New Allergy Symptoms and New Treatment

This spring, while going through a pretty severe topical steroid withdrawal (TSW) and eczema flare up, I also had some unexpected new allergy symptoms pop up. In the chronic illness communities, we typically know we have to always be prepared for that. However, in this case, I honestly was not – at all. I found myself struggling just to keep my head above water.

Going through multiple flare ups at once

For over a month, I had been going through my “typical” skin flare up. This tends to mostly affect my face and neck these days. If that wasn’t hard enough as it is, I started to experience new symptoms with my eyes. Later, I'd find out they are potentially allergy-related.

Dealing with skin conditions, as well as chronic dry eye, it is often hard to tell what is what when everything hits all at once, so I had been lost for a while.

Worsening symptoms with my eyes

About a month or so ago, I started experiencing mild discharge from my eyes. I found they were getting watery and extremely irritated and itchy. I have dealt with eye infections in the past, and figured that must be it again. Having had some antibiotic eye drops left over from times prior, I decided to try those. After 5 days on them, I felt some mild relief. However, it wasn’t going away like it typically would. Some days, my eyes would feel a tiny bit better. Others, I could barely keep them open or see properly. After trying all my usual home remedies and tools for them, and having very little success, I had to reach out for help.

I made a telehealth appointment with a doctor ASAP. As much as I really don’t like doctor’s appointments (as most people usually don’t!), I have already had so much damage to my eyes that cannot be undone, and I was afraid it may get worse. Meanwhile, I realized I did have one symptom that I never experienced this heavily in the past – itchy eyes. Finally, the day before the appointment, it dawned on me that it could be allergic conjunctivitis. For some reason, I hadn’t considered this previously, as it’s never been a huge issue for me. However, I remembered I had an eye issue at the same exact time last year as well, which is suspicious to say the least.

Getting answers and finding relief

When I finally saw the doctor, after explaining my symptoms and what I had tried, she also stated it sounded like allergic conjunctivitis, without me even mentioning it. Ah, there it is – confirmation.

She prescribed me some anti-histamine eye drops for the itchiness and discomfort. I haven’t ever had to use these thus far on my allergy journey, so this was completely new for me. The eye drops did provide at least some relief, but since allergic conjunctivitis is typically viral, I had to just let it run its course.

Being on this journey my whole life, I am well aware allergies can change at any time. It just didn’t seem to dawn on me until already dealing with the discomfort and trying pretty much everything else, due to having multiple conditions flaring up at once.

At the end of the day, I am glad I reached out for help when I felt I needed to, and am finally getting even a tiny bit of relief. It has certainly been quite a miserable roller coaster, as eye issues just render me unable to do much of anything when it gets too severe. And now, it looks like I might be having some allergy testing done again soon, as I’m curious what the new allergy I’m experiencing seems to be. Stay tuned for that in the future, if you’re as curious as me!