End of April Q+A

This spring has really been miserable for me so far.  My allergies have been getting really bad.  Tried a new med, but its not making anything better.  I have 2 questions to answer.


Q: How do you deal with nose irritation from all the moisture of a runny nose? I imagine after a while your nose must become very raw and painful. Do you use things like Vaseline or those fancy aloe tissues?
A: My nose gets really red, like right now.  There isn't too much I can do about it, so it does get pretty irritated.  I have tried creams and such but it all gets wiped off too quickly to do anything.  I can only use plain tissues.  I have found I am allergic to something in the lotion tissues and extra-soft tissues.

 

Q: You've said before that on a bad allergy day you can easily use an entire box of tissues. What do you do when you're out? Do you carry multiple pocket packs in your purse? Keep a spare box in the car?
A: I try to never run out.  I keep tissues everywhere, like in different rooms, in my pockets and bag, and car, etc.  For the times I do run out, I have used napkins, paper towels, etc. and if I get really desperate I have used paper, a towel, a shirt.  My nose can get snotty really easily and I hate for anyone to see my nose so snotty.

I am really totally out of ideas on what to write about, so please keep questions coming.  Feel free to talk to me directly too if you want.  yahoo messenger or e-mailing my hotmail is best.

Q+A for begining of April

Even though the weather has been up and down temperature-wise, the last few weeks my allergies have been getting pretty bad from the tree pollens I think.  I don't have much else to say that I can think of right now, so I will answer a few questions I was sent.


Q: What's the worst allergy day that you can remember, how did you deal with it?
A: I remember a few.  No breaks in sneezing all day, totally congested and a runny mess and eyes and nose itch and burn like crazy, etc.  The only way I have been able to deal with them is to just do nothing.  I can't even really get out of bed on a day like that, even things like eating and drinking is hard.

Q: Do you remember the longest time that you call sick from school and stay at home because of allergies? After the leave, how do you catch back the stuffs at school?
A: I don't think I have been out more than a couple of days in a row.  Of course it can happen numerous times without many days in-between.  Its hard to catch up on stuff.  At times of the semester that my allergies aren't too bad, I try to get as much work done as possible so I do not fall too far behind during bad allergy times.  I also am lucky in that I have an advisor that is very understanding and helpful in getting me more time to finish things when I need.

Q: You have once said that you suffered from runny nose. How constantly do you need to wipe your nose with tissues? How runny nose interferes with your life?
A: Some days are worse than others, but I always have tissues with me.  I put a lot of effort into making sure no-one sees my nose being snotty, so it can be kind of tiring.  It can slow me down, especially if its very runny because one hand is often occupied wiping my nose, or holding a tissue to my nose.  I wipe my nose often, so some days my nose can get pretty irritated.  Sometimes I have to be careful about leaning forward, as a bunch can spill out quickly.  Its frustrating when my nose runs on something too.

Q: Which period (like march to ...) in the year do you suffer the most? How do you cope with it? ( For example preparing tons of tissues everywhere you pass by, prevent going out during high peaks of the day, wearing masks when going out,e.t.c)
A: probably mid-April to sometime in June, and then August through October.  I keep tissues all over the place, and keep as many on me as possible.  I try to avoid going out, etc when I can, but sometimes I try anyway because I don't want to be stuck doing nothing all the time.  Not much I do seems to make a difference.  For me, wearing a mask is a bad idea.  Having a runny nose in a mask is annoying at the least, and having long sneezing fits in a mask is really bad.   


As usual, please keep questions and ideas coming.  Also, feel free to say hi or chat if you want.

Sinus ramblings and Q+A

I keep wanting to post weekly, and it ends up being monthly.  Sorry! 

One thing I was recently thinking about is my sinuses.  Along with lots of nasal congestion, I have sinus congestion.  I usually feel it as varying degrees of pressure, much like the nasal congestion.  It can become sinus pain when my allergies are bad and it can make me feel dizzy, or cause pain on bending over, etc. when my allergies are bad too.  For some reason however I am lucky in that I rarely get sinus infections.

