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

[randwolf.livejournal.com]

(From a stranger who thinks your work is cool...)

Ow.

You're describing auto-immune disease symptoms. Have you discussed this with an immunologist or an allergist? It may be possible to relieve the symptoms, at least.

[compilerbitch.livejournal.com]

I have seen a rheumatologist about it, and was put through a huge batch of tests, most if not all of which come back negative. This didn't mean I didn't have arthritis, because a physical examination made this pretty obvious. What it meant, I was told, was that I didn't have any of the well-known variants (rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, etc.), so the next step was to figure out largely by trial and error if an allergy could be causing it. I mentioned the cats -- whilst I had no idea whether they influenced my arthritis, I had no doubt that they made my nose run and my eyes water, so I definitely knew that I was allergic to them.

Coincidentally, I was due to leave for Cambridge a few days later, so the plan was agreed that I would as far as possible keep my diet relatively unchanged, then wait to see if excluding exposure to cats on its own was enough. Amazingly, it seems to be.

I was told by the rheumatologist that if I discovered the cause, the best alternative is to avoid exposure at all costs. Whilst it is easy enough to relieve the other allergy symptoms, e.g. runny nose/sore eyes/asthma by taking steroids like becalomethasone, I'm really not very keen on this for non-emergency purposes. I'd rather avoid steroids unless I *really* need them, such as in avoiding a bad asthma attack if I know one is coming on. In any case, this wouldn't work on the arthritis, and the drugs which are used for that don't really provide a good option. NSAIDs only reduce the pain, and I can't take them anyway because of the effect they have on my stomach. Opioids work on the pain pretty well, at the expense of making me dizzy and fuzzy headed, whilst also causing a different kind of digestive problems (to put it bluntly, they bung me up something shocking!). I'm also a bit concerned about becoming dependent on them, which can happen. I found I could only take them at night because they made me too fuzzy (high, basically) to concentrate well enough to program or do maths.

I'm really not keen on the anti-allergy treatments that are based on giving doses of the actual allergen. whilst this might well stop the hay fever/asthma, I'm concerned that it might make the arthritis much worse or even make it permanent. What I have seems to be one of those irritatingly rare things that isn't well understood, so I don't feel inclined to try treatments aimed at something else, because the consequences of it going wrong are too bad to risk.

So, my conclusion has to be that I have to exclude the source of the allergy if I'm at all serious about getting better. This seems to be working very well so far -- I'm not a Believer, but the difference from the worst it got to in tho summer and now is not much short of miraculous. The flip side is that I have to pay for it with a particular kind of inconvenience that hurts on an emotional level. I've basically had to swap one kind of pain for another, in effect.

I will learn to live with it. On the scale of things, it is pretty minor. If I had ended up in a wheelchair, this would have excluded me from pretty much all those places anyway, so on balance I'd much rather be excluded and be able to walk! This is quite a plus, obviously!

[compilerbitch.livejournal.com]

(From a stranger who thinks your work is cool...)

Thanks -- this cheers me up considerably!

[liv]

I'm very sorry to hear this, Sarah. I was going to say something about a balance between medication and lifestyle restriction but it sounds as if you've already thoroughly investigated that route. Selfishly, I'm sad I'm not going to get to see you at the party. But more generally, what an awful situation for you to find yourself in. Much sympathy.

[compilerbitch.livejournal.com]

You might still see me, even though I won't be there in person. There is a cunning plan afoot -- hopefully, a live webcam link will be set up between my college room in Cam and the Penguin house, probably through the big TV in the living room. Not the same as being there in person, and maybe only a little less strange than me turning up in an ex-MOD NBC suit and full gas mask, but better than nothing! :-)

[gnimmel.livejournal.com]

Gemma (who is extremely allergic to cats) once told me that there was a spray available which (if the cat hangs around long enough to be sprayed) can temporarily stop them being allergy-inducing. Then again, she's not AFAIK allergic to dogs, so her allergy may be of a different sort. And unfortunately I can't remember any more than that. Such a thing might be good for visiting purposes though, since it came up originally in the context of inviting Leo and Gemma to the old fluffhouse.
I don't know if this also applies to eg. chairs which have had cats sleeping in them, etc. since ISTR cat hair itself is the problem.

[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.

[mirabehn.livejournal.com]

*hugs you*

This must be a horrible decision to have had to make. It sounds like it's a sensible one though. I'm sure that everyone will understand.

*hugs you again*

[yvesilena.livejournal.com]

Eeeeeaaaaarggh! Of course I understand. That's horrible. *hugs*

Hooch sends you 100 hypoallergenic virtual boses:

(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)(:)

[compilerbitch.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I hope so. :-|

[compilerbitch.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

Give the little furry chap a big cuddling from me, would you?

*in tears thinking about it*

[doseybat.livejournal.com]

i promise to capture people, tie them up, and make them visit.

[compilerbitch.livejournal.com]

I'll hold you to it!

[s]

[yvesilena.livejournal.com]

Waah! Will do :}

[doseybat.livejournal.com]

*gathers fishing nets*
*puts on hunting boots*
*heads fir door looking determined*

[randwolf.livejournal.com]

[old business--I fell off the world for a few weeks.]

Yes, this makes sense. In your shoes I wouldn't try any allergy treatments without talking to an immunlogist first. I think the standard skin tests for allergies might give some useful information, however; you might find more things to be wary of and you might find out if you have the more usual allergic reactions to cat and dog dander (I am incredibly allergic to dog dander.) I think there might also be useful information found by looking at the possibility of some other systemic immune disorder.