Ship of Fools: Allergies

Thread: Allergies Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on :

I am sure I'm not the only allergy sufferer on the boards - in fact I know I'm not.

The ones I can prevent aren't so bad - I avoid anything that might be caffeinated or have chocolate in it and if I fuck up, as I do sometimes I try not to complain too much - though when a friend insisted Green Tea had no caffeine in it and I didn't sleep for two nights I was, at the very least, mildly peeved!

It's the others that really get to me, the unavoidable ones - particularly, today, it is Teak Blossom, more specifically Teak Pollen, but there are other triggers as well. My eyes have been streaming for hours and I am averaging a sneeze every couple of minutes, sometimes several percussive sneezes in a row. Anti-histamines are good and I take them daily but on a bad day they seem to take forever to kick in - and then there are the days [like today] when I am eventually forced to increase the dosage and the extra pills take half the fucking day to work!

[/Rant]

Not after sympathy, what's the point?

Not sure what I'm after [nothing, probably] but I fucking HATE allergies!

Posted by Arabella Purity Winterbottom (# 3434) on :

Ditto for pine pollen, fortunately not at this time of the year.

Posted by Uncle Pete (# 10422) on :

All these exotic pollens causing misery. How about plain old dust, spores and pollen. Not to mention lactose? It make my life miserable 24/7/365, and causes me to spend thousands of dollars since 1970 on antihistamines (though not recently thanks to sensibly-priced Indian antihistamines.)

Although I can mostly avoid products containing lactose, the buggers sometimes sneak one past me, such as the day when a product that has never bothered me before was prepared differently and was chock-ful of milk (not advertised).

Posted by Ad Orientem (# 17574) on :

Birch pollen does it for me, though it seems to have got a little better over the last few years. Still, it's a pain in the arse, I agree.

Posted by Boogie (# 13538) on :

In the winter I wonder why I never got much done in the garden in the summer.

When summer arrives I remember - a-a-a-a-atishchhhhooooo!

Posted by chive (# 208) on :

Bastarding oil seed rape is driving me to distraction at the moment. It appears every farmer in a ten mile radius is currently growing it. I am fed up of fuzzy heads, bleeding noses and streaming eyes and that's with antihistimines.

Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :

Many years ago people were urged to move to Arizona because it was supposed to be good for respiratory problems. So they moved to the desert and missed their plants from home. Now they've planted all the pollen-bearing trees and flowers. And they can grow things they couldn't "back home" -- like olive trees which do their best to make my life a living hell every spring. As the population grows, we can also add general pollution to the mix, and our climate (especially in the Phoenix area, which is in a valley surrounded by mountains) holds all the pollen and pollution in a cloud of gunk that just sits here. When a good wind storm comes to blow it away, it's usually a dust storm (or haboob!), which of course makes matters worse.
[Help]

Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :

If sneezing troubles you, do not neglect the OTC nasal sprays. Flonase and Nasalcort are lifesavers. With it and Claritin I have been able to get off of the monthly desensitizing injections that I had to do for 20 years.

A truer, but very difficult solution, is to find an entire new biosphere. If you move very far away from where you are now sneezling and wheezling, you will get better -- for a while. I moved from the eastern US to Hong Kong, and it was great! for about five years. Then my system found lots of southeast Asian pollens to become sensitized to, and I was in trouble again. I am certain that Africa or Australia would do me for another decade or so, but it is too laborious to move so far. Am instead considering the Pacific coast.

Posted by no prophet's flag is set so... (# 15560) on :

Netti pot. You put water/salts mix up one nostril and drip the snot and water out the other one, and then switch. It sounds gross and it is, but it is quite nice to drain sinuses.

What the hell are sinuses for anyway? except to bung up with snot and give headaches.

Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
A truer, but very difficult solution, is to find an entire new biosphere.

I did that. I lived in the eastern U.S. and went through the tests and injections and pills (none of which did much good). Then I moved to the southwestern U.S. It meant that I had to go through all new tests and injections and pills (none of which are doing much good).

[Frown]

Posted by Porridge (# 15405) on :

Ah! Now we make categorical TICTH threads. Very tidy.

Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
If sneezing troubles you, do not neglect the OTC nasal sprays. Flonase and Nasalcort are lifesavers. With it and Claritin I have been able to get off of the monthly desensitizing injections that I had to do for 20 years.

