6mo ago

Advice Needed: How to get immunotherapy treatment in a rural area where the clinics do not administer the shots?

I have already seen an allergist, and was on ramp up. We had to move, and to my surprise none of the clinics here will administer allergy shots.

There is a speciality clinic that will, but only if you are a patient of their allergist, they won't administer injections unless it came from them. There is a 3y wait-list for their allergist.

This is terrible news. My seasonal allergies are debilitating, they are a disability. In the words of my allergist "You are allergic to the world".

I could administer them at home, my spouse is an MA and knows how to do the subcutaneous shots. However, that's dangerous, and my allergist refuses to allow me to do this.

The alternative would be to just walk into a clinic or ER, get the shots administered by my spouse in the lobby. Wait the 20-30 minutes to ensure no anaphylactic reaction, and go home. And do this till I've ramped. But I get the feeling this won't go over well....

What sort of advice do you have for me on navigating this Lemmy? I was receiving treatment for this condition, and now I can't, which is essentially driving me into depression.

16 comments

I don't know if this will help or not, but nobody else has answered, so here it goes. I work in a pharmacy, and we have a couple of patients that we do allergy shots for. Worst case scenario, we pull an epipen off the shelf if things go south. Find you a locally owned pharmacy, call them and explain the situation. Ask if they can administer the shot, or if they can point you in a direction at least. It's worth a shot, and might get you an answer even if they don't do it themselves.
- Worth a shot, heh
- When you say a locally owned pharmacy, can you elaborate?
  The ones I'm familiar with are just at big stores here.
  
  No OP, but I'm thinking they mean a pharmacy that is not owned by a chain like Walgreens or CVS. Locally own pharmacies are usually owned by one person or a family and they specialize in compounding medications. That's when they make medications for specific customers that have unique needs, which interestingly, includes pets 🐶🐱. Try searching for a "compounding pharmacy" near you or ask a veterinarian clinic if they know of one. I'm sure they'll be happy to answer that iver the phone even if you're not a current customer.

Probably depends on your state, but in mine it just has to be a nurse.
Like, literally any nurse. So just call around to clinics and even pharmacies.
I got mine at a very young age, so it was an elementary school nurse most of the year, and then a small local clinic for summer shots.
Like, you're already walking into clinic, just have them give you the shot. They're 100% gonna call the cops if people are injecting each other in the lobby. If your partner is in healthcare, I have zero idea why that's being considered as a legit option.
- Yeah, I thought it sounded unhinged. But I'm desperate, and don't want to put myself at risk of a preventable death.
  I've spent the greater part of my life as a shut in largely because I'm a sniffling, coughing, sneezing mess all day and night every day for 6-8 months of the year. And simply a sniffly mess for the rest.
  I had one good summer last year and I can't believe what I'm missing. Being able to do activities like hiking, or biking, going to the grocery store without being treated like I have the plague. Actually being able to go out to a restaurant or public places. Making friends, and actually being able to join them. Going to the movies...etc Not having to carry a whole-ass box a Kleenex with me everywhere I go.
  It made me into a desperate man, realizing how much life I'm missing.
  The comments here are fantastic, and incredibly helpful.

Are you US-based?
If your wife administers the injection at home, how do you acquire the injection? Would your allergist mail you the agent, would you need to pick it up from their office in person or would you pick it up at a local pharmacy after the MD sends in the Rx to that pharmacy?
As the other person commented, a locally-owned pharmacy is a reasonable option. Walgreens/CVS probably won't be able to do it.
Any hospital infusion center can do this for you. I'd look for an oncology infusion center. Even though you are in immunology and not oncology, an OCN is incredibly skilled at giving sub-q injections. They are used to patients having adverse reactions to chemotherapy (anaphalaxis) and subsequently have the necessary training to make sure you will be fine.
Have your current MD personally call the MD at the local immunology clinic. Docs will, more often than not, grant other docs favors and considering that the new clinic would be able to bill for the immunological agent and also the administration of that agent (two separate fees), it's not a huge favor to grant.
Get a local primary care doctor and have your immunologist's office set up injections to be done in-clinic. This has the similar risk profile as the pharmacy administered injections. If you ask for this yourself, you will probably get turned down. If your allergist MD asks, the request will probably be granted.
- Yes, U.S.
  I would pick up the dilute serum from the allergist and transport it myself. It's specifically created for just me (The exact serum), so it's not something attainable from the pharmacy.
  Thank you so much for the knowledge! I'm going to take this and see what I can do. Thank you 🙏

Try something like Wyndly. Same stuff that's in the shots, just sublingual. Have to do it every day, but can do it at home.
- My allergist mentioned these, and noted that this is likely to be ineffective for me. Insurance also didn't want to pay for it, though they shoveled out $4k for the serum for shots.
  If I can't get shots here though, I'll try anything.
- Agreed, the drops under the tongue are a lot easier to do at home than the needles. Though I'm not sure about delivery - for whatever reason my allergist always required me to pick them up in person from his office. Not sure if that's regulation or just a quirk of that one practice.

Have you checked out United Allergy Services? They claim to have self-administered allergy shots.

Can u explain your allergy issue a little more please?
I recently got allergies 4 years ago and I also describe them as delibitating so I wanna see what you're dealing with bc my allergies fuck up my mood, I'm constantly fucking sleepy, my eyelids swell and droop, I'm so tired, no energy, sneeze, don't matter what I take shit don't go away.
So just curious pretty much

Seems weird to me because I'm never sick and want to huff tree pollen but trying to get shots to fix you doesn't seem right.
- Are you aware of medicine? It's pretty rude to say "im not disabled like you. It'd be wrong for you to not suffer," as you did.
- Pretty sure Farmfixit here needs to fix themselves.

16 comments