Newbie with some questions

[Fraeia]

Hello all.

I've been searching around for forums regarding allergies as I have some questions and would like to stay on top of what's new. I'm 30 years old and I live in Newfoundland, Canada.

Growing up I always knew that I was allergic to cats and some of the usual culprits like dust and stuff but never had many problems. No food allergies growing up. In the past 10 years I realized there was something happening when I ate apples and kiwi so I just stayed away from those things, thinking I was at least mildly allergic. In the past year or two i've had a couple more concerning reactions (mouth/face/tongue swelling) and didn't really know what caused it. I've also got some annoying stomach issues and being gluten free (doctor approved) seems to be helping, but to be honest i'm quite confused by it all. (I originally went gluten free to see if it would help the pain that was soon after diagnosed as gall bladder related, surgery took care of that but I decided to stick to the gluten free lifestyle and have been for a year now).

A month ago I was finally able to see an allergist. The first day I had food allergy testing, and it turns out that I am allergic to almonds and hazelnuts, and I also had a slight reaction to barley. I was surprised to see no allergies to any fruits, but when the allergist started talking about OAS it totally made sense to me. The next day I went in for environmental allergy testing and both arms went crazy, with about 30 different welts, and the allergist jokingly concluded that I need to live in a bubble and have a cockroach as a pet. Supposedly i'm allergic to pretty much everything, including grass and the tree pollen responsible for the OAS. The odd thing is though, I love being outdoors, and I can roll around in the grass, climb trees, go camping, and all that stuff, without any problems. Weird.

My main concern right now is my new-found nut allergy. Peanuts are fine, apparently, but i'm officially allergic to almonds and hazelnuts. Previous to the test I ate nutella all the time, so the hazelnuts came as a surprise (and major sadness, how am I going to live without nutella??), but I had a feeling about the almonds. I'm pretty sure it was the almonds that made my face swell up on two different occasions. It's been a month now since the test, and although i'm avoiding nutella and things that obviously have almonds, I haven't been diligently studying ingredient labels unless i'm looking for gluten. And i've been fine. I do wonder, though, if my allergies (if ingested in small doses) are doing the most damage in my stomach... is that possible? Are my nut allergies going to get worse over time?

Another concern is the possibility of getting the allergy shots. The allergist told me to call in the fall, to be put on a list to start next year in the spring. Apparently I just missed doing the shots this year. I'm not sure if this might be due to my location, they only do it once a year, or if that happens everywhere. I've been doing some research on the allergy shots, and know the basic information... but i'm not sure what questions to be asking. I'm pretty sure i'm going to go for it.

Well, sorry that was so long. Navigating a new message board can be daunting so if my questions would be better somewhere else i'll be happy to look there instead. Thanks for reading.

[SilverLining]

Hi and welcome to the forum.  I'll let someone with more knowledge about tests answer most of your questions, but I did want to respond to this,

Are my nut allergies going to get worse over time?

There's no real way of knowing.  My sister and I both developed food allergies as adults.  She outgrew hers.  Mine went from an inconvenience to anaphylaxis.

[GoingNuts]

Cockroaches are actually highly allergenic.  Sorry. 

Were the food tests via blood or SPT?  I'm asking because a positive blood test alone is not conclusive proof of an allergy.  Lots of people test positive via blood tests to things they eat all the time with no problem.

Hazelnuts are also closely related to birch, so a positive hazelnut test may actually be confounded by a birch allergy. 

Please know that I'm not telling you to disregard the results, only trying to get more information so you can go back and ask your MD more questions!

Welcome!

[rebekahc]

For food allergies, both skin testing and blood testing are less than 50% accurate for positive results and reaction history (or lack thereof) trumps testing every time.  If you ate Nutella all the time without reaction, then...  I'm surprised your allergist didn't offer to do an in office food challenge (especially to the hazelnuts) to confirm the test results.

OAS - Often people only have issues with the fruits related to pollens they're allergic to during high-pollen seasons, but some react all the time.  Sometimes peeling the fruit helps, or a short time in the microwave (not enough to cook it) and almost always cooking the fruit changes the protein structure enough to stop your body from mistaking it for a pollen.

[YouKnowWho]

TBH - If you were not reacting to a food prior to testing, I would ask for an in office food challenge to determine if it was a false positive vs a true allergen.

My older son is the king of false positives - he tests positive via skin prick and bloodwork to wheat, rye, barley, rice, corn, eggs, dairy, soy, peanuts and tree nuts.  But he only truly reacts to wheat, rye, barley and egg.

[Fraeia]

The test were done by skin prick, i've never had a blood test for allergies before.

Although I did eat nutella all the time, and cadberry hazelnuts bars as well, I do remember one time when I ate a cadberry hazelnut bar while in England and I did get a reaction. Not as bad as the almond reaction, in fact it kinda reminded me of an OAS reaction, but still noticeable. It lasted about 20 mins. I'm wondering if it's possible to have some kinda of cross-pollintation type reaction to the protein in the hazelnut bars made in Europe that would be killed by processing here. This stuff is so complicated.

I've never heard of an in office food challenge though. I wonder if a doctor can do that, or only an allergist? There is a shortage of allergists in this province and the ones that are here only hold clinics at certain times and they travel from the other side of the province, so it's hard to get an appointment.

And i've been doing some research into OAS... I was ecstatic when I found out I wasn't actually allergic to apples and could eat them if heated. Oddly enough I haven't actually tested it out yet though. I have some apples in the fridge and might heat them up tonight. I heard that putting some lemon juice on them might also kill the proteins that cause the allergy, has anyone tried this?

Thanks for the responses guys!

[Fraeia]

Also, here's a pic of my environmental allergy testing, in case anyone is interested in seeing. I find this fascinating in way. My food allergy testing didn't look bad at all, no redness, and only 3 welts.

[SilverLining]

I don't think the blood test is as popular in Canada as in the US.  Four people in my family, and allergists have only done the skin prick test, and that is at least five allergists.

I doubt anyone but an allergist does in-office food tests.  You could call the doctor's office and ask the receptionist if she knows if he does them at all, and how to arrange one.

[rebekahc]

Maybe the Cadbury bar in Europe was contaminated with almonds?

[GoingNuts]

Or maybe you had the Cadbury bar during a high time for birch pollen, so the X-reactivity came into play. 

My elder son had that issue, and we thought he had become allergic to tree nuts.  Nope - just ate a hazelnut cookie at the wrong time of year. 

BTW, your arms look like mine do with testing.    I feel your pain, or rather, your itch.