A truer, but very difficult solution, is to find an entire new biosphere. If you move very far away from where you are now sneezling and wheezling, you will get better -- for a while. I moved from the eastern US to Hong Kong, and it was great! for about five years. Then my system found lots of southeast Asian pollens to become sensitized to, and I was in trouble again. I am certain that Africa or Australia would do me for another decade or so, but it is too laborious to move so far. Am instead considering the Pacific coast.

I'm doing the shots too. Grrrrrr.

Yes, finding a new freaking biome will work for about 5 years. I moved from California (brush, dust0 to the Midwest and had 5 years of heaven. Now I'm allergic to mold, tree pollen, and basically everything LIVING THING this side of the Rockies.

For my next move, maybe the bottom of the sea.

Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :

quote:
Originally posted by no prophet's flag is set so...:
What the hell are sinuses for anyway? except to bung up with snot and give headaches.

They're to keep your head from being too heavy (solid bone) and falling off your neck and going plunk. Or crash. Or BOOOOOM (hollow sound).

Some days I think that'd be preferable.

Posted by Pomona (# 17175) on :

Pine pollen is the main one for me (and my house is unfortunately surrounded by pine trees!). My main issues are itchy/sticky eyes and sleepiness, some sinus pain. I take loratidine for this (cetirizine makes me drowsy) but is there anything better? I don't pay for prescriptions at the moment so anything prescription-based would be ideal.

Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :

Gotta ask your doctor. People are WAY too individual.

Posted by Doc Tor (# 9748) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Lamb Chopped:
Gotta ask your doctor. People are WAY too individual.

I'm going to second that in an official capacity.

<Inserts standard Ship boilerplate regarding soliciting and obtaining medical advice from non-professionals on the internet.>

DT
HH

I have fortunately seem to have grown out of my allergies. [Razz]

Posted by Schroedinger's cat (# 64) on :

I never used to be affected by this, until we moved. No idea what I am allergic too - probably life. I get bunged up and sore-eyed and all the stuff from late January to early December, sometimes longer.

I just get permanently dosed up on something to allow me to sleep and get through the day. the biggest problem, when it is at its worst, is that I have to take my glasses off to see my computer screen.

Posted by Spike (# 36) on :

As a smoker I never suffered from Hayfever. Since I quit seven years ago, I now get it every bloody summer.

Posted by Schroedinger's cat (# 64) on :

My dad used to smoke and suffered from hayfever. So it isn't a given.

Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :

You do need a doctor to figure out what it is exactly that's kicking off your allergy. Sometimes this can be extraordinarily enlightening.

Then, once you know the enemy, you can fight. A pollen-allergy person knows the times of year those damned trees have sex. The trick about washing your pillowcase often (no need to do the entire sheets, but the pillowcase is what's rubbing against your face.) The trick about washing your hair daily, about never touching the pet without washing your hands after -- oh, there are a million dodges and tips. But only if you know the foe.

Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :

The nasty thing is when you're allergic to every freaking variety of pollen that comes along (that'd be me, then). In which case you stay dosed up against them all freaking year. Except the dead of winter, when you get to switch to mold allergies, oh joy!

Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :

You have a doctor? You sound like a candidate for the shots. It's not worth while unless you're really bad.

Posted by JoannaP (# 4493) on :

quote:
Originally posted by no prophet's flag is set so...:
What the hell are sinuses for anyway? except to bung up with snot and give headaches.

If your sinuses are too close to your dental nerves, you can get really bad toothache with every cold. [Help]

Several years ago, it actually drove me to a dentist who explained, after looking at my X-rays, that he could not do anything about the pain.

ETA: More relevantly, who needs anti-histamine when you have anti-depressants?

[ 03. June 2015, 00:26: Message edited by: JoannaP ]

Posted by orfeo (# 13878) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Spike:
As a smoker I never suffered from Hayfever. Since I quit seven years ago, I now get it every bloody summer.

Post hoc ergo propter hoc.

(After this, therefore because of this. But it sounds cooler in Latin, just ask President Bartlett in the West Wing.)

Posted by Golden Key (# 1468) on :

Neti pots don't work for everyone--depends on inner structure of particular nose. In some people, the wash and the gunk go down the throat instead of back out the nose.

