A GThing Science Project

I went to the allergist today. A fun time was had by all. After talking to the doctor, he thought it would be a good idea to do some testing.

If you've never been to an allergist, then you're really missing out. The test consists of a nurse writing (in my case) 42 numbers down three rows on my back. Then, next to each number they prick the skin and leave an allergen there.

42 allergens.

The allergens include things like trees, grass, weeds, different kinds of animals, mold, etc. Being given one shot is not fun, let alone 42.

After they give you the shots, you are told to sit there lying on your stomach for 15 or 20 minutes. The nurse told me to take a nap.

A nap sounded nice, except that my back was stinging like a thousand red hot needles shot from the eye of the volcanic mouth of a weed-eating dog who shoots bees out if his mouth when he barks and lasers come out of his eyes when he looks at you and also his claws are digging into you at the same time and also you're allergic to him.

Okay, it wasn't quite THAT bad, but a nap was completely out of the question.

I could not scratch at the various lumps that were now forming on my back, I just had to sit there. After a while, the doctor came back in with the nurse and started reading off the numbers. Every allergen is rated on a scale of 0 to 4 and a "p" is added if it's especially bad. At least that was the system as near as I could tell.

So out of the 42 allergens, about 35 of them were a 4p. A few were two, and a couple of zeroes. Needless to say, my back looked like a mine field when they were done.

I asked if they gave complimentary back scratchers with the exam but no such luck was had. They didn't even put any anti-itch creme on it or anything.

Here is a picture I snapped in the waiting room after they told me to put my shirt back on.

The rightmost row is trees, the second row is grasses, weeds, etc. The last row is cats (4p) dogs (2), and mold (2).

So the doctor said they would mix together a shot filled with all the stuff I'm allergic to and inject it in to me. That sounds like certain death, but apparently they do it all the time.

If I get shots for 5 years, there is some chance that my allergies will go away. Horay!