I was recently diagnosed with IA by my allergist. After reading some of the posts, this concerns me, since almost everyone has theirs controlled by medication, and this seems to be my only trigger that we have found. My worst attacks were brought on by Benedryl and Claratin. I currently carry four epi pens, and two letters to the ER for when I have my next attack. Does anyone have any suggestions or tips? Also, does anyone know of a doctor in the Houston area that I could contact?

Hi Donna,

I´m sorry it took me so long to get here.  Welcome to our group!  I hope I can help you!!

I´ve heard of others reacting to either Claratin or Benedryl and it means you could have reacted to the fillers, the dyes or even the medicine itself wasn´t well accepted.   There are others you can and should try.   You can also try finding these meds in a compounded pharmacy where the fillers and other stuff has been removed.   So, although they are a trigger to you, it may not be the medication in and of itself.  

Now, I´m sure you´ve got other triggers but without having had a chance to figure things out, you´re not aware of them yet.    I´m still finding things out and I´ve been going through this for almost 5 years now.   I just found out that Imodium is an opiate and it´s no wonder I reacted to it!  I can´t handle that medicine at all and once I took some paragoric and about sent myself into outer space!   So, even the hidden ingredients to meds can be issues.  

Yet, if you hang around, reading and talking amongst us, telling us of your episodes, many times we can find the trigger for you for we will often have similar triggers amongst us and we can probably pinpoint it for you.  Then, with time, when you get the hang of what can trigger and what can´t you´ll figure things out on your own and get better at it.  

Another thing is diet - some here have real issues with foods and such and although it may not be a drastic reaction you end up having, it could still be provoking issues like flushing, diarrhea or malaise.  By keeping a diary of your foods, this could help you identify a few possible triggers.   Sometimes it takes a few hours for a food to kick in others, you can feel the grumbling and hear the noises rather quickly.  Chocolate milk will make my tummy make impressive noises but I don´t always end up with diarrhea because of it, whereas if I eat spinich my stomach won´t gripe a bit, but instead, within a half hour I´m racing to the bathroom doubled over in pain!   I´ve stopped trying to make sense of it all.

As to doctors, Joan gave an excellent suggestion.   Perhaps one of our other Texans will pop in here.   I believe your best and closest bet is Dr. Philip Miner in Oklahoma.   Unfortunately Donna we usually have to travel to find good doctors.   Dr. Miner is a gastroenterologist and more often than not this is where our mast cell disorder is hidden and it´s good to have an upper and lower GI done looking for focal areas of mast cells.  A diagnosis of IA is really not appropriate without a full investigation ruling everything else out first.   It´s actually the very last option raised on the board, so if you´ve not been purposefully investigated for systemic mastocytosis, then your doctors diagnosis is premature.   You need to be properly investigated and Dr. Miner is a good place to start.  

I hope this helps!!

Lisa