Dogs and Cats

[compilerbitch]

I recently took the decision that I must never again spend any time anywhere around cats or dogs.

It seems quite conclusive now that my arthritis was/is triggered by a severe cat allergy. During the summer, living in a house with two cats, the problem got sufficiently bad that I really did think I was getting close to ending up in a wheelchair. At its worst, I wasn't far off -- I could only manage 100m or so, and even that was at the cost of considerable pain.

Since going to Cambridge and getting away from cats and dogs completely, my symptoms have almost completely disappeared, other than for a relapse lasting a few days after staying overnight at doseybat's parents (who have a cat). The cat problem, then, seems proven beyond reasonable doubt.

I have been thinking a lot about this recently, looking back at times in my life when I have had arthritis symptoms, and other times when I have not. The results of this process are interesting, if somewhat unwelcome. It seems that the times when I have had problems were all concurrent with the times I have lived around dogs. The problem was less acute, yes, but still very real. I therefore tend to conclude that I am very allergic to cats, and somewhat allergic to dogs.

In the last couple of weeks, I have had a little taste of life without arthritis. This is something definitely worth having, and something that is worth sacrifice to achieve. I can walk distances without pain, and can for the first time in a long time consider physical exercise as a reasonable (i.e. non-painful) possibility. I have therefore decided to, as far as possible, completely eliminate any exposure I might have to animal hair.

This is not an easy decision emotionally, however obvious it may be. Nearly everyone i'm close to has cats, dogs or in some cases both. I can't visit Bat, Sarah, Penguin, Bat's parents, Sarah's parents, Yves and Casby or any of my family. I can't go to Bat's birthday party next month, which is causing me considerable pain.

I can't afford to compromise. I can't let my health slide. I am therefore posting this message in the hope that everyone I know with cats and dogs (i.e. nearly everyone I know) will understand why I can't ever visit them at home. Please don't take it personally, and understand how much it hurts for me to have to do this.

Comments

[compilerbitch.livejournal.com]

Yes, she mentioned this to me too. Unfortunately, the experiment I tried recently, i.e. staying the night at Bat's parents without any direct contact with the cat, in a room that had had no cat in it for a month, with freshly laundered bedclothes, showed that just avoiding the cat isn't enough. I had a few days of pain as a consequence -- nothing ridiculously severe, but enough to serve as a warning that any exposure is obviously too much. Some allergies are supposedly like this -- gluten intolerance for example, so it does look likely that I will have to be similarly extreme in my attempts to avoid ingesting whatever it is that causes the problem.

It would be nice to know what the actual vector is -- can I absorb this through my skin, is it inhaled, do I have to eat or drink something that is contaminated, etc. If I knew it was only inhaled, I could probably get away with using a respirator mask. They are quite cheap because they are heavily used in industry for health and safety protection, and don't cover your eyes so they are relatively easy to cope with. However, if it just requires skin contact, I'd need to use a full hazmat/NBC suit, gloves and a full-face gas mask style respirator, which is frankly just too weird. It's easy enough to buy them -- the whole lot would cost about 150 pounds, but I'd have to be pretty desperate to go that route I think.