I have tried many things to help it, and most don't work.  Doing some kind of steam type thing, like long hot shower or in a steamy bathroom, etc. is about the only thing that helps, and it doesn't last very long after I am out.  I have tried a neti pot a number of times, but the water will never come out of my nostril.  The most I have ever gotten was a few drops, and the neti pot usually sends me into sneezing fits.  Another thing I kept trying over and over again was getting sinus massage.  Many people always told me how helpful they are and I had tried many different people who do it, but every time it either made my sinuses worse or sent me into allergy attacks.  Its annoying that I have totally different reactions to things than most people.

That's just something I was thinking about so I figured I would share.  I have a couple of questions to answer too:

Q:Have your allergies gotten worse with age?
A: Yes, to a point.  for about the first 5 years or so of having allergies (about 13 yrs old to 17/18 yrs old) they got progressively worse. After that, they don't seem to have gotten much worse, although I sometimes do discover something else I didn't know I was allergic too.  That I think is more about not encountering it before or not knowing I was encountering it before more than developing a new allergy.


Q:If you could get rid of just one allergy what would it be?
A: That's a hard choice between cats and ragweed.  They are 2 of my worst allergies.  I love cats and would love to be able to have one or 2 again.  But at the same time, its often possible to avoid cats.  Ragweed however can't be avoided and it cause me a whole lot of suffering.  If I was to be practical, I would probably have to say ragweed, although if I could say all pollens that would be a better choice!

Thank you again for the questions.  Please keep them coming so I can make more posts!  And as usual, feel free to e-mail me or IM me on yahoo if you want to chat.

Early Feb. Q+A

I am happy that I got a few questions pretty quickly.  It gives me something to write about!

Q:You said that you use lots of tissues a day. How many tissues do you use each day for your allergy?
A: I never took exact count, but sometimes I can easily go through a box in a day.  When my allergies are bad I have to be using a tissue pretty much constantly, and at those times my sneezing fits can be very messy.

Q:If you need to stay outside for some reason on a high pollen count day, how will you cope with it?
A: It gets bad for me on high pollen days if I am stuck outside.  I become unable to function pretty quickly.  I end up just sitting and sneezing like crazy, etc.  It even becomes pretty hard to communicate.  I have had a few times where someone was trying to be of help, and I ended up being stuck outside longer because I couldn't tell them I needed to go inside.

Q:You have once said that your allergy interferes your daily life. How do you manage your time in studying, especially ragweed, which worsen your allergy problems?
A: I try to get as much work and studying, etc done at the times my allergies aren't too bad.  Thats why i tend to do better in school at the end of the fall semester and the beginning of spring semester, when there isn't much pollen around.  During ragweed season, which overlaps with the beginning of the fall semester, I am often useless for studying and I have to miss class often, etc.  I have luckily been able to make stuff up, and stretch things out, etc.  If it wasn't for my allergies, I'd be getting through my program much quicker.

Q:Do you find you have difficulty falling asleep because of your sneezing? Is it hard to lie down with the congestion and how do you deal with that? Are you able to get rest?
A: Often times, yes.  Trying to get sleep with congestion, sneezing, and runny nose can be impossible.  I tend to sleep with my head propped up a bit, so that helps, but not always the most comfortable.  When my allergies are bad, I often don't get much sleep.  I'll tend to doze off for short times all though the day and night.

Q:Do you take daily medication for your allergies and does it seem to help at all? 
A: Yes, I take a number of things, but they don't help too much.  My doc will sometimes switch things up to see if some combination helps more.  It certainly doesn't get rid of my allergies, but at least during some of the year it does take the edge off enough to help me be functional.


Keep those questions/ideas coming please!  And thanks for reading my blog.  As always, feel free to say hi.

Short dream and Q+A

Wow, its been so long again since I have posted.  I really want to post more, its just that I can't think of much and I keep putting it off.  I had a dream two nights ago that had a part to do with allergies, and I have a question to answer, so here we go!

I know I was having a few dreams, but this one part I remembered.  For some reason, my nostrils were huge, like 2 or 3 inches wide.  They were full of snot and I was having a hard time keeping it from gushing out, as all I had was a small tissue.  I was in a big house and I kept going from room to room to find a place to blow my nose before everything gushed out.  Every room I went into had people in them and I was too embarrassed to blow my nose in front of anyone.

