This time of year, allergists are overworked.

An Allergist in Sydney Australia identified an unusual allergy, now called Mammalian Meat Allergy. The really odd thing is that it results from a being bitten by a tick. Following being bitten some people become allergic to eating red meat.

9 hours ago, sandrewn said:

Removal of my tonsils, was my only classical hospital experience(late 1950s). My earliest positive memories of doctors, Ben Casey and Dr. Kildare. Of hospitals, St. Elsewhere. Sadly, all those great images are gone, leaving, House M.D., as a bitter aftertaste.

Unfortunately, the older you get, the better the odds, you will need one(a doctor) in the not to distant future. A GP or specialist(see the today word, as an example). I have no problem with that, it is getting past the bureaucratic ' Gatekeepers' that is the greatest hurdle in doing so, be it Canada, US or Australia.

No need to tell me about needing doctors when you get older.  It seems as if I have a doctor's appt. every week, be it the GP, internal medicine, ophthalmologist, urologist, proctologist, neurologist, surgeon, or oral surgeon.  I recently had one procedure where I ended up staying in the hospital overnight and now I've got another procedure coming up in November where I might have to stay overnight as well.  And when in comes to allergies, the last time my allergist did a patch test my back looked like a checkerboard with a few extra squares colored in.  

Allergists find the most common allergies are: pollen, peanuts, tree nuts, milk, eggs. wheat, sesame, dust mites, insect stings, and mold.