Goddamned Allergies

I don't know if any of you poor souls out there are also sufferers of so-called "seasonal allergies", but I regret to say that I am. When I was a kid, they used to call it "hay fever" (whatever that means) and to my recollection, I'd have a runny nose a fair amount of the time. It was annoying, but I managed. As I get older, however, these allergies get worse and worse. On top of that, I have asthma, which is aggravated by the allergies, so in general, it sucks to be me sometimes.

I was on Alegra for a while, and that was ok, but it was expensive. I eventually ended up taking Singulair for my asthma which also has an anti-allergy component. I have to say that I definitely recommend Singulair to any of you asthma sufferers out there, it's actually quite good. I rarely have to use an inhaler (except when allergies are bad). I used to use Advair for my asthma, but believe it or not, it gave me a yeast infection in my throat (my wife wouldn't let me tell anyone at the time that I had a yeast infection in my throat because of what she feared people might extrapolate). I will say that I have a new respect for women, though, as I don't know any men who have had a yeast infection before, and lemme tell ya, they're not fun. I had it in my throat and I thought I was gonna die. I can't imaging having one "south of the border". After the yeast infection, I was switched to Singulair, and overall it's been good.

After a few years, the Singulair seemed to stop fighting the allergy symptoms, so lately I've been regulating with Alavert . It works generally well, is a little cheaper than Allegra, and it's over the counter, so when I run out, I don't have to go see a doctor to get my prescription renewed which is nice. Alas, it seems that none of these is enough to keep me totally protected against allergies at all times. All day today (and a good part of last night), I have felt like I jumped off the high dive, got a ton of water up my nose, and when I got out of the pool, somebody punched me in the nose. If I had to make a realistic guess, I'd say that in the last 24 hours, I probably sneezed 250-300 times. This doesn't sound like a lot, I know. I could've said "I sneezed constantly", but instead, I figured I'd take a shot at actually approximating the number of sneezes. 250-300 might not sound like much until you think about it. Compare that with any other activity that affects you in some way and see what you think. It's gotten so bad that each time I sneeze, my whole head throbs, my ribs hurt, my eyes heave forward in my skull, and if I could manage to figure a way to do it I'd probably consider life without a nose.

I know there are worse things in life, and that I'll likely move to a more "allergy friendly" geographic location (I'm currently in the southeast US, one of the worst spots for allergies) and that this will soon be a memory. But right now, it definitely sucks to be me. My sneezing woke me up this morning (Sunday that is) at 7:45am. This is about the only day I get the chance to sleep in at all. Tomorrow, I have to be up at 5:30am, and am hoping that I'll even be able to fall asleep. I've already taken a Bendryl which usually sets me into a coma, but my sinuses are bothering me so badly, that I am FULLY aware of my surroundings, and despite feeling oh so tired, I don't feel close to sleepy (not because I'm not tired, but because my whole face hurts). Here's to hoping that some of you can at least enjoy your day at this otherwise wonderful time of year, but me, I'm going to hang my head over a pot of boiling water and hope that I can scald my mucus membranes into a temporary state of inactivity so that I might be able to sleep. Happy sniffling all.