Friday, August 29, 2008

Welcome to allergy weekend

It started last night with the itchy, watery eyes and the burning about-to-sneeze feeling in the nose that never quite develops into a sneeze. This morning my eyes are still itchy and the sneezing has begun. They are just mild random, sets of 3 sneezes still, but soon they will become strong repetitive full body sneezing sessions lasting several minutes at a time. They come over and over again with breaks of maybe 10-30 minutes in between. They leave me exhausted and sore. I have to lay down but when they hit me while I am laying down they cause me sharp pain in my abs from the muscles tightening and often cause charley horses.  The physical effort of all the sneezing occasionally triggers asthma attacks. I lay on the bed *sneeze*, *wheeze*, *gasp* over and over again for up to 10 minutes at a time.  It's miserable, it's exhausting & it is depressing. This will happen again and again over the next 2-4 days.

This has been hitting me for over a decade. Nothing helps. I take allergy med regularly in August - pills and nasal sprays - because I have seasonal outdoor allergies. They work the rest of the month but come Labor Day weekend they fail. I use a neti pot. I take multiple showers. I eat local honey. I clean the house as well as I can the week before (I am also allergic to dust, "as well as I can" is very haphazard)I've tried shutting up the house, in case it is outside; I've tried opening up the house, in case it is in the house. Leaving town is the only thing that has prevented the sneeze fest, but I have to go a long long way.

I wish I knew what was so special about this weekend. What is blooming or dying outside that is too much for my system? Is it inside the house, do I somehow slack off on the cleaning more in August than any other month, so that by the last of the month the dust bunnies are so large they overwhelm me?  Is it a combination of something outside & something inside?

It's taken me an hour to type this because I can't sneeze & type.  I really don't like Labor Day weekend

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

This happens to me too. Except I don't have asthma. As a child, I always new school was about to start when I got 'sick'. Now, it marks the summer being over. Hope you feel better soon.

Jenni said...

Mine have kicked up all of a sudden, too! It's the ragweed, for me. It stinks, doesn't it??

I am going to put a call into my Dr. and see if she'll call in a prescription for Allegra for me!

Aunt Becky said...

Mine have reached a ridiculous peak, too! And I didn't even realize I HAD allergies until this week! Suddenly, I'm highly sympathetic to all those who suffer.

Lena said...

I hate allergies! My gf is having to have sinus surgery soon because of all of it! Ick! I hope you are feeling better soon!

Unknown said...

I can relate. Mine just started last week. Watery, itchy eyes, constant sneezing...

I hope we all feel better soon...