Having trouble convincing my allergist it's not just allergies.
So my allergist ran the poke tests and I'm basically moderately to severely allergic to everything except cows and horses. She smiled and told me it was a good thing because I can "just do immunotherapy for 3-5 years and it will all get better". I asked her why I had occasional (not reliable) anaphylactic reactions to things that don't show up positive on allergy tests--mustard, penicillin, flax seed, fragrances--and she was basically like "Idk that's weird but maybe these things were contaminated with mold, which you are very allergic to".
She also doesn't want me taking Benadryl at all because it passes through the blood-brain barrier and there's research that associates it with causing dementia, though it's not a direct cause yet, so to speak. She keeps telling me that second generation h1s should be plenty for me because I "only" have allergies, but whenever I have a flareup--especially one that affects me cognitively and makes me feel foggy, woozy, lightheaded, etc--only Benadryl will relieve my symptoms.
At this point I'm thinking it's MCAS causing acute inflammation in my brain and only Benadryl crosses the barrier and hits it right where I need it. She's a really good allergist, but I think she's let my "normal" allergies lull her into thinking I couldn't possibly have MCAS because this is the simplest explanation and therefore all the explanation I need.
I don't know what to do about this, tbh. It's very frustrating.