I knew my cat-to-face experiments showed some interesting data, but now it was onto my allergy doctor to see what he thought. I set out from work a little early for my late afternoon appointment. I had a business card with a note for him from my ENT regarding what they found in my sinuses post-surgery, a sample of my snot in a tiny plastic baggie, and a can-do attitude.

But after I told my allergist that I am literally not having any allergy reactions, besides the ones to the shot, which could indicate the shots contain too many allergens, he starts explaining to me how I just as allergic and in need of treatment as I was before surgery. Even though the type of sinus surgery I had is well documented in reducing allergy problems. For example, here’s an article about how, after sinus surgery, 40% of people stopped getting allergy treatments.

As I listened to him talk, I then realized something: this man has a massive financial incentive to keep me coming back to his practice every week for years to come.

Around this time, I also realized that I was done. He didn’t want to retest me or even test the snot sample I brought and the reasons he gave didn’t make sense. I wasn’t have any actual allergic reactions to anything that I previously did. So what exactly was he going to be treating moving forward?

My allergy shot treatment had begun in mid-February and I still wasn’t at maintenance dose. So it was clear that I wasn’t far enough into my treatment to have a reduction in symptoms from the shots themselves. Also, getting weekly allergy shots is awful.

The office wasn’t even far from our house, but feeling tethered to a 30+ minute appointment every week, particularly one that had, after surgery, consistently caused major local reactions every time no matter how much ice I put on it, was a gigantic hassle. I will not miss that aspect of the shots either.

When it really comes down to it, the reason why I ended up at the allergist in the first place was because the first ENT who botched my sinus surgery in 2025 didn’t want to deal with me after I pointed out how I was having a bunch of sinus infection symptoms. He told me to go to the allergist and I went because I didn’t know what else to do. I wasn’t even having allergy issues per say.

So I won’t be heading back for more allergy shots. Onward and upward.