I have already seen an allergist, and was on ramp up. We had to move, and to my surprise none of the clinics here will administer allergy shots.
There is a speciality clinic that will, but only if you are a patient of their allergist, they won’t administer injections unless it came from them. There is a 3y wait-list for their allergist.
This is terrible news. My seasonal allergies are debilitating, they are a disability. In the words of my allergist “You are allergic to the world”.
I could administer them at home, my spouse is an MA and knows how to do the subcutaneous shots. However, that’s dangerous, and my allergist refuses to allow me to do this.
The alternative would be to just walk into a clinic or ER, get the shots administered by my spouse in the lobby. Wait the 20-30 minutes to ensure no anaphylactic reaction, and go home. And do this till I’ve ramped. But I get the feeling this won’t go over well…
What sort of advice do you have for me on navigating this Lemmy? I was receiving treatment for this condition, and now I can’t, which is essentially driving me into depression.
Are you US-based?
If your wife administers the injection at home, how do you acquire the injection? Would your allergist mail you the agent, would you need to pick it up from their office in person or would you pick it up at a local pharmacy after the MD sends in the Rx to that pharmacy?
As the other person commented, a locally-owned pharmacy is a reasonable option. Walgreens/CVS probably won’t be able to do it.
Any hospital infusion center can do this for you. I’d look for an oncology infusion center. Even though you are in immunology and not oncology, an OCN is incredibly skilled at giving sub-q injections. They are used to patients having adverse reactions to chemotherapy (anaphalaxis) and subsequently have the necessary training to make sure you will be fine.
Have your current MD personally call the MD at the local immunology clinic. Docs will, more often than not, grant other docs favors and considering that the new clinic would be able to bill for the immunological agent and also the administration of that agent (two separate fees), it’s not a huge favor to grant.
Get a local primary care doctor and have your immunologist’s office set up injections to be done in-clinic. This has the similar risk profile as the pharmacy administered injections. If you ask for this yourself, you will probably get turned down. If your allergist MD asks, the request will probably be granted.
Thank you so much for the knowledge! I’m going to take this and see what I can do. Thank you 🙏