| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 905.1 | | TOKLAS::FELDMAN | PDS, our next success | Wed Nov 18 1987 16:01 | 4 |
| PS. I've read the suggestions in note 215. I'm more interested
in highly aggressive, short term solutions.
Gary
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| 905.2 | See note 881 replies | SQM::MURPHY | Is it Friday yet? | Wed Nov 18 1987 16:19 | 3 |
|
Replies to Note 881 might have a solution.
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| 905.3 | | VAXWRK::DUDLEY | | Wed Nov 18 1987 16:21 | 10 |
| I've been in the same situation with my sister. During
the winter, with the house closed up, nothing I can do
will alleviate her allergy. No amount of vacuuming will
help. What has been successful for her is to take a CONTAC
or DRIXORAL before coming to my house. She was recently
able to tolerate a few hours in my house for my wedding.
The cats were kept in our large basement during this time.
Donna
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| 905.4 | | CANVAS::SAUTA | | Wed Nov 18 1987 19:01 | 18 |
| We have a friend who's terribly allergic to cats. In fact, we usually
only see her at our house in the summer when she can stay outside.
The rest of the year we meet at restaurants or her place.
One thing she did tell me was NOT to vacuum just before she got
there. Apparently this stirs up the fur and dander. She suggested
that we vacuum and dust a day or so before and then keep the cats
out of the cleaned area as much as possible. We've done this the
few times that she's been over and inside, and it does seem to help.
Antihistamines (such as sudafed), give her an extra hour or so.
And of course, our cats can't stay away from her!
Good luck,
Lynne
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| 905.5 | good luck | REGENT::GETTYS | Bob Gettys N1BRM 223-6897 | Thu Nov 19 1987 08:10 | 12 |
| Although I am owned by a cat, I am also allergic to
them. I've managed to build a reasonable immunity to Cinamon
after 17 (or is it 18?) years of living together, but if I go
someone elses house who has cats, I do feel the effects of the
allergy. I have found that ARM (Allergy Relief Medicine) made by
the makers of Contact (which does me no good at all!) will at
least reduce the effects and often even eliminates them. The
problem is that everybody reacts differently to both the cat
dander and the medicines, so it is impossible to predict what
would work.
/s/ Bob
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| 905.6 | kitties, si! | ERASER::KALLIS | Remember how ephemeral is Earth. | Thu Nov 19 1987 09:08 | 13 |
| Something else worth trying:
If these folk are guests, you might want to try a "room air freshener,"
one of those devices that has a fan and filter, so that after you
vacuum the room a day or so before the guests arrive that the extra
dander, etc, be filtered from the room's air. If it's kept on
throughout the stay of the guests, there will be a refuge...
If you really want to spring for it, there are electrostatic
precipitators and/or negative ion generators that really help condition
the air...
Steve Kallis, Jr.
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| 905.7 | My cat-allergic friend takes sudafeds | CADSYS::RICHARDSON | | Thu Nov 19 1987 12:58 | 13 |
| One of our good friends who is VERY allergic to cats (and who
eventually gave up on allergy desensitization shots after several
years of not developing any immunity at all, the poor fellow) takes
sudafeds before he comes to visit us, which make him pretty grogyy,
but he still can only spend an hour or two anywhere near my cats
before he gets all choked up. He has the worst allergies of anyone
I know.
PS - Don't give your brother a Drixoral if you want him to be conscious
to eat the turkey - I take those when I get a sinus blockage (ouch!),
but they really knock you out (at least they WORK, but you have
to be really desparate to become convinced that the side effects
are no longer worse than the allergy attack).
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| 905.8 | Antihistamines | TOXMAN::MECLER | FRANK | Mon Nov 23 1987 08:07 | 7 |
| I've seen several references to sudafed in this note and replies.
Sudafed is not an antihistamine; it is strictly a decongestant
and as such will not induce drowsiness nor protect against allergies.
Different antihistamines work differently in different people but
I have found that Actifed gives me protection with minimum drowsiness.
