What!?
- I've never actually been tested for a penicillin allergy. - I think I'm
allergic to peanuts. - Mainly grass pollens things like dog hair, cat hair.
- Spicy food and Mexican foods - I think it's just peanuts to be honest and usually a
reaction would mainly just be throwing up . Pleasant. - Every so often, normally
during the summer, I found I could not see because my eyes were stinging so
incredibly powerfully. - It's just the most extreme reaction I've ever had to
anything. - My lips felt like they were swelling up a bit and they were tingly
and my tongue felt a bit larger in my mouth. - I just feel this uncontrollable
sickness, not the kind that you can just hope will go away. - I think in the beginning
it was kind of like "what the hell's going on?" and then after a while I was like okay
I can't kind of breathe. - In the last five years we've seen a 600%
increase in A&E admissions for severe allergy or anaphylaxis.
- Well my understanding such as it is... - If you have an allergy to something then it's
definitely more severe than an intolerance. - So if you're allergic
potentially it's a bit more life-threatening where as - Intolerance in
my understanding. - I think it's a gut reaction? - But it's not immediately
life-threatening. Allergy, immune response something your body believes is
attacking it and it needs to stop it. It is reacting to a threat, happens
instantly, can be up to a few hours later and symptoms can affect the entire body.
Intolerance is different tends to be more delayed, up to 72 hours later
symptoms are more around the gastrointestinal tract and importantly,
an intolerance is never severe enough that you can die from it.
The most annoying thing is just not knowing exactly what it is, so just
having to avoid like a wide variety of foods just because just in case. - I can't
swim now without getting infections in my ears. - It does mean that I have to put
a lot of precautions in place to make sure that I'm safe all the time.
- There is a difficulty in that I don't know specifically what's the trigger.
- Well if you've got symptoms and you want to understand more about whether you
should avoid things or not, allergy testing could absolutely be right for
you. I really want to get a definite answer as to whether I've grown out of
it. - I started to sort of understand that it is an avenue you can go down and get
tested and it wasn't until recently that I considered it. - So everybody has IgE. When
you get your test results, your total level of IgE will be looked
at to say is there an allergic reaction happening right now. A grade zero means
that really there is no potential of you having a reaction to that allergen. Grade
six means that it is absolutely definite that you will react to that allergen and
actually to a level where you may need to go to hospital.
- Thank you. - Okay, here we go. - And the winner is! - Oh, okay wow.
- It's quite a lot, I didn't expect that. - Really? - Okay, so I'm allergic to... - Peanuts, wheat, soya
bean, hazelnuts, Brazil nuts, almonds... - House dust mites... - Animal hair and peanuts.
- Coconut, apple, banana, pear... - Peanuts hazelnuts, Brazil nuts, pistachio nuts... - It
says I'm not allergic to anything you tested for. - Cladosporium herbarum...
I don't know what that is. - It's a fungus. - My results were
negative. - You are allergic to house dust mites and timothy grass. I've never met
timothy grass. - Timothy grass, we test it because it's the most common allergen in
grass. - Really specific. At least now I know so I can be like "This is what
the situation is. Can't eat anything in this. - So now it's been
put into context for me. - It'll be nice to actually have a conversation with you know
specialist, a doctor and and see what can be done about them, rather than just
trying to make it up on my own and Google things which is never a good idea.
- It's a lot more extensive than actually I had imagined. - Now I have the knowledge
that there is some reality behind my symptoms.