Allergy clinic - what to expect?

[Shabbycoconut]

After a number of recent episodes, which have turned out to be probably food allergy related, I've been referred to an allergy clinic. Any idea what to expect? I have no idea what I might be allergic to, although I have been trying to narrow it down over the past few weeks while waiting for the appointment. I'm pretty sure it's none of the obvious ones, like dairy, or nuts, although I don't generally eat many nuts so can't be sure. If it's something unusual, how do they test for it? Will they do tests at the first appointment?

Whatever it is has occurred very suddenly, and in quite a dramatic way (trouble breathing etc) so I'm keen to get some answers. But no idea how they'll do that without any inkling of what I'm allergic to. And I've never in the past had an allergy or intolerance issues at all. I have no idea why it's happening suddenly.

Anybody got any experience of an allergy clinic?

I have but I'd already worked out what mine was and had private blood testing so the immunologist took a history to confirm and spent a lot of time explaining the condition, coming up with a plan and showing me how to use an Epipen.

My son, with oral allergy syndrome, had a history taken and bloods as they didn't have what was needed to do skin prick tests.

It's helpful if you have photos of your reactions, and a record of what you'd eaten, used and done before your reactions.

I have what's called an exercise-induced or co-factor mediated allergy/anaphylaxis, which can be particularly hard to identify as it's not immediate onset and I wasn't reacting every time I ate my allergen.

They'll probably do a load of skin tests and see what you react to. Then take it from there.
Mine was following an anaphylactic reaction to a wasp sting, so they knew where to start. The little box she used had all sorts to test for food allergies as well, not necessary in my case. I think IIRC I was tested for wasp, bee, grass and willow or something like that. Only the wasp one came up. I also had to have a blood test to confirm.

All that happened was a reddening to the wasp sting, they use a minute amount to test the reaction so it's highly unlikely to set you off, but I'm sure they'd be prepared for that if it did happen with epipens on standby if you don't have your own

Thanks for that.

Initially I wasn't sure what the episodes were, but the most recent few have happened within half an hour of eating, so I've been keeping note of what I had then, but there's a number of further back reactions where I can't be sure. I'm also keeping a note of what I've been eating regularly the past few weeks - I've been keeping things very bland and avoiding eating and drinking out of the house for fear of it happening in the street.

I haven't heard of co-factor mediated allergy, so I'll look that up now, see if it might be relevant for me.

I do remember her saying onions and tomatoes were quite quite common allergies, and they are in so many meals...

I was wondering about the skin prick/scratch tests, and how they did them if there wasn't an idea of what was causing the allergy. I have no epipen, so I'm sure they'll be equipped in case of an incident.

I hope they identify it. Or send me away with something to stop the reactions when they happen. It's infuriating, I love food!

It's very rare to react severely to the skin prick tests. They should tell you to stop using antihistamines for a week before your appointment (if you use them).

Within half an hour of eating suggests it might be fairly straightforward to identify, assuming you remember exactly what you'd eaten!

They are pretty good at working out what to test for based on what you describe.

Good luck, it's such a relief knowing what to avoid.