Hey this is Winter. I'm super allergic to almost everything. Fruits, vegetables, nuts, pollen, etc, but the only medicine I'm allergic to is penicillin and I break out in some serious hives. So everytime I go to the doctor I make sure to tell them I'm allergic to penicillin, which has never seemed to be an issue, it is just something I don't take.
P.S. Dr. Guggenheim wished me a Bon Voyage as I will be studying abroad in Italy for the next 6 weeks. I'm going off the grid so I'll share my adventures when I return. So excited to eat real food, paint the landscape and learn Italian. I'll keep you posted.
I just read a really interesting article about the short-comings of having a penicillin allergy that I never even knew existed.
According to the article, about 1 in 10 patients who visit the Department of Allergy and Clinical Immunology at the Cleveland Clinic self-report an allergy to penicillin. Patients who self-report a penicillin allergy can cause a barrier between them and optimal health care.
The patient will receive a non-penicillin antibiotic and most likely a non-beta-lactam antibiotic for surgical prophylaxis for a routine procedure. The alternate antibiotics can be more costly, associated with greater risks, and serve to breed resistant nosocomial organisms.Patient populations claiming to have a penicillin allergy will be offered the opportunity to undergo a skin testing. The article reports that 88% of patients are skin test negative and are actually able to the medication. The skin testing is also safely performed even in critically ill or pregnant women.
Here is the link to the original article and video about the penicillin allergy dilemma:Opinion Makers: Penicillin Allergy Not So Common?
