Dr. Pienkowski will carefully examine each person taking into consideration her current problems, family history, and environmental daily exposure. After this examination, Dr. Pienkowski may recommend a test for food and environmental allergens, a blood test, and/or a pulmonary function test with provoking compounds. Such a test is a diagnostic tool that assists in determining a specific course of treatment and therapeutic needs.
No two people are exactly alike and Dr. Pienkowski emphasizes that everybody deserves a comprehensive, individual assessment. Dr. Pienkowski believes that a specialist in allergy and immunology, neither a nurse practitioner nor a nurse, should be responsible for the interpretation of your test and subsequent debriefing. While a nurse may assist with cleaning your back and applying allergens, a nurse or nurse practitioner does not have the clinical training to assess the results of your test.
Allergy Diagnosis & Symptoms
The first sign that a person has allergies is the experience of allergic symptoms in the nose, lungs, throat, sinuses, ears, eyes, stomach or on the skin. In general, fatigue, muscle and joint pain are also allergic symptoms.
- Ears – pain, popping and clogging
- Eyes – watery, red, itchy eyes and/or dark discoloration beneath ones eyes.
- Nose- congestion, running, sniffing, sneezing or a stinging sensation when treating.
- Lungs- coughing, wheezing, feeling of tightness, mucus build up.
- Throat- itchiness, lump-like sensation, tightness, difficulties swallowing.
- Sinuses- pressure, stinging sensation with breathing.
- Skin- hives, eczema, swelling of ligaments.
- Stomach- abdominal pain, distension, constipation or diarrhea.
Dr. Pienkowski has performed and interpreted tens of thousands of these tests. Do not compromise: Come in and see us!
Allergy Immunotherapy
Allergy immunotherapy is a cost-effective treatment for people who suffer from allergic rhinitis, asthma, conjunctivitis, or stinging allergies. A patient who follows their treatment regimen will notice a marked decrease in many allergy symptoms. Our goal is to induce a complete allergic remission.
Purpose
The purpose of immunotherapy is to immunize the patient, or make the patient’s body tolerant, to specific allergens that would normally cause the patient to experience allergic symptoms.
How is it done?
Immunization is achieved by subcutaneously injecting the patient with allergens that are known to cause an allergic reaction in the patient. At the beginning of the treatment, the patient receives an injection of allergens small enough not to cause an allergic response. The doses are then increased with each new injections until the patient’s immune system has become immunized to those allergens.
To start, patients receive injections twice a week, but after the initial phase patients receive injections once a week. In sequence the frequency of injections will decrease to once every two weeks, and then once a month.
After the once-a-month phase, the immunotherapy is typically complete and the patient will discontinue the treatment.
Specific Immunotherapy v. Nonspecific Immunotherapy
At Pienkowski, MD Clinic, the allergens used for a patient’s immunotherapy treatment are specifically chosen based on the results from the patient’s allergy test and their clinical history. That means every patient is injected with a specific, carefully-selected mixture of allergens to which they are allergic. Dr. Pienkowski notes that this method has less risk and is more effective that the conventional method in other allergy clinics.
The conventional method involves injecting patients with a generic mixture of allergens. Each patient receives the same mixture of allergens regardless of their response to certain ones. Although this method is cheaper, it runs the risk of making the patient allergic to certain allergens to which they were not previously allergic. In Dr. Pienkowski’s experience, the conventional method is less effective in treating a persons allergic symptoms.