Ok, that's all of the dream I remember.  Here is the very short Q+A:

Q: Do you remember how long is your longest sneezing fit? After having these huge attacks, how do you feel? 
A: Oh I have had some be very very long.  Its not common, but its gone into the hundreds at least.  After any long attack, not even in the hundreds I feel totally wiped out/exhausted, and sometimes my muscles can feel sore.  I have even passed out from sneezing so much, if the fit won't let me get air in.  That tends to make the fit stop though, lol.

Thanks for the few of you who keep reading.  Please ask me questions/give me ideas for posts, and feel free to say hi if I am online.

Service animals

(I meant to post this back in October, but I just recently discovered I never hit the 'post' button!)

I'm very allergic to dogs, and other animals in general (cats are my worst).  Over the years, there have seen more and more service dogs around.  It hasn't been an issue for me until recently.  I have seen some around at the school, but I never needed to have much interaction with people with service dogs.  I have been running into some problems now though because there are service dogs in some of my classes.  One class is a pretty small class, and it gets bad for me pretty quick, so I sometimes have been skipping classes and gettign notes from people and/or looking at material on-line. 

I kind of worry that dander for the service dogs will stay around in the classrooms (I doubt they clean classrooms that well!) and cause me more problems even when the dogs aren't around.

Thats whats been on my mind allergy-wise lately.  Please make comments, and please give me some questions to use in a Q+A.  I am going to make an effort to post more by talking about any allergy-related things that happen to me, but I might forget or put it off too long if they aren't that major.

Catching up with a short post and Q+A

Ok, I know I have been bad and not posted in a very long time.  I had been really busy and I kept putting it off.  I finally got a bit of motivation to make a post.

Now that pollen is gone, my allergies aren't as bad.  I do have to deal a bit with dust and stuff moving around for heating systems coming back on on the dryness that it can create, but its not as bad as dealing with pollen.

I am not sure what other update to give right now, so i will go into 2 questions I got:

Q:Have you ever considered moving to a different climate? For example I'm in Seattle and I know of someone who moved from here to Medford, OR for relief from sinus issues. Would a drier, desert-like climate help? Would there be less triggers? Or would the air conditioning bother your allergies? 
A: I have looked into that and I have been told that it doesn't really work, and if it does it would only be for a short time, as new triggers would start to bother me.  I have moved from the northwest to the northeast and i didn't see any difference.  A/C I don't think bothers my allergies in and of itself, but they are prone to mold and I am pretty allergic to mold.  I once stayed somewhere and my allergies we going really bad and it took us a while to realize it was a very old A/C unit that hadn't been kept up that well that was causing much of my problems.

Q:One of the things I find most awkward about sneezing repeatedly is how people feel the need to say 'bless you'. I wish that courtesy did not even exist, I wish sneezing was like coughing. When people bless me I feel like I can't even say thank you in between sneezes and it's even more awkward when they keep saying it after every few sneezes, and even more awkward when they finally give up and I'm still sneezing! It just makes me more embarrassed than I already am. Do you like people to acknowledge your sneezes with a 'bless you'? 
A:  I hate the bless you thing so much!  It just draws more attention to all my sneezing, and I end up feeling bad because most people just eventually give up blessing me in the middle of my fits.  Whats worse is when they switch from blessing to things like 'wow are you ever gonna stop'  or 'I blessed you enough, you can stop now' or 'I can't bless you that much', and other weird or annoying things.

I know I have posted about this before, but answering the last question reminds me of all the crazy things people say to me.  Some makes me feel really embarrassed, some upset me, some make me feel mad.  Some people are actually pretty nice and helpful but sometimes they are the total opposite, either on accident or on purpose. Some of the worst stuff I have heard it people telling me: I am doing it just to get attention; my allergies ruin my looks; and even a few times people have gotten upset that they were trying to have a conversation with me when my allergies were really bad and I wasn't answering them.

Ok, I didn't want to leave off on a depressing note!  So, I'll say my allergies are being a bit better because of the season, and in a few days I will have a few days off :)

As usual, please read and share and ask me more questions and feel free to contact me to chat if you want to!  Happy TG!