I have been getting weekly allergy shots for 8 months. Have been told that once I am on the maintenance dose, I cannot miss more than 7 days. If I do, they will reduce the dose and start building me up again to the therapeutic dose. I had considered spending 2 or 3 weeks next spring with relatives and friends who live in places where my specific allergens (certain trees) don't exist. I had hoped to avoid these trees for awhile at least. But it appears that I will have to go back to square one if I do this. Has anyone gone away for several weeks like this while on weekly allergy shots and how did the allergist keep you on the therapeutic dose while you were traveling?

All of the places that I have gotten allergy shots, I could miss up to four weeks without having to drop back on the dose. But if that's your doc's policy there's no arguing with that. So you have two options...

1) Skip the three weeks and drop down on the dose. This doesn't mean that you start all the way back at the beginning and have to build up again. In my experience, they will drop you down either one or two levels is all. You'll be back to where you were before you left no more than a month after you get back.

2) You can take your serums and charts with you and find an allergist in the area where you will be staying who will be willing to administer the shots for those three weeks. The problem with this is that most offices require you to see the doc before they will give you shots, so you might end up paying for an office visit that you don't really need.

Personally, I'd skip the hassle and just take the three weeks off. The only times I've moved my shots around was when I was in college and traveling back and forth for my month and a half long winter break. It was convenient for me, because the doc that I was going home to was the doc who was managing my shots. Usually I just left them at school and got them at the health center, administered by the lovely nurse Payne... :-) I did have to find a different place to manage them over the summer since it was a small school and the health center wasn't open then, so I had to go through the whole thing of finding somebody who would do it and then see that doctor, etc. But unless you are planning on staying for over a month or two, or if you are planning to visit that area on a regular basis over the next few years, I wouldn't bother. It is perfectly normal to the allergy shot people when patients take several weeks off, and they will deal with it appropriately.

If you have been on weekly shots for 8 months, I would think that you will be at maintenance soon unless you have had to back up several times or something. Most drs, once you reach maintenance will put you on an every other week schedule for a couple of months, (which you can usually stretch to 3 weeks in a pinch), then switch you to monthly shots. If your dr is insisting that you go weekly even after you reach maintenance, I would suggest getting a second opinion, because I have never heard of anyone having to go every week after maintenance. I have been on the shots for over a yr & 1/2 but haven't reached maintenance yet due to having to back up multiple times because of reactions, but my dr is still letting me go only once/month. I really would double check.

When you say 'set back' what kinds do you mean?
I just started shots about a month ago, just curious.
So far, no problems.
Thanks
~~Lorrie :)

Hi Lorrie. If you have a systemic reaction to a shot (not real common) protocol is to reduce the dosage by I think at least 50% or something like that. So I had to repeat bottles over & over because every time I had a reaction I had to go back to the beginning of the previous bottle. Also sometimes if I have a severe local reaction (arm swelling, etc) they will repeat the dose of the previous shot. That's not too bad because it just puts you one shot behind, but going back to a previous bottle can set you back several weeks. Good luck with the shots, mine have helped a ton with the asthma.

I have had to drop back several levels a couple of times in the past few months because the nurses, not the doctor, decided my asthma attacks (coughing mostly) signaled a problem. I complained about this as this is a Catch-22 situation, that is, the coughing will continue as long as I am not immune to the pollen. And I won't become immune to the pollen until I stay on maintenance level. Anyway, I appreciate the replies from all of you and will seriously consider taking the 3 weeks off in April when my tree pollen allergies are most destructive. I will see the doctor in a couple of weeks and am going to ask him when I can go to a 2-week or monthly basis on the shots, as that would solve a lot of problems. I have found the nurses in this particular clinic to be pretty rigid in their thinking, and they make the decisions. The doctor doesn't get involved unless I make a fuss. And, unfortunately, the other allergists in town are a lot worse. One of the nurses today suggested I might be able to give myself the shots, but this is something I will have to discuss with the doctor. Since I am committed to getting the shots for at least 5 years, I would like to think I could occasionally get away for more than 7 days.

When you get allergy shots, they start with a weak dose and gradually increase it until they reach the therapeutic dose, which is called the maintenance dose. If there are problems, such as a bad reaction, they backtrack to a weaker dose again and then build up gradually to the maintenance dose.

Irene:

I agree with you. I have had allergy shots for 17 years. I have encounetered everything that you have described.

Thanks for all the good info everyone.
I'm just starting and seems I have a L O N G
way to go,,,but I'll get there!
~~Lorrie :)

That sounds like my case, it is always the nurses & not the dr. Once they find out about any reactions, they refuse to give me the shot & make me see the dr, who then has no choice but to back up the dose by at least 50%. I have taken to not telling the nurses about the reactions. If I am worried, I call the dr directly. The nurses are great, but they are so paranoid about reactions. There is one nurse there who won't even give me my shot because I had a reaction before when she gave me one. Hope the dr will ok the every 2 week or monthly shots