The only real allergies that I know of: cat dander, nickel, and seasonal pollen allergies.
I’ve also had really, really bad reactions to mosquito bites, but only certain types of mosquitos. The mosquitos along the marsh/coast give me huge welts and cause me to swell up. The type of mosquitos that prevail even a few miles inland, though, just make me itch and give me small (normal-sized) bumps.
I seem to be very sensitive to lots of things, though, but I don’t know whether they’d qualify as true allergies. I get contact dermatitis from all sorts of things - scented cosmetics, some laundry detergents, adhesives. And any type of supplemental iron is almost guaranteed to make me barf, as are most prescription pain medicines. I don’t think these reactions are actual allergies, though. My daughter seems to have even more sensitive skin than mine, too: just swimming in a chlorinated pool for an hour or so causes her to break out in a rash.
My mother-in-law has an interesting one, though: she’s allergic (specifically) to Vidalia onions. Other types of onions don’t bother her, but just being in the same room as a Vidalia onion causes a reaction. Needless to say, she didn’t feel very well for the entire two years that her family lived in Vidalia, Georgia! And my husband is either really, really allergic to grass seed, or he has hit on the perfect scam to avoid yardwork.
I developed a mosquito bite allergy in my early 20s. Before then, no problem, but I one day I just started to get massive reactions: the bites would swell up to half-an-egg sized lumps, and they hurt like 3rd-degree burns for days. Serious pain, and itchy as well, though I had to train myself not to scratch them, since scratching only increased the pain-factor.
I discovered that Aloe Vera was the only thing that really helped soothe the reaction, so I always kept some handy. I slept under mosquito nets and used repellent for years. Then the reaction wore off. Now if I get bitten, I get the same minor irritation that I used to get, and that most other people get. I have no idea how or why, but I’m glad I don’t have the massive allergic reaction any more. I’ve always lived in the same city, so it wasn’t like I moved away from the poison ones or anything.
most antibiotics [easier to keep a list of what I can use than can’t use] to the point that if I am given one, the doc keeps me sitting around the office for about half an hour to see if I am going to react.
amatryptaline/elavil - the hallucinations and hives/itchies are nasty. The hallucinations make me think the itchies are ants/various bugs under my skin
mushrooms, coconut/palm/tropical oils/products
mild lactose intolerance - only really affects me if I over do the milk.
some laundry soaps/softeners/most dryer sheets give me hives.
certain species of pine, forsythia, certain grasses, mold, mildew
theoretically rabbit, goat, dog, cat and horse danders. I have kept all except goats with no more reaction than perhaps a slight bit of sinus, but I was exposed to dust, mold, mildew and pollens at the same time, so meh. Goat on the other hand is an animal straight from the devil - no matter what the goat product is, alive or dead all I get is an amazing pong of goat urine. Cant deal with milk, meat, cheese, or live goat.
I have an allergy to iodine, at least the topical variety to which I’ve experienced massive reactions…so much so that after an operation to fix a hearing problem, the allergic reaction to the iodine totally fucked up any amelioration of the original hearing loss. Urggh. :rolleyes:
And I THINK I’m allergic to Vitamic C preparations, 'cos whenever I take Vit C tabs, within a day or two I end up sneezing and snuffling like a madwoman. So much for being a prophylactic infection agent eh??
Sulfa. I’ve only had it once in some pills but it made me break out in a full body rash. I was living with my dad at the time and he said “what a coincidence, I’m allergic to sulfa!” And then I later talked to my mom, who said “what a coincidence, I’m allergic to sulfa!”
A friend of mine is allergic to caffeine. No coffee, coke or chocolate for him. Poor guy.
I usually tell restaurant staff or servers that I am allergic to seafood. Really, I just can’t stand the stuff. Even the smell makes me nauseated.
One thing I am NOT allergic to is poison ivy. I can handle it just fine and have never had any kind of reaction. Same with my dad and one of my sisters.
Seriously, I have a trigger-happy immune system. I don’t know what the medical term is, but if I go away to someplace where nothing bothers me, I have about two weeks of clear eyes and nose before my immune system finds something else to be allergic to.
Sigh I’ve had dry eyes and post-nasal drip since forever, I’m sorta used to it.
Grass allergy, usually specifically grass pollen allergy, is actually pretty common – one of the three main seasonal allergies along with tree pollens and weed pollens. I used to be very allergic to grass pollen but shots have downgraded that to just mildly allergic.
Likewise, thanks to shots, I’m no longer allergic to down or feathers, but they used to be a serious problem for me. It probably helps that down is more stringently cleaned before going into consumer products than it was 30 or 40 years ago.
