Tag-Archive for » allergies «
To everything.
I went to the allergist for the first time ever yesterday. My mom was always afraid to take me when I was little because she would look at my uncle and go hell no. My uncle had those allergy shots when he was younger and they rotted out his teeth. Apparently my mom would rather dope me with Dymatapp than take me to a doctor. I guess she was afraid they’d make me get shots. Not like she had the power to say no or anything.
But I went yesterday and as I thought, they did a bunch of those pokey tests. You know, where they dip the little plastic thing into an allergen, poke your skin with it and then wait for it to react. 22 of them to be exact. They used my right arm for the nuts and various types of pollen and ragweed. My left arm was for the dog and cat dander and molds and fungus and dust, plus the control spots. Well, I was allergic to nearly everything that was poked into my right arm. I’m sure you can imagine just what that limb looked like after 15 minutes (shit, as soon as I was poked I was blotchy and tomato red, not to mention light-headed).
I didn’t find out anything that I didn’t already know (I’ve been dealing with these damn allergies my entire life, you’d think I’d have stuff figured out by now) except that I have ragweed allergies, which is the late summer and early fall (fun stuff). Um, never had so much as a sniffle during that time. But I guess it’s there. The doctor said if I don’t present now, I could in the future. All the more reason to move to California. I’ve been there in the fall. Nada.
So right now I still have OCD heroin arms but at least I’ve found an over the counter medication that subdues my allergies a bit. My boss recommended Alavert to me because he loves it so much. So I tried it. OMFG I can function! It’s not as good as the Benadryl used to be but I’m not a slobbering pile of itch! Yay! I can take my dog for a walk without feeling like dying! Yay! I can write! Yay!
The allergist also wants me to use eye drops for my eyes to keep them from itching, plus a nasal spray (fun times right there) and basically seal myself into an airtight bubble to keep the allergens out until mid-June. No driving with the window down, keeping the windows closed at home. Staying inside. Um, no. Especially since I don’t use air conditioning until I have problems breathing from the heat. And the air conditioner in my car needs to be charged. So, um, no again.
I’m better than last year and now I just have confirmation of what it is I’m allergic to (believe it or not, my food allergies are the result of being allergic to certain types of tree pollen). Now if I could just find a medicine that worked like the commercials said it worked, I’d be happy. Or I just move out to California. Yeah, that sounds good.
So I’m royally getting my ass kicked by my allergies. I did used to take Benadryl. Took 6 or 7 a day without any kind of comatose side effects. As of last year, my body told me to piss off and now I take Benadryl to sleep. Boo. So I’ve had to pounce around from allergy drug to allergy drug as a means to function. Thus far, nothing works even remotely close to what Benadryl did for me. Nothing. I’m on Zyrtec now and it helps me as much as rolling around in a field of pollen does. Next on the list is Alovert, I think the name is. One of the guys that I work with told me about it. If that doesn’t work, I have no idea what will. I’ve had people swear by Claratin, Zyrtec and now Alo . . . whatever and it seems that no matter what people tell me will work, nothing does.
And thanks to nothing working, I’ve been a slug in the writing department. Have you noticed those word counts over to the side? Well, first and foremost I’m a pen to paper writer so word counts only get updated when I actually type the story into Word, no more than once a month. I haven’t done it in one full month now but that’s besides the point. One of the stories is on hold because I’ve found working on two at a time is actually counter productive so one it is. I’m trying to type in that one now but with eyes so freakin’ itchy they’re six seconds from swelling shut, it’s kind of hard to see the computer screen let alone type anything in. On top of that all I want to do is sleep. I’m snotting on myself and covered in hives because spring allergies actually make me allergic to my dog. Fun fun. Needless to say, I’m a bit hampered.
So it’s blog chain time again over at Absolute Write and being the masochist that I am, I’ve signed up yet again. Not that it’s painful to do a blog chain but considering how much I have on my plate, adding anything else threatens to crack it.
Gillian, the food lady that went before me, talked about fasts and fish allergies. I’m still trying to figure out how that relates to the theme of the chain, new beginnings, but I guess it relates back to rebooting which was talked about a few links back. To fast is to deny yourself something for an extended period of time then gorge once you can have it again. You purge (reboot) and gorge (repeat the vicious cycle). At least that’s my view of it, hence children giving up candy and swallowing whole Cadbury Creme Eggs on Easter. It makes sense.
Spring is in and of itself a new beginning. A new yearly beginning and my time of suffering. Right around the time the trees and shrubbery are starting anew, my eyes start to get itchy and the sneezes come in droves. Damn pollen, how reactive you make me. It’s starting earlier this year which sucks big time. Usually I don’t feel much until closer to May. Being the beginning of April, this is a sure fire sign that this year’s fresh start is going to make me suffer like a Red Sox fan with statistics (that would make more sense if I linked to the post but I’ll be reposting it here soon anyway, you’ll get it then).
