"Grass Pollen & Dust Allergy"

From the age of 16 I have suffered from a runny nose and irritation to my nose and eyes that affects my day to day life throughout the year. I took antihistamine but even this was not enough to control the histamine effect and negate all symptoms. Over the years I noticed how much this had an impact on my personal life, exercising outside, sleep and work life due to worrying about air conditioning. This impacted on my overall happiness and mood, dictated by how strong my symptoms were day to day. I also suffered from a very painful nose due to the amount I would blow my nose throughout the day.

Due to the impact this had on my mood, I eventually went to the GP to get some help. They advised for me to use a douche for my nose, take a dymista steroid nasal spray and continue to take antihistamine while I waited to be referred to a specialist. After several months on a waiting list I eventually had an appointment with Mr Ram within the ENT department at Woodend Hospital. He checked the inside of my nose and advised I had a deviated septum. He also gave me my blood results that showed I had a mild allergy to grass pollen and dust. He reassured me that even though the results showed a mild allergy, listening to my experience of living with this, he advised that he would help. The first step would be to have septoplasty surgery for my deviated septum, wait to see if that improved my symptoms and if not to possibly have immunisation therapy. However, he did tell me that the NHS would only be able to treat one of my allergies, not both of them.

I went ahead with the septoplasty at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and after recovery symptoms only improved by around 5-10%. When I next spoke to Mr Ram, he understood that this had been a possibility and he would now endeavour to push for funding for me to get help for both of my allergies and not just the one. By treating both he knew that this would make a significant improvement on my quality of life. Mr Ram gave me two options. He said I could go ahead with immunisation therapy for one, as he knew this was achievable, or I could wait in the hope that he could get funding to receive immunisation for both. I chose to wait in the hope that I could have both.

After nearly a year of waiting, I am happy to say that today I had my trial for immunisation treatment for both allergies.

I would like to express my thanks and gratitude to Mr Ram for taking the time to listen and understand my circumstances, for they were not in the typical remit of what the NHS would usually deal with. I already feel much better mentally knowing I have the opportunity to be without symptoms, to be able to enjoy the small things like sleeping well and being outside without suffering the consequences to my health from taking medication every day indefinitely.