I’m still very allergic to “atmospheric” molds – no problem with most fungi, mushrooms and blue cheese are fine – but several strains of mildew and molds that grow on dead leaves, wood, dampened building materials, and such give me hell. The last office building I worked in had truly disgusting levels of mold spores in the air, as demonstrated by lab testing I had to have done; I was on the top floor and the roof (of the shiny brand-new building!) had lots of small leaks.
Juniper scratches (such as you might get on your arms from trying to prune the damn things) swell up and itch like crazy on me. That might be from a mold that grows on juniper bark; I’m not sure.
As a teenager, I always sneezed when the irises in our yard bloomed. I’ve been told since that flower pollen is almost never truly allergenic because the particles are very large compared to tree, weed, and grass pollen particles, and so tend not to be the right size to piss off the immune system… but I’m not sure that’s true. I haven’t noticed a problem as an adult, but then I haven’t lived near large plantings of irises, either.
My little brother is allergic to sunscreen. Luckily he tans extremely well and never burns.
I’m allergic to the only antibiotic that will kill my chronic sinusitis.
I’m allergic to yellowjackets, but I can’t tell the difference between them, hornets and bees, so I stay away from all flying insects.
Also I love love love kitties but they make me sneeze
Just the run of the mill environmental allergies for me. I may be sensitive to shellfish, but I haven’t had any since I had a slight reaction to some crab legs (tightness in chest which was resolved with albuterol). I should probably say something to the doctor next time I go and see if it can be confirmed.
My husband, though, is allergic to aspirin and ibuprofen. Not fun. We don’t keep any drugs with those ingredients in the house anymore and he wears a bracelet when he is not carrying his wallet (skiing or mountain biking).
Blueberries and Cashews…Blueberries make me react like the kid in Willie Wonka and the … I itch, I swell up really badly and I get a weird tint to my skin. It’s not really blue, but my wife likes to claim it is. She offers to feed it to me and sell tickets to our friends. Love takes strange forms sometimes.
I miss cashews. I enjoyed them before we discovered that those weird itchy welts came when I ate cashews.
The connection to poison ivy is the rushiol oil, but that’s only present on the skin of the mango. If you still have a reaction to mango when you haven’t touched the skin, then you’re allergic to the mango-mango, not the mango-skin.
I was averaging a new allergy about every two years, usually some pollen or dander.
Then, in an attempt to deal with debilitating migraines, I stopped eating wheat, rye, and barley. Turns out, I can’t digest gluten. It wreaks havoc with my immune system. This is a WAG on my part, but I think the chronic inflammation caused by the gluten I was ingesting, made me much more sensitive to allergens. Since I stopped eating gluten, my allergies have decreased enormously.
Had the official allergy tests done a bit over a year ago… my allergist was horrified that I’d been walking around without an epipen. Apparently I like to live dangerously.
Medication-wise, doxycycline, IVP dye, pyridium, and amitriptyline.
Environmental: dogs, cats, birds, horses, most kinds of trees, all kinds of grass, and anything that bites, stings, or even looks at me funny. Those little black ants that people refer to as sugar ants? Have sent me to the hospital twice. Freakin’ LADY BUGS (ok, for accuracy sake, MultiColored Asian Lady Beetles) make me break out in hives.
Anyone want to guess what I do for a living? I work as an equine therapist, outside year-round, and I own dogs, cats, and birds. As I said, I like living dangerously. And being heavily medicated. LOL.
Penicillin, erythromycin (sp?) and one other antibiotic is a possibility, but the reactions there were very mild, so I can never remember the name of it. Doxycyclin? maybe.
Also nickel. but that allergy is fading with time. I no longer have to worry about the snaps of my jeans, my wedding ring causes no problems. At this point, my sensitivity is on the inner wrist and sides and back of my neck. So I just stick with sterling silver jewelry (and my ears are not pierced).
I am allergic to cinnamon, bees stings, pollens and molds (don’t know which as I have never been tested, but I have seasonal allergy symptoms years round so that is what the doctor figures) and penicillin.
Only recently (last 8 months or so) I have started developing hives when I eat blue cheese. The first time, I was in denial. The second time I tried to convince myself that it must be something else I ate WITH the blue cheese. The third time, I had to admit that I am allergic to blue cheese and need to avoid it. My heart died a little that day Of course, soon after this revelation, Trader Joe’s came out with a sliced cheese with blue cheese embedded in it. Sigh.
Milk fat- it makes me itchy. If I get a mocha in the morning, I always ask for non fat milk and can almost instantly tell if they cocked it up and put the full fat milk in-- within a few minutes, I break out in red hive things and get itchy all over (especially my scalp).
So, anything delicious: ice cream, cheese (oh, cheese!), etc-- I just have to be careful with my intake.
