"Pet" Peeve
This happens to me a lot and it really annoys me.
I have asthma. Here's a quick primer: Asthma attacks are caused by many things, including chest infection, irritants like dust, and allergens to which the asthmatic person is allergic. These things cause the bronchial tubes to dilate, restricting breathing.
In my case, I am severely allergic to cats. So, not only do I get the normal 'allergy' symptoms like watery eyes, runny nose, sneezing, etc., I also suffer asthma symptoms when exposed to cats. I am so severely allergic to cats that if a cats nails touch my skin, I come up in itchy hives at the point of contact. If I go to someone's house who has a cat, and stay more than 20 minutes or so, I can suffer an asthma attack. These range from mild to severe, requiring a trip to the hospital if it gets so bad that my inhalers don't help.
Once, after being at my grandmother's cat-filled house for too long, I ended up in the emergency room, on with an oxygen and drug breathing thing strapped over my face. I've been been to hospital 3 times for severe asthma attacks.
So, if I am invited to someone's house where I've never been, I always have to ask if they have a cat. If so, I must decline, unless it's an outdoor party. Putting the cat outside doesn't help - it's in the air. Even if your house is pristinely clean, the dried particles from the cat are so small, you can't get rid of them (My dad has a cat. He and his wife are so clean that I would not be worried about infection if a heart bypass was performed on his kitchen table. He even bought air cleaners to help me to visit. It didn't help). By the way, it's not the fur that I am allergic to. It's the dried particles of saliva that dry up and enter the air after the cat grooms by licking itself, and their skin flakes.
However, none of the above are the thing that annoys me. People would have no way of knowing the above if they didn't have personal experience.
The thing that annoys me is that inevitably when I tell someone I am allergic to cats, or that I can't attend a party because a cat lives there, they will tell me about their friend or family member or uncle's neighbour's cousin who 'used to be' allergic to cats, until they got 3 of them, and now they are cured! So really, the implication is that I'm just being pathetic, or wimpy, or I just need to get over it and stop avoiding cats.
First of all, I don't know if these stories are true, and I don't care. I know how I feel when I've been exposed to cats, and it is horrible. It can also be terrifying, because not being able to breathe properly is scary. Then you panic, and it gets worse. I feel TERRIBLE when I've been exposed to cats
Second, you wouldn't tell a person who has diabetes, for example, that they just need to eat a lot of sugar, the thing that affects their condition, because a friend of a friend did it and then was cured. You wouldn't tell a person with a stomach ulcer that a friend used to have one, and as soon as they started eating a lot of jalepeno peppers that the ulcer was cured.
I do understand that 'exposure therapy' works for allergies, because I have had it for some substances to which I am allergic. It's called "immunotherapy" and the idea is that over a long period (ten years or so for me), you are exposed to tiny bits of the thing you are allergic to, suffer a tiny reaction, and your body builds up resistance to it (antibodies) and your symptoms lessen . As a child I was allergic to mold, trees, all kinds of weeds and pollen (one was called 'ragweed'), and just breathing in the world would cause an asthma attack. So I had to take asthma medication for years, as well as having an injection once a week that contained tiny portions of these allergens. It worked - In America I do not have hayfever, nor do I have asthma attacks from hayfever allergens. (Here in the UK, there is some damn plant I'm allergic to, and I'm having mild hayfever, but it's manageable).
However, immunotherapy is a medical treatment, by a real doctor. (Not some jackass who calls himself an 'alternative healer'). And they don't throw a bucket of ragweed over you and tell you to get over it (the ragweed cure equivalent of the cat allergy advice I always get) . It is a very gradual and medically supervised treatment. Therefore, just getting a cat is not likely to work. So don't tell me it will. Unless you went to medical school and have done some real research on it, not possess some secondhand anecdote about some acquaintance.
