Sunday, May 29, 2016

Seeking opinons, and venting about mean stuff

I am getting close to graduating, and I have been trying to find good jobs.  I got offered a pretty good opportunity (its the best one I have bene able to find), but there is an issue.  Its doing research, but before I can have the job, I need to be an intern (paid) with them for 6 to 9 months.  Its a rules thing, and also to make sure I am a good match and I like working there.  Intern stuff is mainly being a lab tech.  The issue I have is that even though I wont be working directly with animals, I will be near them a lot.  I told them about my allergies, and that's why I don't have to actually work with them.  So I am wondering what to do - I am worried that my allergies might be so bad that I can't work well, and then they aren't going to want me anymore.  Of course I am also worried about being exposed to allergens constantly for so long.  The thing is, its a really good opportunity, and once the internship is over I won't have to be around the animals.

I got to thinking about mean things people have said to me about my allergies.  Some I wasn't meant to hear, and some I think were misguided attempts to be nice.  It got to bugging me lately, so I wanted to list some of the things that have been said within the last week or so:

You'd be very attractive if it wasn't for your allergies
Does she do anything else besides sneeze?
Are you sure its allergies?  You might be sick, and I don't want to catch anything
Maybe its all in your head?
Your allergies are being very disruptive
If you would blow your nose your allergies wouldn't be so bad

I also hate when I get 'advice' like the last one, but they don't seem to understand if I tell them I tried/it doesn't work, they should believe me and not argue with me.  Ugh!

I haven't gotten any new questions.  I am wondering if my last post wasn't very interesting?  please feel free to comment and to contact me!

Sunday, May 8, 2016

Happy Mother's Day and Q+A

I hope everyone is talking to their moms on Mothers Day :)

I have a number of questions to answer, so I will get to them below.  For some reason, I am not getting e-mail alerts about comments on my blog posts, so I am sorry if I miss things.

My allergies have been very bad.  I mentioned before that they seemed to start up 2 weeks earlier than usual.  They got bad a bit quicker than usual, and they are staying more consistently bad than usual, if I am remembering correctly.  Of course, what is happening in the moment always seems worse than the past, so I might be wrong on that.

I think I found all the questions:

Q: When you're in the middle of a sneezing fit, how many times would you say you sneeze per minute? And when you're not in a fit, do you sneeze often anyways? If so, I have a kind of strange idea.
A: Per minute?  Not sure.  When my allergies are bad like this its over 20 sneezes in a fit.  I do sneeze often, but its pretty much always in fits.  What is your strange idea?

Q: Answer other questions, but every time you sneeze type a symbol or something, just to give us the idea of how often you sneeze in real life.
A:  I don't like to do this.  One benefit of chatting online is that my allergies get less in the way, especially the sneezing.

Q: When you are in a long sneezing fit, do the sneezes ever cause you to feel relieved? I know a few people who feel relieved after fits which makes them feel better.
A: People tell me I am weird because that doesn't happen to me.  My sneezing fits don't make me feel any better, just tire me out.  My nose still feels very itchy and tingly after, and I am still congested after.

Q: Another question, have you ever sneezed so much that you couldn't function?

A: Oh yes, it happens often when my allergies are bad.

Q: Lastly (I'm really sorry I'm just super interested) if you could some how be allergy-free, what things would do you differently? 

A:  Many things.  I'd own cats, I'd probably get into horseback riding.  I'd swim more, play more sports, maybe get back into singing.  I'd have more job possibilities, and I'd go out much more often.

Q: We know that you get various symptoms from your allergies. Is there some "interdependence" between them in a way that one certain symptom is annoying especially when another certain symptom is there?
A: Its a bit hard to say.  I know lots of sneezing makes my sinuses feel worse and makes my nose more snotty.  I think the itchiness and tingles in my nose makes my eyes water more.  I don't think I can tell much more as I do not get symptoms in isolation from each other.

Q:You wrote that your sense of taste is affected from your allergies because it is dependent upon smelling which is affected because of the congestion. What does that mean for your eating? How does it feel for you to eat or drink something when you cannot properly taste it? Do you recognize whether something you eat is spicy?

A: Its like eating when you have a bad cold - nothing has much flavor.  I can taste things being salty or sweet or the other tongue flavors, but that's about it.  Yes, I can tell spicy because that it a tongue/mouth thing.  If you ever had a bad cold where you are all stuffed up, eat something, and that's what its like for me.

Q:Does it happen that your allergies get so bad that it's difficult or even dangerous for you to walk into the street, e.g. because dizziness or blurry vision due to watery eyes?

A:  I am not sure if 'dangerous' is the word, but it certainly is difficult.  It is the blurry vision, the dizziness, and also the distraction with all the symptoms, and lots of sneezing will interrupt me.  Its also a problem if I get a bad allergy attack outside because then I can't really go anywhere and I am unable to get away from what it causing the allergy attack. 

Q: Are there other people but Allison with whom you talk about your allergies in real life?

A: Yes, my best friend Jessie, but she lives in Washington so I don't see her very often since I started grad school.

Q: Imagine that every day you could choose one allergy symptom not to appear. Would you choose the same symptom every day or would you vary between different ones? And which symptom(s) would you choose?

A: In general it would be sneezing.  That is the thing that causes me the most problems.  If there was a day I had to do a lot of talking, but noone would see me, like lots of phone calls, maybe I'd choose congestion.  I'd think about snotty/runny nose, but if I wasn't sneezing that would be more under control anyway.

Q:Imagine that you could live without any allergies for a week by some miracle. Which things would you do during this week?

A: Play with cats, spend lots of time outside, be as active as I can, go visit people I usually can't because of there pets.  Probably also do a crazy amount of cleaning (not having to worry about dust).

Thanks for all the questions.  keep them coming, and please feel free to contact me directly.  With my allergies being bad I'm stuck at home and online more often.