Frank
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| 905.9 | Seldane | PARITY::TILLSON | If it don't tilt, fergit it! | Mon Nov 23 1987 11:14 | 8 |
|
There is a new prescription antihistimine available called Seldane.
It is milder than over-the-counter antihistimes, won't make you
drowsy, and according to my pharmicist, is safer than the
over-the-counter stuff. Ask your doctor about it.
Rita
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| 905.10 | Seldan is great! | MARRHQ::KORCHNAK | | Mon Nov 23 1987 11:33 | 5 |
| Seldane IS wonderful! And it is the best antihestimine I have ever
had! I'm not alergic to cats, but I am alergic to aerosol sprays,
and this is the ONLY thing that has stopped my sneezing!
|
| 905.11 | Hope I Can Help!! | FDCV16::HERB | | Mon Nov 23 1987 15:12 | 27 |
| Just to show you that medicines do work differently in different
people, I was given Seldane for my allergies and I had to go back
because it didn't work at all. I might as well have been taking
Sweet-Tarts!!
I have a very high allergic reaction to cat. For the past 5 months,
I have lived under a roof with a very wonderful cat!! I get shots
once a week and so far I have found them to be very effective.
This past weekend, I picked the cat up and patted him for at least
15 minutes. If I had done that 5 months ago, I would have keeled
over. My eyes blew up like balloons, my nose got all stuffed up,
and I had much trouble breathing.
I, along with response .8 (?), have found Actifed as a very good
allergy medicine. It doesn't knock you out like a lot of other
medicines do.
If it comes down to it, just have him take a walk outside for a
few minutes. The fresh air used to do me wonders.
Just tell him to hang in there!! You never know, he might end up
being able to love and hold cats the way I can know. It took some
time and the agony of shot, but believe me, it was well worth it.
Have a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving, and good luck!!
-Nicole
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| 905.12 | More Pharmacology from your Network Pharmacist | TOXMAN::MECLER | FRANK | Mon Nov 23 1987 16:24 | 14 |
| If your guest has severe shortness of breath from his/her allergies,
have him check with his physician about the use of an aerosolized
bronchodilator for emergency use. My allergy is to laboratory animals
and I find this helps if I get an unexpected exposure. There is
also a phenomenon known as "Slow-Reacting Substance of Anaphylaxis".
With this I get a recurrence of the shortness of breath 8 to 13
hours after exposure. It can wake me from a sound sleep when I
suddenly can't breath. The bronchodilator reverses the effect.
Some people can't use the bronchodilators because they also raise
blood pressure.
Good Luck!
Frank
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| 905.13 | We survived! | TOKLAS::FELDMAN | PDS, our next success | Mon Nov 30 1987 16:59 | 12 |
| Thanksgiving is over and we all had a lovely time. My brother did
spend a fair amount of time sitting in the car during cleanup, but
we were all able to enjoy the dinner and dessert, as well as one
more breakfast over the weekend.
Now that my brother has moved to New England, where he has a fair
number of friends who keep cats, he's decided to look into getting
desensitized, hopefully before next Thanksgiving.
Many thanks to all of you for your suggestions.
Gary
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| 905.14 | Allergic to Cats | CSC32::JOHNS | Yes, I am *still* pregnant :-) | Tue Jan 12 1988 17:05 | 15 |
| About desensitizing yourself from a cat allergy:
After 4-5 years of not having a cat, and being very allergic to
them (but loving them), I decided to take the plunge and get 2 kittens
and suffer along. I spoke with a friend who had done the same thing
to get any advice I could. I put Kleenex (suggest: Puffs, unscented)
in EVERY room (and nook and cranny) of the house, and took Sudafed,
etc only when going to work when I was really bad off. It only
took 2-3 weeks before I just sniffled, but those weeks were H*LL!
I was worth it, though, and now we have 4 cats.
You might suggest to your brother that if he really wants to build
up his immunities, to get a cat or two.
Carol
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