March 6, 2010

A Visit to the Allergist

The weather is not cooperating with riding this weekend. Unfortunately, I have not found the motivation to set the trainer back up. I bought a commuter bike, a Trek 7700, and will hopefully start commuting in a couple of weeks when the weather settles down.

Today, I have my referral visit with an allergist. She goes over my medical history with me, concentrating on October 2009 and the tentative exercise-induced asthma. When she reviews my pulmonary function test results, she agrees that I did not improve as dramatically as they like to see after I was given albuterol, my lung volume improved enough to qualify me as asthmatic. It's still a tentative diagnosis, and the allergist prescribes me a peak flow meter to monitor for several days and get a baseline measurement for my normal value. Apparently, that will be the deciding factor for an asthma diagnosis.

I tell the allergist that I have not been taking the albuterol because of the side effects, but that my biking seems to improve as the weather dries out/warms up. She is not happy about me skipping medications and prescribes a different bronchodilator that will hopefully have the benefits but not the side effects of the albuterol.

I ask about allergy injections, but the allergist tells me she doesn't like to do them with asthmatics. She prescribes a new nasal spray that will hopefully work better than the Flonase, and I get my blood drawn for allergy sensitivity evaluation. I'm pretty sure it will tell me I'm allergic to Northern California.

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