I went to see an allergist yesterday for a scratch test and some counseling. The scratch test came back so severe that even before they brought the doctor back to explain the results to me, they had rolled an epinephrine cart up to my door in case I went into anaphylactic shock (I didn't). I've been told that the times before that I've had a severe allergic food reaction and just waited it out, I've been lucky, and next time I might not be. If I want to reach old age, I'll be carrying an EpiPen on me for the rest of my life, it seems, to be replaced once per year even if not used, at a cost of $50 after insurance for a two-pack. Of course, there are prominent warnings that using the EpiPen incorrectly can kill me, too. I find myself wondering if I'm being scammed by the pharmaceutical industry, and whether or not I'm willing to risk death to find out. For the moment, the answer to the latter is taking the form of a small cylinder inside my inside left jacket pocket.

If I want to spend extended time with the cats that I love so much, I'll need to start receiving injections as soon as possible, and continue getting them once a week for some time. Even at that, the nurse tried to talk me out of being near cats; I'm told my asthma could increase in severity, permanently. This actually happened once before, but I had no treatment, not even an inhaler, available at the time, as I recall, so my lungs were almost continuously clogged. The doctor was much less emphatic, but encouraged me to start treatments for cat allergens as soon as possible, since it will take six months for the effects to take hold. Since I like most cats better than I like most people, I guess I'll be getting used to needles.

The literature I was handed is dire, starting off with telling me that I risk death, organ destruction, or limb loss if I ever need corticosteroidal treatments (I shouldn't, with the exception of a mild nose spray which is supposed to give me nothing worse than nosebleeds at the worst). It didn't say exactly how likely it was, and I couldn't get anyone to tell me (except to say that the risk was slim to none), but I think I've come up with cutoff risk scale to ask doctors about in the future: is the treatment more likely to result in dire injury or death than driving to the office to get it? If the answer is no, I think I'm not going to worry about it any more.