Is it possible to acquire a *new* allergy as an adult?

Long story short..after sheets of adhesive latex were planted on various parts of my body during my stent procedure last year, I had itching and little water blisters on my skin afterwards. Didn't think much of it. Figured it was the adhesive, since I'd never had a problem with latex before.

A year later, my hands have a bunch of the same damn thing, on the part of them that holds the steering wheel, and my feet has them as well (wearing 'compression socks' these days).

I'm actually pretty angry about this. When the little blisters on my hands open up, it looks like I have leprosy or something.

Yup, it's possible to develop allergies at any time in your life. 

Absolutely possible. Normally, I would recommend discussing this with your doctor. Not now, face to face, anyhow.

Yeah I've had poison ivy come and go throughout my life. Sucked when I thought I was over it and then had it kick my behind. 

Floating Doc said:

Absolutely possible. Normally, I would recommend discussing this with your doctor. Not now, face to face, anyhow.

Thanks. It's nothing more than a grooming problem at the moment, so no need to bother health care professionals (especially *now*).

It just kind of pisses me off. I've never had a reaction like this in my past.

Yep.  In fact, if you get an allergy reaction enough, you can be sensitized to it.

As I understand it, sensitized means you don't even need to come in contact,  your body will react as though it came in contact and have the same symptoms.  Fun stuff.

I had a reaction to pesticides being sprayed on the roadside when I was 12.  Every year, o get little blisters on my hands and feet 30 years later.  No contact needed.  Great.

I am allergic to everything they rest for except cats and dogs (grew up with them).  I was told by a doctor once that allergies can change every 6 months for a person.

My dad is now allergic to shellfish.  Didn't have any reactions til he was 55.

Also, your reaction can become less or more severe as you interact with allergens. 

FYI - here's the WebMD page for adult-onset allergies

https://www.webmd.com/allergies/features/adult-onset-allergies

I managed to avoid being allergic to poison oak for 39 years.   at age 40 I found that wasn't the case anymore.

My sister developed a fairly nasty allergy to airborne flour in her late 30's. She can only work with it if she's taken medication. The fact that she's a baker makes that a bit of a problem. 

Took me about 8-9 years to develop proper seasonal allergies to the pollens in Texas after I moved here. It was nice to have that relief for a while. 

I developed seasonal allergies in my mid-30's, but how bad they are seems to depend on how much time I spend outside during the spring.  The more time I'm outside, the less affected I am. Why this happens I'm not sure, but that has been the pattern for the past decade or so.

I developed a penicillin allergy that I found out about in my mid 30s.  Prior to that I hadn't had any in many years, and when I was a kid I practically lived on the stuff with ear infections.   

I'm now allergic to pitted fruits, which I used to eat allllll the time when I was growing up. If they're cooked, all is fine - but raw, and my throat starts swelling closed.

It sounds like you have dishidrotic eczema.  I've had it forever.  Flares up when under stress, during certain times of the year, if my hands have been either particularly dirty (dirty yard clean up, car work, etc.), or if I've been on a tear trying to clean up kitchens/bathrooms.  Take a look at this link.  Does this sound like what you are having?

https://nationaleczema.org/eczema/types-of-eczema/dyshidrotic-eczema/

In reply to friedgreencorrado :

I developed this as an adult also. Contact dermatitis from the adhesive in bandages. Cortisone-10 can help, but it still takes a couple weeks for the rash/blisters to go away completely.

Sonic said:

I developed a penicillin allergy that I found out about in my mid 30s.  Prior to that I hadn't had any in many years, and when I was a kid I practically lived on the stuff with ear infections.   

Did you grow up in a family of smokers? I did, and had constant ear infections through high school, but I'm not sure I've had any since I moved out. 

friedgreencorrado said:

It just kind of pisses me off. I've never had a reaction like this in my past.

Allergies can't even appear until you've been exposed.  So yeah, that's why they crop up later in life and from things that have never been an issue before..

Also, the human body has cycles when it comes to allergens.  Thus the whole thing about growing out of some allergies, suddenly becoming allergic to something that never bothered you before.  Plus some allergies are set off by a sensitizing exposure.  
 

