Question:
I recently went through allergy testing, primarily because my
daughter has been begging for a kitten. I figure after a year
of desensitization, I could get her one. hey, I like the little
fuzz balls, myself...
well, I find out after all this testing is done, that I haven't
reacted to the cat allery test. yet I know from 40 years of
experience that cats cause me serious nasal passage distress.
so I call up the allergist, and get a completely unclear description
of why he doesn't give cat antigen... I decide to give up the
hassle, because I figure that I could get used to a kitten as it
grew..
so, we look at a kitty. my wife, who loves and has owned cats in
the past, has an immediate, strong reaction to holding the kitty;
decides to make an allergy appointment to get immunotherapy for
cat. calls the HMO (Hell Maintenance Organization) to get in to
get tested and get on a program. She gets told that they don't
do Cat immunotherapy..
What is this scoffing ? Is there an underlying economic reason
for this difficulty we're having ?
Answer:
It's possible that your HMO doesn't consider cat allergy serious enough to
be worth treating. Since HMO doctors can incur serious economic
penalties for not holding costs below a certain level, that may be the
underlying reason. Also, in many states, HMOs are allowed to impose a
"gag rule" on doctors which prohibits them from notifying patients of a
full range of treatments if the HMO doesn't cover them. I too have had seasonal type allergies, but none of the seasonal type
allergens show up on my testing. Usually the quack just tells me I
must have a cold or something and offers no releif or treatment. I've
also had several different types of tests which were in disagreement
with each other (things show up on one but not the other). I also
don't react very violently to the straight histamine control. Also,
if you have any antihistamines in your system, it can throw things
off. Some are very long lasting (up to 8 weeks). More recently, I've found that finding the right allergist is
imperitive. One who believes that they can't always identify all the
allergy triggers, i.e. that they aren't infallable.
He probably won't give you cat desenitization because it didn't show
up in your testing. This makes absolutely no sense. I recently bought a house where they
used to have two cats. I never imagined that I'd have such a violent
reaction to the dander (or whatever), but I did. The carpets were
cleaned, etc, but still lingers. I've always tested positive for cat
pelt (except in one of the RAST tests I had which showed up nothing at
all). My current shots only included the dust mites, etc. that I also
tested positive to. My previous allergist did a standard dust
solution that did not require mixing fees. So, since I didn't own a
cat and never planned to, we skipped that part and dealt with cats
through avoidance. Well, after the terrible reaction to my new house, my current
allergist had no problem adding cat to my regimine. I never even saw
him in person, just a couple of phone calls. He does have the records
from my previous testing that show a positive cat reaction. In fact,
one of his standard solutions is cat pelt! My solutions weren't
remixed and I now just get 2 shots (this is not a thrill) with
different dosing schedules. I'm at a maintenance dosage on my old
shots and still go 3 times a week to build up the cat.
Something is suspicious about your HMO's dealing with this. Maybe
you're going through the system wrong? Have you tried going to your
primary care physician to get referred to an allergist instead of
going directly to the HMO office with a "self diagnosis"? They hate
that and I've been stonewalled with that tactic before when changing
plans (I already knew what the diagnosis was). Be careful about
incinuating that this is a known (pre-existing) condition.
regarding your allergy to cats that used to live in your home. I
bought a good $200 HEPI air filter system for my bedroom and it makes a
big difference. I don't wake up in the middle of the night with my eyes
swollen shut any more and I am starting to breath through my nose at night
for the first time in a long while. I think that your physicians response could be due to the fact that
you're dealing with an HMO that wants to keep their costs low. It
could also be that antigen injections don't work for cats, but you
should check with a physician outside the HMO to determine if that is
true. One other possibility is to ask the physician about the new
medications which are aimed specifically at cat allergies, however,
since this is an HMO and these drugs are new they may not want to
provide you the medications.
