I had a very strong allergy to my cat's dander - but I didn't know it. Allergies (as opposed to allergic reactions) generally come in three flavours: an itchy rash, runny eyes and nose, or congestion in your lungs. Of the three, congestion in your lungs is invisible -- and it was the congested lung variety I had. I looked normal, but my longs became increasingly congested.We had the cat for a couple of years, and every day, I got worse. My wife became pregnant with our first (we have three now), and because of toxiplasmosis (a disease that can pass through cat feces to unborn babies) my wife could not change the litterbox. As soon as I started doing the litter box, my health began to deteriorate quickly. One day, my wife turned our mist humidifier up too high, and we woke up in the morning, and I could barely breath.I went to a walk in doctor, and he believed I had double pneumonia. He prescribed an antibiotic kit to take then and there, and also a take home prescription. Two weeks later I was back in his office worse off than when I had left! He noticed that I was wheezing like crazy, and on a hunch, gave me a coricosteroid asthmatic puffer to try. I gave it a puff, and found that it really helped my breathing. He decided that I had "adult-onset" asthma, and prescribed a steroid inhaler, and a rescue inhaler.Now, because I didn't really have asthma, the long term puffer didn't do anything - but by using the rescue puffer, I could breath easier. However, one of the known side-effects of this particular steroid was anxiety attacks.I didn't know what an anxiety attack was, and I hadn't read the side effects very carefully - so when I experienced one, I was pretty freaked out! I had no idea what was going on. Note: It was not that sudden irrational fear came upon me - it was that I experienced a light-headed, drug-induced "rush" that I could not explain. Attacks like this, I found out later, could last for just a few seconds or even for hours! The sensation itself would not have been so frightening if I understood what was going on - but all I knew was that something was clearly 'wrong' with my mental state - and furthermore - and perhaps more significantly - that I was entirely helpless to do anything about it! Having no idea what was happening to me - I reasoned that I must be dying, since this is pretty much what I would expect dying to be like - an unwanted and uncontrolable deterioration of my cognitive grasp on reality. Reasoning that I was likely dying was more terrifying than the sensation itself - I wasn't saved at the time. But as suddenly as it had come on, it was gone. However, having done nothing to bring it on, I had absolutely no assurance that this was a one timer - in fact, I was quite concerned, reasoning to myself that whatever it was - there was no assurance that this was going to be a one-timer. I was therefore somewhat worried that it might happen again.Like most people, I tried to associate this effect with a probable cause. In this case, I was eating a pasta meal in a restaurant. I thought, maybe I had eaten something that did it. The next time I had one, it lasted longer, and happened at lunch time. Perhaps it was fountain drinks? The next time I was in a restaurant again - but this time it didn't last just a few minutes - but it seemed to go on and on. I was terrified.Like I said, the fear wasn't irrational - I think it was a pretty natural response suddenly finding yourself in an uncertain, but clearly altered state of consciousness - and having no way of stopping it. The fear is that it will continue indefinitely, or continue until it kills you or something.When I did go to the doctor, he immediately decided that I was having panic attacks. I thought he was a fool. I wasn't causing these attacks by being flighty or afraid - I certainly wasn't disposed to panic for no reason at all - and the unwritten premise that I got from the doctor was - this is all in your head. Needless to say, I went to a more sympathetic doctor, and explained how the symptoms were entirely rational, and could in no way be in my head. He ordered a variety of tests that all came up negative - but I was unconvinced. This was not in my head. Of course, if I had been wise enought to research what exactly a panic attack was, I might have understood that I was actually having anxiety attacks.It wasn't until long after the attacks stopped that I pieced it all together.My breathing wasn't any better, so I decided to get tested for allergies - suspecting that I was allergic to the cat. Sure enough - I was --very-- allergic. We were living in a one bedroom condo at the time, so we were selling the condo anyway (to buy a house), and when we moved we got rid of the cat. The new house had all hard wood floors upstairs, and had never had a cat in it. In about three weeks I didn't need the puffer anymore, and the anxiety attacks simply stopped.Whatever else happened - having no control over something like that - and in my case, not really knowing what it was - did not get me a lot of sympathy. After a month or so, my wife's family just assumed that I was faking it so that I could get off work. Other's felt I was having sympathetic pregnancy symptoms, etc. But one day, in the washroom I was reading the various boxes etc (you know, tooth paste labels and whatnot...) and picking up my old inhaler, I read the side effects - anxiety attacks.That was when I figured out what had really happened.Either way - in my life at least, it was clear that my attacks came as a side effect of a corticosteroid puffer.I likewise encourage anyone who has to suddenly start taking one to get checked for allergies immediately!!