My wife had no issues from the adhesive on the steri-strips after her first C-section. She did about 18 months later with her second. Rash/reaction, whatever you want to call it, it wasn't pretty. It is also common for allergic reactions to get worse as time goes on. So you may have been allergic to something all along, but only now had noticeable reactions. 

My grandpa started getting an allergic reaction to sesame after he got a sunburn and also some "bug" that gave him a really high fever. This was in the 1970's, so take it with a grain of salt, but his doctor narrowed it to one of those two events that caused an allergic reaction to it. Many years later - over 30 years - he accidentally had some sesame and didn't have any reaction, so maybe he grew out of it, or maybe it was misidentified in the first place.

Allergies are weird.

mtn said:

"Allergies are" EXTRA "weird"

FTFY

Tick bite can cause red meat allergy

Yes.

Allergies tend to appear in children because it's only a matter of time before they're exposed to something they're allergic to.  It is also more common in children because of their rapidly changing chemistry.  I always took Penicillin when I was young for any bacterial infections, but suddenly at about age 8 I became allergic.  Big time.  As in they were getting ready to intubate because my throat was swelling shut, but the steroids kicked in just in time.  Doctors say I might not be allergic anymore, but at age 46 I'm not keen on trying it.  I don't even like moldy bread in my house.

I never had anything remotely close to any other allergies.  Mold, pollen, dust, pets, nothing.... until I lived in Austin a few years ago.  The overload of cedar pollen was enough to trigger a very mild allergy.  I would get a day or two of snots and sneezes and puffy eyes.

Now my body is programmed.  I'm in PA now and there is something in spring (seems to be about the same time the Maples blossom) and something in the fall (not sure... ragweed?) that gives me about 4 days of snots and sneezes and puffy eyes.

Allergies are a histamine immune response much like leukocytes or antibodies.  You can be exposed to (let's say) peanuts your entire life, but one day you have a hangover, or a cold, or just exhausted and your body accidentally interprets a peanut as a deadly pathogen and attacks it.  It's barred for life.  It's kinda like an old girlfriend.  Over time you get over the heartbreak and move on, and it sucks a little less each time you see her, but you're not letting her back in your bed.

Or like figuring out how to ride a bike.  It takes a while, but once you got it, you got it.

Not to change the subject, but pertinent to this.... It's one of the reasons corona is such a potentially harmful thing.  The fact that it is a "novel" virus means it's new. It even has a patent.  We've been exposed our whole lives to influenza and cold viruses so our bodies fight it off all the time without even getting sick.  When exposed to corona, our bodies are like "WTF is this crap?  How do we kill it?"

Speaking of latex allergies in particular - Early in our chemistry labs at college, we were told specifically to wash our hands with soap and water any time we took off our latex gloves. Supposedly, if you left the latex and powder residue on your hands for long exposure times, it greatly increased the chance of developing a latex allergy later in life. We were all chem majors and it was explained that because we had such a long arc of exposure we could go decades and be fine, then suddenly the switch is tripped and you're allergic. They then also said to the (mostly male) class - think of other things tht you use that are latex. How'd you like to suddenly have a reaction to THOSE? (Hootus joke)

I've used nitrile gloves for decades now, partly because of this. But latex is in a LOT of things.

Curtis73 said:

It's one of the reasons THIS corona is such a potentially harmful thing.  The fact that it is a "novel" virus means it's new.

FTFY. Details below.

We've been exposed our whole lives to influenza and cold viruses so our bodies fight it off all the time without even getting sick. 

This is a minor nitpick, so please forgive me. As far as I know, the gist of everything you said here is correct. I just wanted to make sure that it is understood that the Corona virus which causes covid 19 is indeed a new variant of Corona virus, but that there are some very old and very familiar Corona viruses we deal with all the time

#9: There are lots of corona viruses. These include some of the virons that cause the common cold.

I'm sure that Dr. Hess could say this much more succinctly and clearly than I have, and if I have said something incorrect, I defer to his experience.

When exposed to THIS corona, our bodies are like "WTF is this crap?  How do we kill it?"

Agreed.

I've just developed seasonal allergies this year. Bad enough I'm on an inhaler and Prednisone. So, yes. 

I guess this explains why I've suddenly developed a runny nose when the trees start having sex.

Great... Just what I needed.

I developed a grass allergy around 7 years ago.  Lucky for me my oldest son was of age and now mowes the lawn.