It’s off to work we go, says Sneezy

Well, I’m on the path (the warpath?) to figuring out this whole allergy thing.  I went to the GP and got a referral to an allergy clinic.  Hopefully they’ll do one of those skin-scratch tests and find out what I’m actually allergic to.  Though I already know I have a severe (class 4) allergy to dust mites. 

And yes, when I was a baby – I was Mum’s first – she says she was utterly paranoid about germs.  She was a microbiologist back then.  So she practically followed me around with a disinfectant spray, and made thorougly sure I was never exposed to any of the things that usually strengthen a baby’s immune system.  You know… tasting dirt, eating snails, all the forbidden joys of babyhood. 

Knowing how sensitive I am to chemicals now, who knows?  The cleaning chemicals may have done more harm than the germs they were supposed to kill.  Ah well, I think we’ll all know a lot more about it in a few years, now that the EU is testing chemicals for hormone disruption and all sorts of things. 

I know asthma runs in families too – that and allergies, eczema, and migraines, I’m told.  All related.  But that doesn’t explain why Australia has such high rates of asthma.  I mean, we Anglo-Australians have much the same genes as the Anglo British, Irish, Americans, Canadians and New Zealanders.  There must be something else.  Besides, all my family has asthma, but none of my grandparents had it.  The genes might be inborn, but the factors that switch them on and off generally aren’t, I believe.