Guest guest Posted October 11, 2007 Report Share Posted October 11, 2007 Nice! Now I get it. It's all about our parents....lol. C Get a sneak peak at messages with a handy reading pane with All new Mail: http://mrd.mail./try_beta?.intl=ca Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 11, 2007 Report Share Posted October 11, 2007 Thanks for the explanations. I finally have something I can hand to my husband to hopefully make him understand what is going on in my body. Having others think you are not that sick when you're dragging your wheezing body around is most frustrating, particularly the people closest to you. Suzanne ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ " Don't mess with me because I've sold cars, stolen guns and made grown men cry... " --------------------------------- Moody friends. Drama queens. Your life? Nope! - their life, your story. Play Sims Stories at Games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 11, 2007 Report Share Posted October 11, 2007 Fran - let me lay this one on you. As a child, I had nasty asthma along with " hayfever " as it was known then. Sometimes it got so bad that the doctor had to come to the house and sit up with me to do what he could to keep me going through the night. Eventually, they started me on desensitivation shots, which was about the only treatment back then other than benzedrine inhalers. I was a tennis nut back then, and played every day with a racquet in one hand and one of six to eight handkerchiefs I carried with me in the other hand. When one was soaked, I'd hang it on the fencing to dry so I could use it again. Sneezing fits were always a bit of a problem when I was serving, and even more so when I was receiving. Periodically during the season I had to go to a specialist in a nearby city to have my impacted sinuses drained because the sinus headaches were brutal. I gradually outgrew the problem, and by the time I was in college, the asthma was gone and the allergies, mostly ragweed, were fairly mild and confined to that season. By my thirties, the whole mess had disappeared. Wonderful!! Then, in my late forties, it came back - mildly at first but gradually increasing until, in my sixties I had year-long allergies that weren't too bad, but were not especially attributable to ragweed - mold and dust instead. By my late sixties, the problem had evolved into sinusitis, among other things, and testing indicated I was not particularly allergic to anything. After two sinus surgeries, I finally ended up at Duke for a sinus D & C because I had contracted MRSA up thar, along with a mold and bacterial infection. The D & C was really nasty, and after I stopped bleeding about two or three weeks later, my condition was greatly improved, but my asthma had returned. The dox at Duke turned me on to flushing with eight or more ounces of saline twice a day and said I'd have to do that the rest of my life, and I have to say it's been an enormous help. I asked about shots, especially for mold even though I had not tested positive for mold. The dox said forget it - there are something like a thousand varieties of mold and I could be allergic to any one of them. Local pulmo dude tried a flock of different drugs on me which helped some, but didn't get rid of the snap, crackle, pop and wheezing that kept me up at night. Finally, he said, " boy have I got a deal for you - Xolair. " My Ig whatchadingies were 943, which I guess is fairly high. Almost immediately my various nocturnal noises diminished, although I continue with nasacort and pulmicort plus 8 mg per day of prednisone. I get 375 mg every two weeks of Xolair, which is covered by Medicare and BCBS supplementary, but I have to get it in the hospital. Everything seems to be pretty good now, I can breathe through my nose most of the time, and can even snort ragweed. I imagine the jury's still out on this, but I wonder if I can ever be weaned off Xolair. It's kind of a pain in the tush to make a 28 mile round trip from the beach to the hospital every other week. I wonder if you or anyone knows what happens when Xolair is discontinued. Perhaps there could be a rebound to a condition worse than before I started. An inquiring mind wants to know. Ohldepharte ----- Original Message ----- From: tiredofsteroids Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2007 8:14 PM Subject: [ ] Re: IgE production Hi , You are very welcome! Your question is a great one, absolutely no reason to be apologetic. Allergen exposure triggers IgE exposure in an individual genetically susceptible to producing IgE in response to that allergen. At the time of the very first exposure to a particular allergen, there is no pre-existing IgE and so no allergic response to the exposure. The allergen to which an individual is allergic initially triggers the transformation of specific immune cells into cells that can secrete IgE but these cells do not secrete enough IgE to trigger an allergic response at the time of first exposure. However, subsequent allergen exposure causes the now primed immune system to produce more IgE that can trigger the onset of the allergic cascade with each further antigen exposure. And each time the allergic cascade is triggered, it can self-perpetuate itself. The degree to which that happens also has a genetic basis and differs between individuals. That's a very simplified summary of what is really a very complicated process involving many different types of immune cells and immune mediators. Any individual will have her/his own genetic propensity to affect each step of the overall process to varying degrees. That's why different folks allergic to the same allergens have different degrees of allergic responses to the same level of allergen exposure. Fran > > Fran, > > First of all thank you. Your explanations are clear, > concise and accurate. We are so lucky to have you! > > Question: What determines how much IgE one produces in > the first place? Clearly person 1 and person 2 do not > produce the same quantity in response to the same > allergic trigger. Genetics? What happens first? Ige > production or is it trigger by allergen? > > Sorry for the innocent questions. My immunology was > quite a long time ago... > > C > > > Get news delivered with the All new . Enjoy RSS feeds right on your Mail page. Start today at http://mrd.mail./try_beta?.intl=ca > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 11, 2007 Report Share Posted October 11, 2007 Fran: Your suggestion of Suzanne taking her husband with her to a doctor's appointment is a great idea. Several things happened to help my husband understand what I was going through. I woke him up in the middle of the night several times because I couldn't breathe and we made a trip to the ER. (Of course I went to the doctor the next day and after several trips to the ER my allergist suggested I might as well have a Nebulizer at home.) I insisted he go with me to one of my appointments with my allergist and asked pointed questions of the doctor with my husband sitting right there while the doctor answered and then prescribed my regimen of medicine. The other thing that made a believer of my husband is that he worked in an ER for about three years on a part time basis. He was the first person people met when they came in and he often decided who needed help right away (sometimes it was a no-brainer). At any rate he learned that the two cases who were taken right back and treated were heart pains and breathing problems (asthmatics in particularly.) So suggesting that Suzanne's husband go with her to a doctor's visit is a great idea. Hope it works out for her and that the doctor is sensitive enough to let her husband know how very serious asthma is and can be! Since we have both retired, my husband has been great and in reality my asthma has improved so much since I have been on xolair. However, I still have some breathing problems if I try to do too much heavy housework at once, so he often does some of the heavy stuff for me,. like vacuuming and wet-mopping the floors. Yes, I am very blessed to have all of my family members supportive and understanding and I do not take that for granted. I thank God for them. Have a great day, all. Adah P.S. Fran, your explanations of the IgE and histamine and how they work were very informative. I couldn't repeat what you said, but I think I have a better understanding of what happens. Thanks so much. I always look forward to your posts because of your wonderful knowledge and the gift of being able to communicate that knowledge in a way we can all understand. tiredofsteroids <sitesee@...> wrote: Suzanne, you're very welcome. Have you been on this board long enough to know the term " asthnostics " ? It's part of our lingo, meaning folks who don't really believe in asthma as a serious illness. I'm sorry you've been having to deal with some. Have you considered bringing your husband or any of the others to a doctor's appointment with you for confirmation of what you're dealing with? At some point, someone on this board (Doug?) mentioned a friend, I think, who described asthma as feeling like you're breathing through a straw. It's a great description - maybe you could mention that to the asthnostics in your life and offer them a straw to try it. Seriously. Fran > > Thanks for the explanations. I finally have something I can hand to my husband to hopefully make him understand what is going on in my body. Having others think you are not that sick when you're dragging your wheezing body around is most frustrating, particularly the people closest to you. > > Suzanne > > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > > " Don't mess with me because I've sold cars, stolen guns and made grown men cry... " > > > > > > --------------------------------- > Moody friends. Drama queens. Your life? Nope! - their life, your story. > Play Sims Stories at Games. > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 11, 2007 Report Share Posted October 11, 2007 Thanks, Fran - I don't think this was a question of interest to most people, but for oldfarts like myself who consider thinking about next year as optimism, there is the consideration that in a few years, it may be too much of an aggravation to drive to the hospital and back. On the other hand, wife/nurse could give me the shots at home until one or the other of us croaks, but unless Medicare changes its rules, that's out. Oh, well. OP ----- Original Message ----- From: tiredofsteroids Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2007 12:35 AM Subject: [ ] Re: IgE production Terry, in response to your question about what happens if Xolair is discontinued, preliminary studies showed that generally IgE levels remain elevated above the pre-Xolair level for as long as a year but eventually do return to the pre-Xolair level (which in all of us on Xolair was abnormally elevated), and previous symptoms do return. This sounds confusing but remember that the measured IgE levels are increased above the pre-Xolair level during Xolair treatment because the widely availabe lab test is measuring both free IgE and IgE- Xolair complexes as IgE without distinguishing the two. So what happens after discontinuation is that free IgE production continues as before while IgE-Xolair complexes are gradually cleared from the blood and the lab test will show a gradual decline in total IgE even if free IgE remains the same. In the end, you end up where you started. I don't really think we're going to know the full, detailed answer to your question until a study is done of patients who have been on Xolair for a number of years and then choose to stop treatment for whatever reason. Fran > > > > Fran, > > > > First of all thank you. Your explanations are clear, > > concise and accurate. We are so lucky to have you! > > > > Question: What determines how much IgE one produces in > > the first place? Clearly person 1 and person 2 do not > > produce the same quantity in response to the same > > allergic trigger. Genetics? What happens first? Ige > > production or is it trigger by allergen? > > > > Sorry for the innocent questions. My immunology was > > quite a long time ago... > > > > C > > > > > > Get news delivered with the All new . Enjoy RSS > feeds right on your Mail page. Start today at > http://mrd.mail./try_beta?.intl=ca > > > > > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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