Frequently Asked Questions

Yes.  A referral is required from your family doctor, urgent care, walk-in clinic, or emergency department before we can schedule an appointment.

If you have a sore throat, cough, or are generally not feeling well please reschedule your appointment.

Your referring doctor is probably the best to answer that question.  Some patients are sent to our clinic as we have quick wait times for certain allergy concerns.

• We will acknowledge the request to your doctor.  Please contact your doctor if you want to know the status of your referral.
• Your referral will be triaged and the nature of your concern will be assessed and an appointment type (length of time required with the Allergist) will be assigned.
• We will notify you that we have triaged your referral but may not have any available appointments at that time.
• You will then be notified when appointment dates are available.  
• We are aware you are waiting  Please do not contact the office to inquire on the status of your referral or current wait times.  
• When we have an appointment for you we will contact you.
• We understand the wait can be frustrating for certain types of consults.  We have more referrals than we can manage in the short term as the result of the Care Deficit created by Covid-19.  If you feel the delay is unreasonable please speak to the doctor that referred you for alternative Allergists.

We use secure email to confirm we have received your referral, schedule your appointment and sometimes for the staff to communicate via email.

Some examples of emails we send are:

Initial email after being referred

Appointment booking email

Secure communication email

The email address you will receive email from is no-reply@cognisantmd.com.

All of our staff are dedicated to patient care in the clinic. There is no dedicated staff to answer the phone.  If you are trying to reach us with a question please explore these comprehensive FAQs first before contacting our staff.  If you are an existing patient please  leave a voicemail and someone will return your call.  Expect that a return call can be up to 2 business days.  Please note our office is closed on Fridays

Your appointment will be 25 to 45 minutes.

Please bring:

• Your provincial health card
• List of medication
• Payment for allergy testing supply fee.  We accept Visa, Mastercard, Debit, or Cash.

Alberta Health will cover the technical act of skin testing including the application and interpretation of the results.  Alberta Health does not cover the cost of the skin testing agents.  We will provide you with a receipt that you can submit to  third party health insurance companies.  We do not direct bill to insurance companies.  Whether these companies cover the cost will depend on your coverages.

• You will be checked in and your health card verified.  
• If you did not fill your questionnaire online you will be asked to fill in a short questionnaire.
• Allergy testing will be performed by our clinic staff.
• You will have a consultation with the Allergist who will also interpret the results of the skin testing.

In preparation for your appointment we ask you to stop taking antihistamines 7 days before your appointment.  If you are taking cold and flu medications check the medical ingredients on the box to ensure it doesn't contain antihistamines.  

Continue to take nasal sprays, eye drops, inhalers, Singulair or Montelukast, as well as any other medications you take for other conditions.

Antihistamines are tablets taken to relieve allergy symptoms.

Antihistamine Drugs include: (Generic name in brackets)

Allegera (Fexofenadine)

Aerius (Desloratidine)

Benadryl (Diphenhydramine)

Blexten (Bilastine)

Claritin (Loratidine)

Pheneram (Chlorpheneramine)

Reactine (Cetirizine)

Rupall (Rupatadine)

This is a common list of antihistamines.  If you are unsure if your medication is an antihistamine contact your pharmacist.

You can eat and drink prior to your appointment.  Eating and drinking does not affect your allergy testing,

After your appointment you may return to your normal routine.

The Allergist will send a report to your referring doctor and any others specified by yourself or the referring doctor.

You likely received handouts for your review.

If the Allergist ordered labs the results will be communicated via secure messaging.  Please check you inbox, spam folder, or junk folder.  You can also can contact the office and request a follow-up to discuss further.

The Allergist would have discuss if they would like to see you in follow-up at your appointment. 

Allergy shots are administered once a week for 16-26 weeks then once a month for 3-5 years

The allergy shot is subcutaneous (just under the skin) and is given in the back of the upper arm.

We recommend you wait in clinic 30 minutes after receiving your allergy shot as this is the common time-frame for reactions to occur.

No.  Once a week is all that is required.  We recommend a minimum of 3 days between shots.

No.  We recommend you miss your allergy shots until you are feeling better.

Focus on the immunization you need and reschedule your allergy shot for greater than 48hours after the immunization.

In most cases you will have an itchy bump at the site that can last 48 hours.  If you have a reaction that is greater please discuss the this with the medical practitioner who gave you the shot.

Once a year.  Assume 6-8 weeks for you serum to arrive.

If our office is inconvenient then consider your family doctorr, walk-in clinic, or pharmacy to administer your shots.  You should make arrangements with them prior to ordering your shots.

Yes.  The serum should be kept refrigerated at all times.  It is normally kept between 2-8 degrees, which is what a normal fridge is set to.

Oral immunotherapy such as Oralair, Grasstek, and Itulatek are daily tablets that are intended to reduce your allergy symptoms for an extended timeframe, even the you are not taking them 

Oral immunotherapy is taken a few months prior to the season and are continued daily until the end of the season.

Yes.  Please see the following links for information on the different oral immunotherapy.

Oralair information -https://www.oralair.com/assets/pdf/ORALAIR-Medication-Guide-2018.pdfhttps://www.oralair.com/assets/pdf/ORALAIR-Medication-Guide-2018.pdf

Grasset information - https://grastek.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/USMG_US_grastek-revised-6-2019.pdf 

Itulatek information - https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/61249781-4718-4abd-ac5e-136d7b1fa0f0/downloads/itulatek_patient_information.pdf?ver=1673208050900