I felt a slight sting on my face yesterday and thought “oh no, oh no…”
I know what it means!
It means my allergies are going “HI JOYCE ! WE’RE GONNA HAVE A PARTY ON YA!!!”

I went to bed with my face stinging despite washing it with gentle face cleanser and applying Avene (it’s what my aunt uses cos she has allergies too) and woke up this morning with tiny yellow pimples all over my lower face…

Looking bad is one thing, but having it hurt and sting and itch adds to the whole damnation of it all!

I used to have great skin. In fact, i would have an average of ONE PIMPLE per year since i was old enough to HAVE pimples.
I now know i was taking my great skin for granted… once i hit my 30th birthday, i started getting allergies on and off all over my face and body.

It’s surprising how many girl friends have been casually handing me out allergy pills and cream when i feel an itch coming while we’re out for meals or drinks. Every time i voiced out my surprise how PREPARED they all are for allergies, they merely replied, “Welcome to your thirties.”

AHHHHHHHHHH

I know around seven girl friends who all contracted allergies the moment they hit 30.
Why did noone tell me of this before?
Or maybe i couldn’t care less cos *i* didn’t have it then.
Well look at me now… bursting out in angry rashes all over my body!

At one point in London when it was really bad, i told my uncle, “It seems to be going down every time i drink. Maybe i’m allergic to sobriety!”
His reply: “YOU WISH.”

You know what my worst fear is?
That i’m allergic to alcohol!!!
I don’t think so… (i mean, come on… it’s me, how can *I* be allergic to alcohol) but who knows the funny games the Universe plays on you nowadays.

So anyway this morning i was desperate.
I vowed to run to either a Chinese herbal medicine shop or a Western skin doctor as soon as they opened.
I was so eager that i called the clinic at 8:45am and they hung up on me :p
Guess that’s too early for them.

Aps and Jia Wei both told me about Dr Kaulsay, who has a clinic next to Victoria Station and is apparently an expert in allergies, so i drove there this morning.

Anyway the interesting part of this post is what i’m about to tell you.

After showing the doctor my allergies on my face, shins, stomach, and arms; he looked all serious and asked me about my family’s history with life illnesses. I had to think for awhile and said my grandmother has diabetes, and my grandfather passed away from a heart attack.

“How old was he?”
“I dunno, maybe 65?”
“Did he smoke?”
“Yes.”
“That’s still bad.”

Then he proceeded to tell me how allergies are due to my genetic inflammations acting up, and how they are all signs to future diseases i might suffer from in the future. The reason he asked me about my family’s medical history is because of my genetic make up that obviously comes from them. He mentioned how life diseases are caused by many factors in our environment nowadays and how any of these factors can trigger allergies (which are what i presume sound like warning signs now) be it food, medication or products that are wrongly advertised by companies to be “healthy”. < I must add how he gruffly disapproved of how institutions mislead the public to take all sorts of things when they can be bad for them. I was slightly taken aback as to how passionate he seemed about the subject.

Then he said something i CAN do, is to take this genetic mapping test so he can explain to me the dos and don’ts about my own personal lifestyle habits so i can “switch off” the inflammations that are acting up, before they possess a greater danger to me in the future.

I actually know about this genetic mapping test from Jia Wei, who said she wants to take it too. And i know Serena has taken a similar one on Jln Yap Kwan Seng. They take a swab sample from inside your mouth and send it to Australia where the results are returned within 3-4 weeks. Once you get your results, the doctor has private sessions with you to explain in full length and detail on whatever it is that you need to know (obviously i don’t know what i’m talking about here cos i haven’t had the test done before!).

I asked how much the test cost and he said RM3K.
I didn’t even bother to hide how much i thought that was and went, “Whattttt!”
Tak maintain langsung haha.

I do plan to return to get it done, as i really can’t be plagued by my allergies like this for the rest of my life.
And the thought of being at risk of diseases i could avoid is scary.
Also, i have more time to research and ask around.

For now, he gave me some cortisone cream and tablets to make the allergies go down.
The cream is awesome! Ok it’s quite bad for you… cos it’s a steroid cream and i can’t use it every time i have allergies. But for now i just want to get the damn thing off my face so i applied it and wala it’s reduced impressively in 12 hours. (The cream has 1% cortisone in it btw.) However when i applied it onto my bodily rashes they became bright red spots 0_0 At least the ones on my face didn’t become like that i suppose.

Ok so that’s my allergy story.
If you have allergies, fret not, you are not alone.

I have officially joined the Allergy Club. (Somehow i wish that was the Alcohol Club instead. Oh god please do not let me be allergic to alcohol and all my favourite foods of any sort! I’ll be GOOD.)

     COMMENTS (6)