Long term rhinitis, allergy sufferer - clinic can do no more, any other avenues / suggestions plse?

I am your commrade in arms my friend, I am very allergic to both and have suffered really badly recently. You are on alot of meds to control this problem so PLEASE clear this with a doctor or nurse before you try it. I had to start using a decongestant, Psuedophed, to help with mine. I can NOT take the over the counter replacement phenylprine or however it is spelled, it makes my heart almost explode and I feel very faint. It helps me at least be able to breath, I have to watch it and not take too much. If you have access to a deep home cleaning service, like Service Pro, that will help, they can get some of the dust mites out of your house. IF not, get a hepa filter for your vacuum cleaner and ac/heater and have the ac filter changed in your car. I found some allergy filters for the house ac at home depot, they have a tighter weave and trap smaller particles, but they also make it harder for the ac to work, expect the bill to go up.

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You can have the duct work for your ac cleaned, it may be expensive, call around to get a price and call the BBB before you hire either the deep home cleaners or ac cleaners to see what their record its like, if they respond and correct service if they have a complaint. You have to call them before you use them, afterward the BBB can only list the complaint. Cover your mattress and your pillows with plastic covering, and wipe these down weekly, you can use more than one pillow case or sheet if the plastic smell bothers you. The bed is one of the places that tends to harbor dust mites. If you can get your car deep cleaned and cover the seats, that may help as well as frequently having it vacuumed. Just some thoughts on what might help,hope you get relief soon, until then God Bless You, Pattishan61

I went on like you for years.I was always sick. I took every medication that was ever developed for allergies, prescription and over the counter. I did allergy shots for 10 years and still I was sick. I saw so many doctors as a child and as an adult. I had a number of surgeries to correct defects on my ears and sinuses and still I was sick. I developed allergies to antibiotics because I was on them so often and still I was sick. My asthma got worse and I saw a number of specialist for that too. I was on Asthmanex, Spiriva, and Advair at one point and was still ending up in the ER with asthma attacks. Finally my PCP sent me to a new pulmonologist. He had only seen for a few weeks when he said that I had been too sick in the amount of time that I had been seeing him and he wanted to run some additional test. He ran some test to see what kind of immune system I had.

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Guess what? My immune system stinks! My IGgs were not functioning/not producing enough and that is the reason I was so sick. It was not really the allergies that everyone kept testing me for and the abnormalities in the sinuses and the ears. Ask your doctors to test your immune system. Ask him/her to run a full immune panel and see if your immune system is really fully functioning. I have to take a gammaglobulin infusion (I can now do it at home but I started at an infusion center where they usually do chemo for patients and I did it once a month when I did it at the center because it was an IV infusion) once a week( a subcutaneous infusion- 4 very tiny needles that I put in my leg one week and in my belly the next week and it take about and hour and a half) and it has made all the difference in my life. I no longer get sick. I no longer have allergies and I no longer have to take all of the inhalers. I still carry a rescue inhaler because I am still triggered by smells. The infusions are ridiculously expensive (like $7,500 per infusion so it cost $30,000 per month) but my insurance covers it 100%. It feels great to no longer be the one who is always getting sick, who gets every cold, who has all the allergies and is afraid to go out in a crowd because she knows she will come home with something. It has been worth doing the infusions to feel so much better. It is worth checking out since they don't seem to have any other answers for you. Let me know how you make out. Good luck and feel better.