Horaay! It's springtime!

Ah, spring. Tomorrow its going to be a very nice 71° F outside. I have allergies, but I consider them to be managed at this point, so spring doesn't bother me.

I was breast fed as a child (as were my other three siblings) and exhibited allergies from a very, very early age. My mother was forced to give up eating nuts, tomatoes, mushrooms (and any other food containing a fungus), and eggs. The proteins were being passed through the breast milk and caused an allergic reaction in my body--my skin turned beet red and I would vomit. It scared the bejeezus out of her the first times the reactions occurred, as none of my elder siblings have allergies.

At the age of two, I developed asthma and was also subjected a complete scratch test. From that it was determined that I had the standard complement of allergies to ragweed, pollen, mold, animal dander (even though its usually not the dander per se that people react to, its the proteins left behind from both saliva and mites) etc. The asthma was allergy triggered, and required treatment with a nebulizer four times daily to keep my breathing free. I also needed injections twice weekly to accustom my immune system to environmental allergens. Despite these treatments, I was still in and out of the hospital for the first five years of my life.

The injections went on for about twenty years, and I moved up the chain of asthma maintenance technology to what I use today: the Advair Discus. Its a hell of a lot more convenient than a nebulizer, and it combines two of the medications I was previously taking into a single dose taken twice daily. I consider my asthma to be fully managed at this point, and I go weeks at a time without having to reach for the rescue inhaler that I carry with me.

My allergies for the most part have evaporated. The only food I still have a strong reaction to is nuts (except for almonds), with very, very mild reactions to bananas, melons, and kiwifruits.

I always knew that I'd have to worry about maintaining my asthma--and to a lesser extend my allergies--for the rest of my life, and was feeling pretty good about that whole situation up until recently. I've developed a new chronic medical problem that is turning out to be a much bigger pain in the ass than my allergies/asthma ever were: Ulcerative Colitis. It started up July 4 weekend of last year, and I've had four major flares since--three requiring a trip to the ER followed by 3 days of hospitalization. Like asthma, there is no cure; there is only a maintenance program. Unlike asthma, these treatments are pretty expensive (Remicade) and there is a very, very good chance I will develop a pretty nasty complication as a result of the damage from the flares: cancer. Hoo-fuckin-ray.

How ya doing, buddy?