which burns like hell for 10 seconds, btw), and I did react to that.

I don't understand what reacting to one test but not the other means--largely because Dr. BH didn't bother to make the time today to sit down with me and go over everything (despite the fact that when we scheduled today's appointment, that was part of the planned activities). So I left with another heavily-highlighted sheet and a list I'd prepared of questions (still unanswered). And a vague command not to start the diet yet because he wants to discuss it with me (this after I told him I had already started nearly 2 weeks ago).

Not impressed. Between driving (45 mins to an hour each way) and cooling my heels in his waiting room (45 mins to an hour each time), these appointments eat up huge chunks of my day--even before I actually interact with someone. I feel disrespected.

The bill also came through for my first appointment today. $295 billed to insurance for "consultation" and another $495 for lab tests. (Only $40 out of pocket for me--thanks Cigna)

If I see today's bill and it's got that $295 charge on it, I will LOSE. MY. MIND.

My photocopied tests and I will be visiting another allergist whose office is a bit closer for a second (but actually first) opinion this Friday.

Collecting saliva from a chihuahua

That's my big plan for tonight.

Got a hot date tomorrow with Dr. Beverly Hills Allergist, and I'm supposed to come with a syringe-full of Toby saliva and a thimble-sized chunk of Toby hair in tow. I have a feeling these samples will be made into a tincture which can be injected into my back to see how much I swell. Good times.

It's an interesting thought experiment though. What happens if I'm violently allergic to my dog?

I'm 100% sure that in my case nothing would change. Maybe I'd wash him more, change the sheets more often, things like that. But there's no way this dog is going anywhere. Probably not even out of the bed at night. He brings too much joy to my life, and he'd be absolutely sullen if he weren't allowed to snuggle with me at night. I couldn't do that to him (nor would I want to). How could I resist this face?



But I suppose it's still worth knowing--if not for this dog than for dog decisions in the future.

Here's hoping I'm only allergic to cats!

Wait, I have food allergies?

Fast forward to my appointment with my fancy Beverly Hills allergist ($15 worth of valet parking!).

I tell him about my seasonal allergies, and that based on my google-doctoring I worry I may have a sulfite allergy or sensitivity (which would explain the dried fruit, matches, and occasional shrimp reactions). I confidently state that I really don't think I have any food allergies, but Dr. wants to do a full food panel anyway.

72 pricks and 10 minutes later, the doctor comes back, audibly gasps, and the nurse makes a joke about needing to wire my jaw shut. It seems I was wrong about not having any food reactions. Here's the sheet I left with, detailing my reactions:

From Eat Me Allergies

How daunting is that right column? Wheat! Soy! Sesame! Shrimp! Potatoes! Rice! Vanilla! Not to mention egg whites, white grapes (wine!) and my personal saddest: Crab. All this in addition to the sulfites suspects, which we can't test for: most notably wine and beer.

My immediate reaction: This is a joke right? I'm nearly 30, I've never considered myself a person with food allergies, I'm living my life just fine aside from a few seasonal allergies and you're telling me I'm allergic to wheat, eggs, soy, etc. and I just never knew it?!

Dr. Allergist says his recommendation will be to eliminate every highlighted food on this list for 30 days. Says most patients who do this come back at the end feeling amazing, and totally willing to live without this stuff forever (but that if I can't, we can try adding things back one at a time to see what I can tolerate).

I leave the doctor with an appointment to come back in a few weeks with some of my dog's saliva and hair for a full environmental allergies panel and some nutrition counseling.

Whoa.