I am stuffy, sneezy, drowsy.
Yes, allergy season is upon me, and I now have the urge to pack up my boxes and move to Utah. Living in Utah and Arizona I never ever had allergies so I thought I lucked out. Nope, not so much.
My first foray into the hell that is allergies came when I was studying abroad in Italy. There was a beautiful star jasmine vine climbing up the wall of my flat. I thought it was so beautiful and so quintessentially Italian. Until I woke up the next morning stuffy and sneezy, then I hated those little white flowers. Unable to hear lectures over my sneezing, I walked into a pharmacia and loudly proclaimed "Allergia!" and I was promptly given THE MOST AMAZING ALLERGY MEDICINE I HAVE EVER EXPERIENCED IN MY LIFE. It got rid of the symptoms and caused no drowsiness or ditziness. It was great.
My home in Italy, fabulous hu!
And as it turns out that allergy to star jasmine was a god-send. A couple weeks into the term, some kind of bug took a liking to the sweet American girls in our flat. We were all COVERED with bug bites, but since I had had antihistamines in my bloodstream since day one the bites didn't bother me. For everyone else the bites turned into huge, red, itchy bumps that were sensitive to sunlight, and it's not like there's any sunlight in Italy in June/July. Everyone else was miserable, and I was kissing the little Jasmine flowers outside of my window.
My flatmates in Orvieto
Upon my return from Italy, the allergies disappeared. For a year and a half - nothing. Then I was introduced to spring time in So Cal. Apparently everyone and their dog likes to decorate their yards and businesses with Star Jasmine. I was inundated with sneeziness and stuffiness. And allergy medicine? Apparently that miracle medicine in Italy...not so much available here. All medicine either makes me so ditzy I can barely remember where I live, or it knocks me out. Now I know I don't get allergies as bad as other people, say Autumn*, but it is still enough to affect my day. And allergies are never a good excuse to not be in tip top shape. You have the flu? or a cold? oh you poor thing, I am so sorry. You have allergies? Oh ok, whatever. But the thing is, allergies often do more damage to me than a cold.
So now that I have depleted my Italian allergy med stash (I re-stocked up on my honeymoon in '06) for the next few months I will wake up with a sinus headache. I will be sneezy and stuffy and I will have to weigh my options as to whether I can afford to live as a ditz that day. If my posts start to become incoherent, just assume that my allergy medicine has kicked in.
So...do you have any miracle allergy cure? What works for you? Zyrtec works best for me, but still makes me sleepy. Help!
*This is where I would link to Autumn if she had a blog. But she doesn't, so I can't. If you are reading this and know her, will you help me convince her that it is about time she starts one too???
3 comments:
AMEN. i hate allergies. when i studied in spain, i was sick the entire time... i had no idea that i was just allergic to plant life in spain (olive trees - check!).
that said, nothing i have found works... but i'm pretty lazy about it. i use claritin all the time b/c zyrtec puts me to sleep, and i just cannot have that.
for sinus headaches (which are the bane of my existence), tylenol sinus headache is a miracle drug.
agreed. allergies suck! i use allegra d... it's a miracle drug for the day to day life! seriously awesome.
haha. great post title. :D
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