Improvement

For those who aren't aware, this blog is about sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT), a relatively new allergy treatment that desensitizes your body to allergens. It uses a liquid mixture containing whatever you are allergic to, and you put that mixture under your tongue for twenty seconds each night, building up to a top dose of four drops of the more concentrated bottle. I decided to test this procedure's effectiveness by conducting tests every two weeks in which I would stay with my cat (to whom I am allergic) for fifteen minutes and record my symptoms.

For reference, here are my symptoms before beginning sublingual immunotherapy:

0:00- Start trial
6:30- Nose begins to itch
8:00- Nose starts running, becomes congested
13:15- Sneeze four times
15:00- Stop playing with cat
21:30- Nose still itchy, congested
25:00- Sneeze four times
27:50- Nose stops itching
36:00- Sneeze four times
~5:00:00- Congestion stops

March 3rd:
0:00- Start experiment
6:30- Itchy back of nose
13:50- Itchy eyes
18:00- Sneezing
45:25- Eyes stop itching
~4:50:00- Congestion stops

March 17th:
Unable to do experiment; sick, would affect results

March 31st:
0:00- Start trial
5:25- Congestion starts
14:30- Eyes begin to itch
29:00- Eyes stop itching
~2:30:00- Congestion stops

April 15th:
0:00- Start trial
6:05- Congestion starts
~1:25:00- Congestion stops

April 30th:
0:00- Start trial
6:35- Congestion starts, can kind of breathe through
45:00- Congestion stops

May 11th:
0:00- Start trial
7:50- Nose slightly congested, but still able to breathe through it
25:00- Congestion stops
*Note: scratches from cat become very itchy immediately; after about a minute, become red & puffy

Over the course of this experiment, the symptoms caused by my cat allergies have slowly decreased in severity, to the point that I now experience very few symptoms in response to fifteen minutes of interacting with the cat, although I may experience more severe symptoms if I stay with her for longer. In this time, I have also learned several things about myself: that I am able to keep to a schedule when necessary, even though I normally have difficulty with organizing and remembering to keep to a schedule; and that I can do things even when the results are unpleasant (it helps that it's fun to play with the cat). I have had to deal with several problems that came up, as well. First, I had a few difficulties with vacations messing up my schedule of testing, but that was easily solved- I simply did the test when I came back from my vacation. I also had to skip one trial because I was sick, and it would be hard to distinguish the symptoms of the allergies from those stemming from my illness. The most challenging problem I was faced with was how to compare and present the data I collected. After much deliberation, I decided to use a number scale, with ten as the symptoms before beginning SLIT, and zero as a complete lack of symptoms. I would assign a rating to the symptoms I recorded during each test, considering what symptoms I experienced, their intensity, and how long they lasted. After this, I plan to continue the tests and hopefully see more improvement, and I will also begin comparing the trials and assigning numbers (based on severity of symptoms) to each. I hope all that I have learned from this experiment will be helpful to those considering starting sublingual immunotherapy, and I hope I remember what I have learned during the course of this assignment.