Well,went to see allergist the other day and told him about flu like aches the day after getting allergy shots.  He added singulair in and said to keep taking zyrtec and zantac.  I have still had chronic sinus headaches, so he also added in astelin spray to my nasalcrom spray.  So,we shall see how all this helps...did use the astelin spray and boy did hit help pretty quickly as far as the sinus issue goes.  Jury still out on singulair.

Thanks Heather...
I will be patient...have no choice!  I am hoping I can tolerate it this time because I am on Prilosec and Zantac.  Today I have had virtually NO body pain, which is unusual when it is over 95 degrees out.  Maybe a fluke, but I am hoping  that the Singulair may knock a lot of the body pain out.  If not, I may ask for Ketotifen...my dr. won't give me gastrocrom due to expense.  I am not sure of cost of Ketotifen relative to gastrocrom.  But, we will hope it will be a non-issue because the singulair works (and it is going generic in 2012, yayyy).

Hi Tex!

Both Singulair and Ketotifen take about 6 weeks to come to full strength.  You need to be on both, Singulair and some kind of mast cell stabilizer.  Singulair is an excellent med and I'm like Heather it's made a DRAMATIC influence upon how I'm doing.  It has been responsible for reducing my anaphylaxis emensely!  If I go off of Singulair for a few days, all heck breaks loose - diarrhea, anaphylaxis, fainting, etc - the whole shebang!  It's brought to me incredible stability and energy and I feel plain NORMAL on it.  

I'm also on high doses of Ketotifen.  I have NO DOUBTS that it also is what has helped to improve my stability.  I don't react so easily to triggers and when I do trigger, the reaction is not the massive explosion that it used to be!!!

It surprises me that your doctor hasn't put you on an MC stabilizer yet!  This is really a very important medication for us and it's important because singulair and our antihistamines don't reduce the amount of mediators being released, they only deal with what is released.  The MC stabilizers, by forcing the MCs to keep quiet or to be harder to trigger help to prevent so much of the other mediators being released.  We gain more stability merely because it's harder to trigger our MCs.  In theory, we should be able to reduce our other meds by being on higher doses of MC stabilizers.   I don't know if it really works this way, but I would think this is the deal.   Yet, I can say this, I am doing SO MUCH BETTER with the increase in my Ketotifen and the addition of Singulair!!  My doctor was being driven to distraction because she would increase my antihistamines and yet I was still very sick.  My improvement came with these two meds!!

So, I suggest you fight for Ketotifen, it's not as expensive as gastrochrom.  You can order it from a pharmacy in Washington state apparently too.  

I hope this helps!

Lisa

Hey Heather and Lisa how much ketotifen do you guys take and what time?

We are switching the timing of my husbands meds a little bit and Im wondering if he should take the ketotifen before bed time. He takes it at 430pm 4mg of Ketotifen, 300mg of Zantac and by 8pm hes passed out really tired and cant wake him up from the couch to go to bed.
We used to take it at 630pm  so by 9-930pm he would go to bed...he never thought it made him exceptionally tired and sometimes takes an extra 1mg during the day if hes having a flare up or really bad stomach issues.
Bendaryl and most sedating anti hist dont make him tired.

Im thinking of replacing the ketotifen at 430pm with either Zyrtec or Allegra? and then take the ketotifen at bedtime.

He  takes 10mg of Singular in the morning and without it he becomes very symptomatic and we have found it VERY helpful!

Tex I hope the singulair is helping you!

I am taking 10 mg singulair added to Zyrtec and Zantac 2x day.  Adding the singulair has really helped....has caused a bit of GERD, but body pain is wayyyyy down.  Thanks for recommending to try it one more time.  It took a week or two for me to tell a difference but we are still hanging above 90 degrees here with high humidity and my bodypain is not going crazy, nor the feeling of dizzyness and like I could seize.  I still like the idea of trying ketotifen in the mix, but lets see if this keeps helping knock wood may not need it.