Rush Immunotherapy, Environmental Allergens, and Double the Allergy Shots

My daughter has been getting allergy shots for the last two years to help with her environmental allergies. They were working well until she developed a whole batch of new allergies. 

Recently we discovered that my daughter developed new allergies and now she gets 4 shots rather than the two shots that she was previously getting. Her allergy shots have helped her so much that under her allergists care, we were able to lower her antihistamine intake and asthma medications. She felt wonderful for months! Even her oral allergy syndrome was improving, but then all of the sudden, she went from having mostly clear headed and wheeze free days, to struggling again daily with hay-fever, and asthma flare ups. We had moved into a new part of the country, and she had developed allergies to the local environmental allergens. Oddly enough, she is not allergic to ragweed which is one of the most common allergens.

Because of the variety of allergens that she is allergic to (48 out of the 55 tested), the allergist was not able to combine them into fewer than 4 shots. We were told that some allergens degrade the other allergens if combined. Fortunately my daughter is able to tolerate getting four shots at one time. Our allergist told us that it is very unusual to have to get 4 allergy shots at a time and that he only had a handful of patients out of all of his patients that need four allergy shots. He told us that my daughter is supremely allergic, and is a rare case, in his experience.

To go from her 2 shots a month to now 4 shots, she went through a day of rush immunotherapy. Rush immunotherapy is where you get a few months of shots in one or two days. To prepare for this, you have to take a lot of medication. My daughter's allergist had her on a week of pre-medication leading up to the day of, and then more medication for a couple of days after. My amazingly brave daughter had 12 shots in each arm (4 every 25 min) in one morning for a total of 24 shots! She did very well and had just a tiny bit of localized mild swelling. Her arms were sore that day, and the next, but she was grateful to be weeks ahead of where she would have been if we had not done the rush immunotherapy.

To get through her allergy shots, my daughter swears by the "Shot Blocker" which works by distracting your skin with many little hard plastic points. If we forget to bring it, she asks the nurse to give her a good pinch so that she does not feel the needle going in. She also relaxes her arms and a lollipop always helps. Here is the link to the shot blocker on Amazon: SHOT BLOCKER

Allergy Shots for Kids!? Our Environmental Allergy Shot Journey Begins!

 Our Allergy Shot Journey Has Begun!



I was very nervous, and worried about my daughter getting her first allergy shots. But, with Buzzy Bee, a lollipop,  and a Shot Blocker, the first allergy shots went better than I could have ever imagined!

My seven year old daughter was terrified, but with these three things, and a lot of talking them up as being almost painless, she barely even winced!  She was thrilled that the shot was almost painless!

We are both excited that she is on her way towards being able spend less time sneezing, eye rubbing, itching, wiping her nose, wheezing, and coughing, and hopefully one day, snuggle with Grandma's cat.

The 35+ weeks of weekly shots seems endless, 5 years of maintenance seems like an eternity, but it will be worth it! Hopefully...

I felt silly bringing in a shot kit with the skin distractors to the office, because I called ahead, and the nurses had never seen either the buzzy bee, or the shot blocker, they have nothing for kids... But it was worth it!

My daughter is normally shaking, and crying, and they worked to keep her calm, and happy.

I would not say either would make the pain non-existent. Both seem to work in the similar way of confusing/stimulating the nerves/skin, so the focus is not all on one tiny spot where the needle goes in. Plus there is the psychological comfort of being told that it will help, and that there is something being used to make the pain and fear go away.

The shot blocker reminds me of acupressure points, here it is: http://www.buyshotblocker.com/ the buzzy bee vibrates, and has a frozen pad that can go on it as well. Here is the site for it http://buzzy4shots.com

The nurses loved them! They told me that I should do a U-tube video as they have many young patients who could really use them.