It is now 0445, or zero dark early as we used to say, and I’ve been awake for a couple of hours. My allergies / hay fever have been talking to me in recent weeks, and very much so in the last couple of days.
Are you among the, er, ‘fortunate’ to have this friend visiting you?
Do allergies annoy you?
Yes and sometimes they can really sukk
Yes but only mildly; they haven’t been too bad
No, never. What is hay fever? What are you, a farmer?
Yeah I voted. Sometimes when they’re bad they develop into bad headaches. Sometimes even a migraine.
I used to get allergy shots and they worked really well, but ever since my heart episode of January 2023 I’ve been on a med that conflicts with the serum. Once I’m off of that I’ll go back to the shots.
I truly hope you don’t suffer from allergies! But, there are worse things… Definitely there are worse things.
I’ve never, to my knowledge, had a problem with allergies before. But about two weeks ago my right eye started getting itchy. I happened to have an eye doctor appointment last week, so I mentioned it before she checked my eyes out. She said she could see the allergic reaction in it, that I wasn’t crazy (at least in that way), and told me to use some Allegro drops for a week.
I moved to Montana 15 years ago and suddenly developed seasonal allergies that would spring up during Spring, when the temp got around 70 F. It would last throughout the summer, and taper off in the Fall when the temp dropped. I took OTC allergy meds daily to stop the sneezing and runny nose. It wasn’t the worst problem to have, but it seemed more bothersome on windy days (more pollen in the air?).
Beginning last year, I went on a clean keto diet and lost some weight, and my allergies suddenly went away. I don’t know if it was because of the food I was or wasn’t eating, or something else. I spent more time outdoors than indoors than I had in the past, which you would think would have made matters worse.
We’ll see what happens this year. The weather isn’t quite warm enough for the problem to start, if it’s going to. I know this sounds weird, but it’s the truth.
I didn’t develop allergies until about 8 years ago. I take a Claratin (Walmart version) every day once the snow melts until the snow reappears. As long as I take my pill, I have no issues. If I don’t take one, my eyes will burn, I’ll sneeze and I’ll have a dry cough.
We broke a record for tree pollen yesterday. There are drifts of it on the porch. I don’t want to go outside because it means almost instant itching and sneezing.
So far, your allergies aren’t bothering me very much
… as for mine, they were quite bad about 2 weeks ago but have subsided to their usual dull (drippy) roar. Long Island, fruit trees bloomed, been quite a bit of rain more recently.
As a physician I’ve mostly beaten my allergies back enough that they don’t really suck as much as they used to. Between using oral antihistamines like loratadine or cetirizine, nasal antihistamines like azelastine, nasal steroids like fluticasone, nasal decongestants like oxymetazoline (used very judiciously lest rebound congestion occur), and neti pot rinses with mildly hypertonic saline with bicarb, it’s simple to manage. A mere 45-90 minutes twice a day attending to my nose and I’m home free. ;-D
I have never had allergies before but the last couple years and especially this year I have been absolutely overwhelmed with symptoms.
Last year one of my eyes got infected and I had to be treated for blephritis.
This year I have had non stop sneezing, sore throat, runny nose and other allergic symptoms which clear up at times but come back without fail. I guess I will have to do some medical research here if things do not get better.
I just discovered the azelastin, local brand name Astepro. It is kind of the bomb! A spray antihistamine, never knew such a thing existed before this year. I asked my doctor to prescribe something stronger than Benadryl for when my nose Will Not Stop Running – sneezing and runny nose can lay me up for days – and this is the stuff, OTC at that. I’m going around recommending it to everybody like an Amway salesman, it’s that good.
I never had allergies until I was in my early 50’s, and it took me a while to break down and see an allergist. I assumed I was allergic to the mulberry trees outside my office, but when I was actually tested, it turned out that, while I had a few tree and grass allergies, I’m mainly allergic to cats.
In other words, I’ve been on a bunch of allergy meds all the time for the past decade or so. If it gets any worse, I’ll consider shots, but my needle phobia makes me want to wait.
I’ve lived with cats nearly constantly for 54 years now. Started having seasonal allergy problems about 5 years after I moved to Sacramento, so was coming up on 40 when symptoms developed.
If it turns out to be the cats, I’ll just keep taking allergy meds and keep the cats. They’re worth it to me.
We’re staying at a hotel in Las Vegas for 3 nights, and that’s where my allergies were bad. My wife figured out that it was probably the pillows we were sleeping on that were causing my bad symptoms. So for this, our last night here, I’m using something else for my pillow and — voila! — no symptoms. She’s a genius, while me, sometimes I’m not too smart. Often it is many times and not just sometimes.
I’ve had allergies since I was a kid back in the 60s, when they wouldn’t prescribe kids inhalers (or at least my doctor wouldn’t.) At times, I used to miss days of school, have to sleep sitting upright…
They’ve morphed over the decades such that now I only have occasional rhinitis - which a claritin knocks out. They’ve really made strides in medication. Having had really bad asthma, a little hayfever is (to me) a walk in the park.
We are getting ready to enter the Sneeze Season. I start off by taking a daily 10mg Loratadine (super cheap at Costco). When the prime time hits, I add 1-2 Chlorpheniramine maleate 12 mgs per day. That combo keeps the sneezing to a couple dozen a day. Without either, I can sit and sneeze for 30 minutes at a time, multiple times a day, and it is horrible. Also, the roof of my mouth and my eyes itch so bad.
The good news is when I was young I was allergic to everything (animals, foods, pollens, etc). I got shots for what seemed like a couple years and it dialed it way back so even though I complain about it, I am way better than I used to be.