I had today off for my appointment with the allergist. They did the allergy tests and here are the things they found that I'm allergic to: dust mites (this was apparently the thing I reacted most strongly to), two types of grasses, two types of outdoor mold, cats (which I already knew), and to a lesser extent, dogs. I'll be starting a weekly regime of allergy shots soon and I've been given a list of things to do in the house to help. Things like getting rid of any rugs too big to throw in the washer with hot water, buying a mattress and pillow covers for the bed (and instructions to wash all bedding in hot water weekly), giving the dogs more baths, and keeping the dogs off the bed and (this will be hard) out of the bedroom. Eventually the immunotherapy shots should either cure (or really improve) my allergies, but it's going to take years.
The real surprise I got at the doctor was when he tested me for asthma. Years ago, I was told I had "mild, intermittent" asthma that flared up along with my seasonal allergies. Well, today I found out that there's nothing mild or intermittent about it. My lung function when I first arrived at the office this morning was only 55% of what it should have been! After giving me some medicine via inhaler they only got it up to about 70%. No wonder I've been feeling bad for months now! Then there's my eczema. It's going through another bad flare and they believe there's also some infection going on with it. So that's another issue we're going to have to tackle.
The doctor assured me that we're going to get all this stuff under control and soon I'll be feeling much, much better. He comes very highly recommended locally, and my visit today went well, so I think I'm finally on the right track to get my health under control. I hope so. The asthma thing is scary.
After I finished at the doctor, I had to go by the dentist. Last Friday afternoon before I left work, I grabbed a piece of hard candy from the bowl in the front office, and when I bit down on it and felt (and heard) a loud crack. I thought, "Uh oh."
Uh oh was right, a crown had come off one of my molars. On a Friday afternoon with no hope of getting seen until today. So I carefully put the crown back on the tooth, and it fit down snugly with no problem. It felt fine, so silly me, I decided it wasn't going to be a big deal, that I could just breeze into the dentist's office and get it glued back down again. WRONG!
They did an x-ray and found that I'm once again the victim of the horrendous dental care I got a few years ago at another practice. This particular crown was attached to filling material, not the actual tooth, and a crack had formed and decay got inside. It was shoddy dental work, no question about it. Now I have to have a whole new crown, to the tune of $860. And that's after my insurance pays half! (It's going to be the second time I pay for a crown on it). They wanted to do the work today, but I just couldn't handle that on top of everything else. We scheduled it for the first week of October, when I'll be off work for fall break.
What a depressing day it's been.
