OT Doctors: Odd allergy reoccuring

[James Bond]

It seems like once every year or so I get really bad allergic reactions, but I can never figure out what causes them. It has happened to my feet, hands, and now eye.

The odd thing though: My eye has gotten completely swollen up (nearly shut) three times in the last two weeks. This has never happened to me before. My eye doesn't itch at all, and it seems that the issue is unrelated to my eye (other than the vicinity).

The weird thing is that I can't figure out what is causing this. It happened once at work (IT), once at home (while working on a computer... maybe dust?), and once last night at the dinner table (prior to eating).

All three times I have caught it just as it began. It starts as a tiny, tiny welt under my eye. By the time I have taken 2 benadryl (within 5 minutes), the entire area under my eye is bright red, puffy, swollen, etc. It gets so swollen that today I still don't have full vision due to the skin under my eye still being slightly intrusive to my vision (I think that the skin may be stretched a tiny and take some time to go back down?).

Is there any point to going to a dermatologist? Will he be able to run tests? What do I do!!

 

[AgentUnknown]

Go to your doctor.

 

[James Bond]

As a side note: I get absolutely no other symptoms whatsoever when this happens. I do have some other slight allergies, and with those I get the usual stuffy nose, itchy eyes, etc. Not with this, though.

 

[Amused]

Originally posted by: AgentUnknown
Go to your doctor.

I gotta second this.

 

[James Bond]

Originally posted by: Amused

Originally posted by: AgentUnknown
Go to your doctor.

I gotta second this.

Should I be going to my regular doc, or a derma?

 

[Amused]

Originally posted by: James Bond

Originally posted by: Amused

Originally posted by: AgentUnknown
Go to your doctor.

I gotta second this.

Should I be going to my regular doc, or a derma?

Go to the regular doc first. This may not be only a skin condition. If he has no answer, get a referal to a derm. Be sure to take clear pics of your eye at it's worst in case it clears up before you can get into see your doc.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Might consider a scratch test.

 

[Mo0o]

There are better anti-allergy medications than benadryl. Benadryl is probably the worst one out there

 

[Amused]

Originally posted by: Mo0o
There are better anti-allergy medications than benadryl. Benadryl is probably the worst one out there

Actually, benedryl is one of the best at stopping histamines. It's the side effects that make it crappy.

 

[Lifted]

I just had this a few days ago in both eyes as well. It wasn't until I was looking at my eye in the mirror that I remembered having it once or twice many years ago also. I figured it's an allergy to something, so I cut out some things I was eating which I haven't eaten in a long time. But who knows, could have been anything. If it happens again in the near future I'll probably go to a doctor, but it cleared up in a few days so I don't know what the doctor can do about it, other than possibly figure out what caused it.

 

[James Bond]

Originally posted by: Amused

Originally posted by: Mo0o
There are better anti-allergy medications than benadryl. Benadryl is probably the worst one out there

Actually, benedryl is one of the best at stopping histamines. It's the side effects that make it crappy.

I don't even care about the side-effects as long as it immediately halts the reaction. This thing happens SO fast the the only real bummer is that the Benadryl takes 20 minutes to kick in.