Allergist and Blood Work

Last night I went to the allergist. He said that wheat allergies are rare and don't usually cause most of the symptoms I'm having...however, he also thought that if anyone could develop an asymptomatic allergy to wheat it would be me. I'm allergic to so many things that he wouldn't be that surprised if the tests came back positive.

Now to the tests...

I was going to drive myself to the lab/blood center. It's only 1.5 miles away and I usually wake up early. Luckily, my mom decided she would wake up and take me. I went online and made an appointment for 10:15. It took a while to get the insurance all straightened out and the nurse had me start drinking water because she wanted a urine sample for one of the test. In the time I was drinking the liter of water, my body temperature started to decrease, which wasn't that big of a deal because I had a sweater with me.

There were six tubes that I had to fill. That turned out to be a huge challenge. When the nurse inserted the needle into my vein, nothing happened. No blood flowed out of my body. Apparently the tubes have suction, so they're supposed to help the blood flow quickly as to fill the tubes as fast as possible. This wasn't happening with my arms. Yes, my blood pressure is really low, and yes, I was probably somewhat dehydrated from fasting for the blood work. Even so, the tubes were not filling fast enough and I started to tremble and shake because I was getting colder. The nurse had to switch arms and try to find a better vein. She did, but it still took 1/2 an hour to fill the tubes. She would fill one part way and then start another. Then she would go back to the partially-filled tube to try to top it off a bit more.

When we finally left, I ate a cereal bar and drank more water. When we got home I couldn't eat anything so I got on the sofa and covered myself with four blankets because I was still really cold.

I made it through the afternoon, then my mom called to see if the gluten test results had come in...they hadn't. So, I had some pretzels after dinner and now I'm sitting on the couch with a stomach ache and a headache.....and so goes another day of this torture.