Oh sorry, I didn't mean that it's pointless to take antihistamines after you already have symptoms. I see how it sounds that way. I hope this message is clear and correct this time.
I was saying antihistamines work to prevent inflammation and the continued feeding of inflammation from histamine receptor activation. But as far as I know, they don't, in general, also directly reverse this inflammation once it's there, but of course they will speed up recovery and mitigate the reaction.
I was just thinking that the inflammation that I had from the reaction without pre-medicating, was just very slow for my body to clear. Maybe some peoples' bodies can clear the inflammation quickly after the post-trigger anti-histamines stop the continued feeding of this inflammation.
It's good to know that it's easier to prevent symptoms than to treat them. That's basically what I was asking in a stupid verbose and unnecessarily overcomplicated way. lol I'll have to try pre-medicating as soon as I get the Benadryl delivered.
I was hoping that was the case because Benadryl may be the only med I tolerate since I'm intolerant to 99% of things I've ingested. I was wondering if I should give Zyrtec a try too if Benadryl alone doesn't work well enough for me.
And I know a lot of you guys take meds every day, so what about building up tolerance to them in the sense that they are no longer effective. Does that usually not happen to you guys or do up the dose or alternate meds or what?