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Needing to find something to help

Autoimmune Diseases | Last Active: Oct 26 8:01am | Replies (15)

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@slkanowitz

Your situation sounds like the ultimate challenge but you have found some solutions that work!
I’ve had much better success being a pest and calling the clinic frequently for a cancellation rather than waiting for them to call me off the list. Office staff will usually give you an available appointment while they have you on the phone. There are three kinds of antihistamines that might be helpful when you need them. Histamine one blockers are like Benadryl or the nondrowsy Claritin and Allegra. That’s usually the first line of defense. The second group are histamine two blockers, which are usually used for excess acid in the stomach such as Pepcid, but they potentiate histamine one blockers. The third type is, antihistamines that help with motion sickness like Dramamine or Bonine. Those would be particularly useful for the vestibular symptoms that might be triggered with the boat rocking. All three can be taken together to get the most benefit. Nasal decongestants like Sudafed and nasal steroid sprays like Flonase can open up the eustachian tubes. I always use the generic equivalents to lower cost.
Your severe arthritis does suggest a possible autoimmune disease, as well as allergies. I am glad you are pursuing that idea at a university clinic setting!
You have gotten excellent suggestions here and I so hope that these pay off for you!

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Replies to "Your situation sounds like the ultimate challenge but you have found some solutions that work! I’ve..."

So fr the antihistamines and meds. I was on daily Flonase and Sudafed in conjunction with Zyrtec, this offered little to no relief. I have tried aleve and other meds and they never seemed to help much. For the nausea I have found that a certain "herbal" remedy was the only effective solution at times even when I was taking the sublingual medicine (sorry I can't recall the name but it is the most common out there). The allergists and I believe that all these problems are being caused by an autoimmune problem but to paraphrase him there is no treatment currently available so there is nothing that can be done until more research is available. When I visit other specialists for immunology or rheumatology they just tell me to keep doing what I am doing which is nearly completely avoiding the allergens. The rheumatologists at the Spectrum Health clinic were not helpful though. I was provided with the product information for four medications and instructed to pick one. I tried half of them and they caused significant side effects such as skin burning and pealing. A third had nearly killed my sister, and the fourth was terrifying and even taking it for a short time was potentially going to cause decades of side effects. The rheumatologist had stated to me that these were "the only" medications available. They refused to do any form of testing or examinations, which made no sense to me.