Being allergic to stuff is expensive.

I went back to the allergist and got poked at yesterday. I have red bumps of varying sizes on both arms, and I know now in some detail what causes me to go into histamine frenzy:

1. Pollens - although the results for this were vague, I know that my allergic symptoms get worse when certain pollens are high. They detected some response, but it was masked by a similar response from the placebo injection so the pollen testing was, at best, inconclusive. I've still got little red bumps where they did the pollen testing, and I don't for the things I wasn't allergic to at all, so I'd say that says something.
2. Cats. Good thing I have three of them. Data points from the literature they gave me (actually a catalog from these people, but informative regardless): an estimated 6 million Americans are allergic to cats, and one third of those are cat owners; cat allergen isn't hair, but a protein in cat saliva (and dander, since cats clean themselves by licking). That second one I knew already, but many people seem to believe that the hair is the problem. It's the dander, not the hair.
3. House Dust Mites. Where the pollen samples raised little red bumps, the dust mite samples had whole elevated blotches (like what I get with a spider bite, worse than any mosquito bite I've ever had). That part of my left arm is still kinda itchy, and I've been back on the Zyrtec for two days.

So today I set out to replace my pillows of indeterminate age, and see if any stores had similar allergen-proof covers to what was in the doctor-provided catalog (I wonder if he gets promotional considerations). Got new pillows at IKEA (Amanda recommended Lands End, but (1) I have four pillows, so a hundred bucks a piece is a little steep, and (2) if I opt for more frequent replacement, that expense will only go to waste anyway), found that the covers available in the mall were less than satisfactory, picked up a wedding gift for Amber, and then headed home.

So once I got home, I got online (I guess my house is always online, I merely turned on the monitor on one of my computers and started browsing), and found some covers that were less expensive than the premium ones from that company listed earlier (but more than the not-premium-but-still-nice ones they had), but had to deal with a hellish interface that put your entire shopping spree in the URL. So when you used the "back" button it erased the thing you'd just ordered. D'oh! Their prices were still good, so whatever. I dealt with it.

Then I thought I should probably order a room air filter. Hello, minefield. Honeywell's web site stinks. Austin's is a bit better, but doesn't include all their models yet. Most of the vendor sites that sell these things stink. But I found something that seems to be generally well liked among vendors and customers. So I ordered this. From that site, even. Not the bestest web store in the world, but their prices matched the ones with even uglier HTML, and they seem to provide a bit more info than most of the sites just out to sell you something.

Anyway, just to try to make my home a less allergen-filled environment, I spent about a grand today. Allow me now to say, "eek." We'll see how I do with the weekly vacuuming (hey, the HEPA vacuum I bought last month was a better idea than I realized) and the biweekly hot-water-wash of all the bedding covers I just bought.

Maybe maids aren't such a bad idea after all ...

(7 oct)