I have NEVER had to deal with allergies in all of my 48 years. Oh sure, I might sneeze a few times, maybe get stuffed up a bit right at the beginning of pollen season, but never in all of my years have I felt the mind numbing congestion, wool-sweater-shoved-down-my-throat, allergies that I have fought with the deepest desperation this past week.
So my apologies in advance for the quietness here on the blog and on our social media sites. It’s been hell trying to just hold my head up and not cough and spritz every two seconds, let alone try and prepare something intelligent to amuse you with.
I grew up in Pennsylvania, surrounded by a variety of trees and woodlands, wild flowers, and a myriad of beautiful daffodils, roses, hyacinths, dandelions, ragweed, honeysuckle – you get the idea. If I was going to develop an allergy to something – THEN would have been the opportune time for it to rear its ugly head, right?
Wrong.
[bctt tweet=”People can develop allergies later in life, out of the blue, for no reason at all.” username=”KimAtLiah”]
Doctors have no idea why patients develop allergies later in life. Genetics may not be as important a role as before thought. Unfortunately, people who develop allergies for the first time later in life are also at risk for developing asthma later in life and may have a more severe asthma disease. (source)
I did not think it was allergies at first. Stuffy nose, congestion – I’m getting a cold, no biggie right? Then I take my son in for his annual checkup and he tells the doctor about his extremely sore throat (check), stuffy nose (check), coughing uncontrollably (check) and she does a strep test on him. He came back positive. Oh joy! Singing and swinging from the rafters he was because it gave him a 48 hours no school pass until he’d been on his antibiotics for that long. Doctor tells me that if my symptoms are the same as his (which they are) to get myself tested as soon as possible as well.
So I pop into the local CVS MinuteClinic (these little clinics are a life saver I tell you – especially when your own primary care physician cannot see you for a week!) and wait for my turn to be seen. 4 people ahead of me, wait was about an hour – not bad – and then it was my turn. Thorough examination, listens to my concerns, strep test, viral infection testing – I’m clean. No strep, no viral infection … just a really, really bad case of allergies.
She hands me my paperwork and a booklet with over $25 in allergy medication coupons. I open it up and my head begins to swim. There’s Claritin, Zyrtec, Benadryl, Allegra – how do I know what I need and what’s going to work for me?
So I turn to those I can trust – my peeps on Facebook who have dealt with this crap. What allergy medication do you recommend? I ask them. I get different responses from every single person.
See, here’s the thing about allergies.
[bctt tweet=”No two people react the same way to allergies or allergy medications.” username=”KimAtLiah”]
Great. I settled on Zyrtec, because hubby’s doctor had prescribed that for him as well so figured we would both take it and see how it works. Um yeah, not what I needed. I’ve taken it for six days straight with not much relief at all. The only reason I’m able to hold my head upright and ‘deal’ at all today is because of the blessed, glorious rain that has fallen off and on today.
To all those that I thought were being a wimp before when they complained about seasonal allergies from pollen – my deepest, heartfelt apologies. There were several days when I would have gleefully welcomed death by firing squad than to deal with these symptoms one more moment. You have my undying admiration for dealing with this b.s. each and every year.
