Tests, trees

(A cross-post of cross-reactions.)

Last week I'd had enough. I ate an apple and it had started up again, a weird itch on my lips and the insides of my mouth that I'd been noticing after I eat fruits like apples, plums and cherries. Except this time my lips actually started to swell a little and the skin around my mouth had become red. So I went down to Dr. DeMarco's office and asked to see a specialist.

Turns out I'm allergic to a bunch of trees. The allergist that Dr. DeMarco recommended, with the aid of her two nurses, did some tests on my arms where they infested me with various substances. I sat for 20 minutes with over 70 pin pricks all up and down my arm, some of which turned into big red splotches that made me itch like crazy.

I tested negative for animals and all sorts of foods. But the ones indicating birch and alder gave me hives. Nearly one centimeter in diameter.

They were pretty excited at the results. The allergist said I was a gold standard and she'd never seen such clear results before. She said the molecular structure of the allergen from those trees look similar to what's in apples and such, and my body's developed antigens that go bezerk when they encounter these substances.

She kept repeating, "This is so interesting! This is so interesting!" and even got down on her knees and began fake-worshipping me, kneeling and bowing. Sue, the wise-cracking nurse, said she was leaving to get the World Allergy Association on the phone.

So the good news is that I don't have any food allergies -- not a true allergy, at least -- but the bad news is I that I can't go near these two types of trees. And I'll have to skin the fruits that irritate me because of their molecular structure, like apples and so on.

The allergies are also what's causing my sinuses to act up and my eyes and face to become puffy. She shone a light up my nose and drew a picture on the exam table paper of what it looked like in there. Everything's swollen, she says. It's what's probably causing me to snore.

But the big mystery is that these two trees are not blooming at the moment - it's the dead of winter.