allergy skin testing/allergy shots?

A

aesl

New Member
Joined
Aug 7, 2013
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
Hi there,

I may know some of you already - my mom has been a teacher of the deaf and speech pathologist in NJ for more than 20 years - but I want to ask a broader question to help improve the experience for a deaf patient at the office I work at.

(I am not hard of hearing myself, though I am familiar with some of the unique challenges that are associated with being deaf - at least in high school students!)

I do allergy testing & immunotherapy (allergy shots) at a doctor's office. There is a patient of one of our doctors who would really benefit from getting allergy tested due to her history of sinus symptoms.

I'm trying to develop a text/visual to explain the testing and treatment process and prepare for any questions she may have, since I can't explain the whole process in sign - I know some, but not enough to discuss this in detail. And my finger spelling is really slow.

Have any of you had allergy skin testing and/or allergy shots? What did you like about the experience? What did they not tell you that they should have? What questions did you ask?

Normally the patient has an interpreter with her, but sometimes not. Either way, I'd like to hear about your experiences.

Thanks!
 
I had mine done as a young child, doesn't hurt and just boring waiting for the timer to go off as I remember. I watched them do an entire battery of shots on my arm, just little bumps after they injected under the skin in a grid pattern and wait to see if they swelled up.....I was supposedly allergic to everything in the world at the time, now its just stinging and biting insects. But cats and dogs???? we had them and I had no issues, so the test wasn't very accurate back in the early 70's I guess?
 
Had the testing done as a child. I could not hear, but they dealt with my parents. I almost died due to allergies I had and such. NEVER AGAIN! I will never subject my kids to it and I will never go through it again.
 
Ensure that the patient has an interpreter at each appointment. Then you can explain everything without worrying about how to communicate--that's the terp's job.
 
Wirelessly posted

Most doctors do not do skin testing for severe allergies. My daughter gets hers allergies tested via the dr draws blood and test the reaction through blood samples. Because the risk of skin testing her could kill her.
 
I had skin tests, food diary, blood tests, and stool tests for my chronic hives and they never did find the reason for them. Since they never found the causative agent, obviously I never got any shots for the hives. When they were real bad the doctors wanted to give me Benadryl shots but we discovered that they made me feel worse. I never use Benadryl now. For severe outbreaks they gave me adrenalin injections--wow, that was a rush!
 
Back
Top