Okay, so I'm going to clarify some things about the picture of my arm all blown-up and such that I posted on Saturday, because I've been getting some e-mails with questions and it's easier just to answer it all at once.
That rash is not something that happened to me and then I went to the doctor. It's a picture of what happened to me after he conducted a skin test. I went to an allergy-specialist, who pricked my arm all up and down with the concentrated oils of everything that I could possibly be allergic to, and then I blew up like a balloon.
The reason for the test is because I've been having sinus/runny nose problems, and in the past few years my respiratory health has gone down. So my co-worker suggested an allergy specialist, which makes sense seeing that Dad is very allergic to everything. And that test was a success, because it means my sinus problems have a source, and that source can be cured with....
Allergy shots! Which basically means that once a month the doctor shoots me up with small concentrations of my personal allergen foes, so that I can build up antibodies against them. Kind of like in The Princess Bride.
The reason why I'm having so many problems now, as opposed to when I was younger, is that allergies get worse as you get older. So ten years ago nothing bothered me. Now: dust, mold, grasses, and dogs.
Whether the weather affects it depends on the allergens: winter is a bad time for dust because the heaters turn up full blast, so I have to go through the house and clean the vents of all the latent dust that has been gathering for the past year. And if it's an especially humid summer, mold can be exacerbated.
And yes, the doctor has given me scrips to carry me over until I start getting shots. I am becoming acquainted with various types of steroids. Like "The Clear". (If you don't get that reference google Marion Jones.)
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