allergy tests what to expect

[Ellie82]

Hi,

I am going to see an allergist in the next month. Can anyone advise what I should expect?

I have been referred by my gp, do you think they will do tests all on the same visit? will i leave with answers?

any pain involved? im sure there probably isnt! I expect i will have to wear my best underwear!lol!

Will they do the tests on my back?

thanks

[NYer]

Hi Ellie -
You can wear your old ripped underwear...they don't give you the shots in your tushy! But you should probably wear a short sleeved shirt.
What you can expect is:
The doctor will ask you why you're there and what kinds of reactions you 've had to any particular things.
They will take a plastic thing with a lot of little points on it (not sharp, just triangular plastic points). They dip it into a bunch of liquids (each point goes into a separate bottle of liquid). Each liquid is a different allergen (i.e., dust, cockroach poo, various molds, cat dander) (By the way, I'm not kidding about the cockroach poo....that's not exactly what they call it though)
They press the whole plastic thing against your arm. It doesn't hurt. The plastic points press into your skin and only go in about a layer or two of skin - no bleeding. Then they write on your arm with a pen so they know which dot is their "test" site. That's the one that will itch (not too badly, but it'll itch). That's histamine. That's what they use to compare your reactions from the other dots. You sit there for about 10-15 minutes and they come in to see your reactions.
If you don't have any positive reactions, then they repeat the process but what they do now is actually give you a separate injection for each allergen in your arm sort of near the first ones but moved over a little. This does hurt a little. They use a separate syringe (needle) for each shot and you get about a dozen of them. It's not a deep shot, feels like a pin prick and you get a drop of blood at each spot. It hurts more in certain spots (like closer to your wrist) than others, but just for a second.
Then you go through the same process of waiting 10-15 minutes for the results. If you have a positive reaction to one or more of them, they will itch and get red and puff up a little. Don't scratch! Read a book to distract yourself. One of them will definately itch (the test site).
When they come in, they will note the results and then take a cotton ball and put cortizone cream on it and wipe it all over your arm. This will stop the itching in a few minutes and make any puffiness go down.
They will tell you the results right there.
If you do have to go through the second procedure with the needles, it will leave little marks for a while. I have very fair skin and I scar easily. After they did that, I looked like a heroin addict for four days. I had about 24 dots all over the under part of my forearm. But they went away.
So that's it!
Hope this helped.

[Ellie82]

thanks that was really helpful and informative! I will look forward to the results with interest!

Thanks