(You might ask why I didn't have the immunotherapy for cats, and the reason is that it was not covered by my insurance. You can't get away from ragweed etc., if you intend to go outside, but you can avoid houses with cats. It's elective. )
I have asthma. Here's a quick primer: Asthma attacks are caused by many things, including chest infection, irritants like dust, and allergens to which the asthmatic person is allergic. These things cause the bronchial tubes to dilate, restricting breathing.
In my case, I am severely allergic to cats. So, not only do I get the normal 'allergy' symptoms like watery eyes, runny nose, sneezing, etc., I also suffer asthma symptoms when exposed to cats. I am so severely allergic to cats that if a cats nails touch my skin, I come up in itchy hives at the point of contact. If I go to someone's house who has a cat, and stay more than 20 minutes or so, I can suffer an asthma attack. These range from mild to severe, requiring a trip to the hospital if it gets so bad that my inhalers don't help.
Once, after being at my grandmother's cat-filled house for too long, I ended up in the emergency room, on with an oxygen and drug breathing thing strapped over my face. I've been been to hospital 3 times for severe asthma attacks.
So, if I am invited to someone's house where I've never been, I always have to ask if they have a cat. If so, I must decline, unless it's an outdoor party. Putting the cat outside doesn't help - it's in the air. Even if your house is pristinely clean, the dried particles from the cat are so small, you can't get rid of them (My dad has a cat. He and his wife are so clean that I would not be worried about infection if a heart bypass was performed on his kitchen table. He even bought air cleaners to help me to visit. It didn't help). By the way, it's not the fur that I am allergic to. It's the dried particles of saliva that dry up and enter the air after the cat grooms by licking itself, and their skin flakes.
However, none of the above are the thing that annoys me. People would have no way of knowing the above if they didn't have personal experience.
The thing that annoys me is that inevitably when I tell someone I am allergic to cats, or that I can't attend a party because a cat lives there, they will tell me about their friend or family member or uncle's neighbour's cousin who 'used to be' allergic to cats, until they got 3 of them, and now they are cured! So really, the implication is that I'm just being pathetic, or wimpy, or I just need to get over it and stop avoiding cats.
First of all, I don't know if these stories are true, and I don't care. I know how I feel when I've been exposed to cats, and it is horrible. It can also be terrifying, because not being able to breathe properly is scary. Then you panic, and it gets worse. I feel TERRIBLE when I've been exposed to cats
Second, you wouldn't tell a person who has diabetes, for example, that they just need to eat a lot of sugar, the thing that affects their condition, because a friend of a friend did it and then was cured. You wouldn't tell a person with a stomach ulcer that a friend used to have one, and as soon as they started eating a lot of jalepeno peppers that the ulcer was cured.
I do understand that 'exposure therapy' works for allergies, because I have had it for some substances to which I am allergic. It's called "immunotherapy" and the idea is that over a long period (ten years or so for me), you are exposed to tiny bits of the thing you are allergic to, suffer a tiny reaction, and your body builds up resistance to it (antibodies) and your symptoms lessen . As a child I was allergic to mold, trees, all kinds of weeds and pollen (one was called 'ragweed'), and just breathing in the world would cause an asthma attack. So I had to take asthma medication for years, as well as having an injection once a week that contained tiny portions of these allergens. It worked - In America I do not have hayfever, nor do I have asthma attacks from hayfever allergens. (Here in the UK, there is some damn plant I'm allergic to, and I'm having mild hayfever, but it's manageable).
However, immunotherapy is a medical treatment, by a real doctor. (Not some jackass who calls himself an 'alternative healer'). And they don't throw a bucket of ragweed over you and tell you to get over it (the ragweed cure equivalent of the cat allergy advice I always get) . It is a very gradual and medically supervised treatment. Therefore, just getting a cat is not likely to work. So don't tell me it will. Unless you went to medical school and have done some real research on it, not possess some secondhand anecdote about some acquaintance.
(You might ask why I didn't have the immunotherapy for cats, and the reason is that it was not covered by my insurance. You can't get away from ragweed etc., if you intend to go outside, but you can avoid houses with cats. It's elective. )
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