Living with allergies

First, I’m not looking for medical advice. I went to urgent care yesterday and I’m following up with my primary care in two weeks.

I’ve had allergies for pretty much all my life. It’s the usual ones, dust, mold, pollen, etc.

One of the main symptoms has been post nasal drip, which causes a pretty bad cough.

I’ve been dealing with it for about a week now. I left work early. I couldn’t get through a phone call without coughing uncontrollably.

I’ve been throwing everything I could at it but over the counter stuff is useless.

People were understandably concerned. I wasn’t contagious because it was allergies (tests for Covid and the flu were negative) but they were understandably concerned.

The optics certainly aren’t good. The thing is though, if I called in sick every time I had the sniffles I’d never go to work.

My girlfriend is a nurse and she doesn’t understand why I had to go home. She asked me where my boss got his medical degree, that as bad as it looks it’s not that bad and just suck it up and go to work. My father, who had much worse allergies, as well as asthma, was the same way.

The thing is, how you handle something like this? It looks really bad but it’s not contagious. I get a little tired of explaining that it’s allergies, just something I have to live with, nothing to see here.

 

I feel your pain. Literally. I am also more self-conscious about it since COVID.

I don't have any great advice. I just ignore the looks I get when I keep coughing. If somebody asks, I answer honestly. If they are rude, I offer my deepest apologies for the way my respiratory difficulties trouble them. That leaves them to decide if they are more annoyed by my cough or my sarcasm.

 

My allergies usually crop up as eczema. After a particularly rough stretch in 2010 or so, I had that patch test too and came back with everything as well--so much everything that my wife was almost in tears trying to figure out what I *could* use. She stocked up on natural shampoos and soaps from Trader Joe's and I began using their aloe gel in my hair instead of the usual hair gel. I also began using a different deodorant that was free of a lot of chemicals instead of the Speed Stick I'd been using since puberty (I mean, the Speed Stick product, not the same stick of deodorant I had when I first sprouted hairs down there in 1985 )

It worked but as time has gone by, I've transitioned back to usual hair gel and haven't had problems using mainstream soaps and shampoos outside the home (still use the Trader Joe's soap and shampoo at home). I also bought a Speed Stick in an emergency situation on the road last year and have stuck with it, b/c not only has my skin been mostly OK but the stick lasted me almost a year whereas the other deodorant would last a couple months tops. I think a lot of my problems in that 2010-ish time frame were stress-related...my Mom had just died and I was out of work, so I was really a mess and I think the stress manifested itself with eczema breakouts. I'd be intrigued to see what the patch test reveals now, but as you note, that shit is itchier than any eczema.

 

I'm sniffly basically from December to March because of mountain cedar. The worst year was 2014 when it was especially bad. It's almost enough to root for Arctic blasts because it'll blow that shit outta here.

The other 8 months of the year, I seem to get slightly sniffly when I either head north or the wind blows out of the north. Guess I'm just allergic to Oklahoma.

 

I used to love spring, but the past few years, I’ve been having major allergies. Irritated eyes. Coughing, sneezing; you name it. This year has been the worst.

 

Nasacort works for me, in the grass seed capital of the world, where May and June are absolute hell for those with pollen allergies. Nothing else I tried over the years made much of a dent in he sniffles and watery eyes.

 

When I lived in your neck of the woods I was beyond miserable in the spring. I'm off-the-scale allergic to every type of grass. I sometimes woke up in the morning with my eyes literally crusted shut -- I would have to walk blindly to the bathroom sink and rub water on my eyes until I could open them.

I moved to the desert and discovered Flonase. Doing much better these days.

When I did the allergy testing as a teen the only foods that came up were peanuts and rice. I laid off them for decades, but earlier this year discovered I can now eat them with virtually no ill-effect.

 

I remember ... I was 7 or 8 ... when they did the allergy testing on your back with like 100 little pricks. Do they still do that?

 

I think they do, but I was about 14 when I had it. The grass tests all grew together into one giant welt on my back.

 

Yes. My son was supposed to get 40. He made it through about a dozen before losing it.

He was 6. And it was right at the start of the pandemic and the people in the allergist’s office were basically wearing full hazmat gear.

Not traumatic at all.

 

Had the needle pokes about 25 years ago. Lasting memory was of the nurse saying, "The doctor will be right in to read your back." That made me laugh. I didn't like the doctor. He said I was mildly allergic to a lot of things but nothing serious. "I can't help you. Goodbye," he said as he rushed out of the room. I thought he was a quack.