Hello all. I'm looking for a little insight. To begin with, I am 23 years old and in pretty good health, if I do say so myself. I have never been allergic to anything in my life, with the exception of Prozac (which gave me hives on my elbows/knees).
Around February/April I ate (on seperate occasions, a couple weeks apart) a brownie with walnuts & a muffin with walnuts and experienced an itching in my throat and a tightness/discomfort in my throat - although I did not have trouble breathing. I was perscribed an epipen during my initial consultation (prior to any testing) & told to avoid eating all treenuts and peanuts until the testing. After this, I was tested for food allergies (blood testing for tree nuts, peanuts and sesame, about 36 skin p r i c k tests for a whole slew of other foods (including nuts, I believe) & 24 intradermal tests for other allergies mostly seasonal & animal - it was a painful 2 hours). All tests came back completely negative for allergies (except for the intradermal test for Candida which I was told was an allergy to mold & is generally used as the control for intradermal testing). After the testing I was told I showed no allergies, but to still use caution. As a result, I haven't eaten any nuts & am pretty much petrified that they could appear in any foods I eat.
This morning I went in for a food challenge w/ walnuts, since that seems to be what caused the initial reaction. They did this by first having me eat a small piece of walnut (about 1/4 of a walnut). 15 minutes later, they had me eat a slightly larger amount. As I suffer from General Anxiety Disorder, this was obviously a very trying experience for me, and although I did not exhibit any allergy symptoms (no itchiness of the lips/tounge/throat, tightness, nada), they had me stop because I was clearly nervous/anxious & they were afraid I would have a full blown anxiety attack. The clinician (it wasnt a doctor that performed the food challenge, although it was performed in a doctors office [an allergy specialists office @ that]- I believe the person who performed the challenge is a medical student or physician's assistant) said that since all my blood work & p r i c k tests came back negative, and the ingested amounts did not illicite any sort of reaction, that I was free to go and was not allergic to walnuts.
For some reason (and this is where the GAD) comes in, I am still fearful that I am allergic. I have read studies where people will have negative results in these tests (blood, skin and/or food challenge) but are still allergic. What is the likelihood, however, that I would have negative results with ALL of these tests and still be allergic? The doctor/clinician follows everything about testing negative with "but still be careful" which alway leaves me with doubt. I know they are probably just trying to cover themselves in the event of a lawsuit, but it is still worrisome to someone who has never dealt with any type of allergy before.
Sorry for the rambling & thanks in advance for any insight.