Allergy Shots

I have recently begun weekly allergy shots to combat my severe seasonal allergies. This is a big commitment clearly, but I had finally reached a point where I said "enough is enough." The whole process takes about a year and I have to get two shots per week for the first four months. The next four months I get two shots every two weeks. The final four months, I get two shots every month.

You see, from April through June, I am literally a sneezing machine. My nose is always stuffy, and I end up spending a decent amount of cash every spring on tissues and medicine. It's borderline brutal for me to be out on the golf course during this time (and probably my playing partners), so my golf offseason tends to last from December into late June/early July. Obviously, this is no fun for me whatsoever, hence the injections.

After getting tested for all the different kinds of common allergies, it turns out that I'm very allergic to the following pollens: birch tree, oak tree, timothy grass, bermuda grass, and kentucky blue grass. I was told that there is a 90% success rate when allergy shots are used to combat grass and tree pollens. There is a much lower success rate for food, mold, dust, and animal related allergies.

So I took the leap. The doctor says that it will be a few months before I build a noticeable tolerance, so this season will likely be more of the same. That said, I am getting prescription nasal spray and allergy pills as well, so hopefully those will get me through 2011 fairly unscathed.

I'd like to blog a few posts on my experience with both the shots and the upcoming spring season. Hopefully, I can beat this thing and will one day be able to enjoy a round of golf on a typical spring day. If this turns out to be a waste of my time and money, I'll certainly write about that as well. The doctor said that the tolerance I build from the shots will only likely last me 5-10 years...if they even work at all.

Good luck with the treatment, keep us up to date.  I have some annoyances too (varying degrees of mucus in sinus cavities, pressure on ears, nasal drip, headache, tootache), and since nothing shows up in headscans the doctor can only attribute it to allergic reactions.   So keeping in mind how annying those are, I can only imagine what you are going through !

As a former allergy shot taker I say that this does work. A real PITA though taking 2 injections weekly. My regimen was slightly different because I have horrible allergies. After 3 months they let me start doing them myself at home. Every time a vial would run out I would have to do the first injection out of the new vials in the doc's office and wait for 20 minutes to make sure I didn't have a reaction. After two years of this I stopped and started taking a daily singular tablet which doesn't work quite as well, but takes far less time out of my schedule. It costs less as well.

Good luck with the treatments.

bcgolf: Thanks for the post. Yea, allergies are quite the pain in the arse.

Dad-2-3: Did you see long term benefits from the shots after you stopped taking them?

After I quit taking the shots I did see an improvement (compared to before I took the shots) in symptoms for about 6 months and then I was back to square one.

been getting shots for 20 years. i swear by them. my asthma is controlled by them. my asthma is basically non existent for 15 years thanks to the shots and my doctor.

i go once a month.