allergy shots?

[badgercat]

I did allergy shots for about 5 years, starting with once a week when I was 10, and tapering off to once a month by the time I was 15. I used to live in the Midwest, and had horrible allergies in autumn--ragweed season was complete misery for me, to the point that no matter what drugs I took (for a while I was on a twice-daily oral antihistamine PLUS a daily nasal spray), my nose basically didn't function...which made getting the nasal spray up in my sinuses an interesting chore.

Were the shots a PITA? Of course. Who wants to get shot up with stuff that makes your arm swell and itch once a week? But I'd ABSOLUTELY do it again. I was able to stop using prescription allergy meds many years ago and while I still sneezed a bit more in autumn, I only felt the need to pop an over-the-counter Claritin maybe a handful of times over the course of my entire allergy season. Unfortunately, I have problems in the spring now instead of the fall, but I moved to a completely different region (desert Southwest) and I'm sure there are just different plants to deal with here that I probably wasn't even tested for let alone given shots for. My current issues I'm also able to control with an occasional pill.