Coastalimmunology.com

Coastal Immunology - 2/54 William Street Gosford 2250 Ph: 4321 0666 Our Service:
Our practice focuses on helping people with autoimmune, allergic and immune deficiency problems Our goal is to provide world-class evidence-based immunological advice Our major expertise lies in managing lupus and other autoimmune conditions. We believe that your health is best served by comprehensive attention to a range of medical and lifestyle factors, and frequently call upon the expertise of allied colleagues. Referral:
A/Prof Reeves sees patients of all age groups including children. Given their
specialised management requirements, we recommend parallel paediatric oversight
for all young people under 6 years old. You must be referred by your family doctor
or by a medical specialist and bring this referral with you to your appointment.
Teleconference-based options are now available.

Preparation:
● Certain medications can interfere with allergy skin tests. You should stop
antihistamines for 3 days before your appointment (examples include Telfast,
Claratyne, Claramax, Clarinase, Zyrtec, Polaramine, Periactin, Phenergan, Demazin,
cough-and-cold remedies; there are many others – check with your pharmacist).
● Of course, if your condition is severe, then stopping these tablets may be unwise:
discuss this with your family doctor.
Do not stop asthma or steroid medications and do not stop treatments needed for
other conditions such as blood pressure or diabetes.

What to bring:
● Referral letter.
● Patient Details/Patient Health History form (that we posted to you).
● List of medications (past and current) , sprays, complementary therapies
● Copies of correspondence from previous visits, past test reports (including xray * Please note: Coastal Immunology does not offer testing for:
- medication allergies (eg. anaesthetic, penicillin, antibiotic etc)
- chemical, perfume, irritant intolerances

Coastal Immunology - 2/54 William Street Gosford 2250 Ph: 4321 0666 Consults – what to expect:
● Your first appointment can take up to 60 minutes, including consultation, skin
prick testing (fresh food skin prick testing takes longer) and education.
● most people need only one visit, 20% need a second visit, with few requiring
more than two visits.
● Consultations start within 15 minutes of the appointment time in most cases.
● Delays may occur for around 1 in 5 consultations, usually due to urgent patient
reviews or if an earlier patient arrived late: we apologise in advance for such
occasions which are an unavoidable part of medical practice.
Allergy testing - what to expect:
● After your history and examination, you will often be asked to have some allergy
tests called skin prick tests. These do not hurt and consist of small drops placed on
the skin followed by a tiny prick made through the drop, grazing the top layer of
the skin. There are no injections.
● The “positive control” as well as any agents associated with allergy will then
develop itchy lumps like mosquito bites over a 15-20 minute period.
● These reactions settle within one hour and cause minimal discomfort.
● 1 in 200 people develop a delayed small lump at the scratch site which settles
within a few days.
● There is no need to worry about severe allergic reactions to skin testing, as this
has not happened during the 15 years of practice here on the Central Coast.
Allergy treatments:
● Unlike many medical conditions, allergy offers the prospect of therapy without
drugs.
● Many allergy triggers can be avoided or reduced and we can give you information
to help with this.
● Otherwise, attention to these issues allows us to find the lowest possible
medication dose.
● Sometimes allergy injections (subcutaneous immunotherapy) or allergy sprays
under the tongue (sublingual immunotherapy) can be helpful.
Fees: are payable at the time of consultation by Eftpos, Mastercard, Visa, Cash or
cheque. Once payment is received on the day and providing you have a referral,
we can send your claim on-line to Medicare for rebate payments into your bank
account.
Queries: Please take the time to phone our rooms if you have any questions. We
welcome your feedback (both positive and negative) as we seek to improve our
services. If you have an urgent problem such as a life-threatening allergy or
severe asthma, please contact your doctor so they can contact us directly to discuss
more urgent management options and appointments.

Source: http://coastalimmunology.com/Allergy%20attachment%20for%20new%20patients.pdf