Living with allergies

Allergy season is starting earlier and dragging on longer, due to climate change. </crossthread>

I had that poke test done on both arms a few years ago and discovered I'm not allergic to anything. That's what I'd already believed. But it also didn't give me a cause for my symptoms.

I was coughing up gunk for two months, starting around this time last year. It's like my insides waited for the offseason and inflicted me with all the illnesses I'd avoided. I kept my mask on, even outdoors, and repeated, "I've been tested. It's not COVID."

When I got back from an international trip with an eye infection on top of the cough, the walk-in clinic doc insisted it was whatever the new strain of COVID was at the time. Nope. I got lots of prescription drugs and nothing stopped the cough. Wal-Tussin (dextromethorphan) pills (generic from Walgreens) were the best. A European nasal spray that isn't available in the U.S. worked wonders on the runny nose.

Good luck!

 

Took my dog for an allergy test last year. Turns out he's allergic to Earth. Every type of tree, grass, shrub, airborne particle.

Useless expensive test.

 

Several years ago I had the tests on my forearms. We found out that I'm allergic to oak, which just so happens to be the predominant tree in my state. I had a welt that looked like a smallpox bump on my arm for a couple of months.

 

I got tested about 10 years ago. They said I was non-reactive, confirmed with a blood test.

Then why the F have I been on allergy medication constantly since I was 10? My nose is constantly a drippy runny mess, I get at least 2 sinus infections a year, my eyes are gross and watery in the morning, etc. I always buy my Kleenex boxes by the 4 pack and have one at my office desk, in my car and by my bed.

People have questioned over the years if I'm allergic to cats, but I had the same exact symptoms when I lived 3 years in the dorms in college (so no pets of any kind there) and had no pets for about 2 years after grad school, so it's unlikely that cats are my allergen. (But also, I'll load up on every allergy med known to man before I'll give up my cats.)