Posted by Alan Cresswell (# 31) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Doc Tor:
I have fortunately seem to have grown out of my allergies.

I'm wondering how long it will be before the Hellhosts develop an allergic reaction to people posting in Hell as though it was All Saints. That is a rather "brave" (by which I mean stupid) thing to do.

Posted by Doc Tor (# 9748) on :

All in good time. But mainly after I've worked out a way to post cat hair over the internet.

Posted by Stercus Tauri (# 16668) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Doc Tor:
[QUOTE]

I have fortunately seem to have grown out of my allergies.

It works both ways. When a couple of wasps put me in the hospital with an anaphylactic reaction, a wise, gentle and compassionate old nurse told me, "Tough - you exceeded your credit limit!" Seems that for some allergies you grow into them, others you grow out, and you are stuck with it.

Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :

The eczema I can cope with - just do all own laundry and remember to take all enveloping PJs, a pillocase and a huge flat sheet if spending the night away from home.

Hayfever I put up with, more-or-less.

The sensitivity to polymers I can avoid by not going near boatyards (or similar).

But the intolerance to onions and shallotts is a killer: on the rare occasions I go out to eat its either some sort of grilled meat and fries or fish. Cheaper restaurants with salad bars are a no-no because most of the salad is dressed and all seems to contain something from the alium family that stops me breathing. A pizza is a minefield, so are most pasta sauces.

The plus side (I think) is that my own culinary skills have, over the years, become pretty good, so I'm told - but I would like the choice of just nipping out for a meal once in a while.

Posted by Doc Tor (# 9748) on :

Takes some doing to be allergic to the world's most widely-eaten vegetable. Chapeau, chapeau.

Posted by Marvin the Martian (# 4360) on :

All these posts about having a runny nose and a few sneezes thanks to allergies. Bunch of fucking pussies.

If I trigger my main allergy, I fucking die*. So think yourselves lucky you don't have it that bad.

*= though I've often said it would be one of the tastiest suicide methods ever.

Posted by no prophet's flag is set so... (# 15560) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Spike:
As a smoker I never suffered from Hayfever. Since I quit seven years ago, I now get it every bloody summer.

Friends used to smoke menthols during hayfever season. They are to be banned. I am okay with reduced smoking overall because anytime someone comes to the office and has smoked recently, my nose streams snot into my mouth, which I suck up like spaghetti of course.

I am likewise displeased with environmental approaches to blowing your nose on handkerchiefs. "Blow your nose and KEEP IT. Put it in your pocket, show it to your friends!"

Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Marvin the Martian:
All these posts about having a runny nose and a few sneezes thanks to allergies. Bunch of fucking pussies.

If I trigger my main allergy, I fucking die*. So think yourselves lucky you don't have it that bad.

*= though I've often said it would be one of the tastiest suicide methods ever.

Ya think we don't? [Razz]

My only truly dangerous allergy is cranberries--which means I have to listen to my family every Thanksgiving plotting humorous ways to kill me off round the dinner table. [Disappointed]

Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on :

As Hell threads go this is pretty pathetic so I courteously invite the Hell Hosts to close it and then anyone so inclined can start an AS thread about allergies if and when they feel so moved - then I can be encumbered with the Hosting of it.

Posted by orfeo (# 13878) on :

You courteously invite us? Geez, have we taught you nothing?

People can go and start sharing over on All Saints any time they like, in the cuddly knowledge that they won't get told how pathetic they are for trying to make their distressed nasal passages sound as troublesome as the possibility of dying from breathing eau de peanut.

The masochists can stay here. Where we will toy with them until we're bored.

Or we might just go and close the thread. But not, I repeat not, because it was your idea okay?

[ 04. June 2015, 10:30: Message edited by: orfeo ]

Posted by Stercus Tauri (# 16668) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Marvin the Martian:
If I trigger my main allergy, I fucking die*.

Oh, quit bragging. Most people I know who can tell that story, including me, are a hell of a lot more careful than others when it comes to looking out their favourite allergens and live long, happy and productive lives making other people miserable. "I almost died" = "I'm not dead*." Close calls don't count.

*Yet.

Posted by no prophet's flag is set so... (# 15560) on :

This article, as true as it is, seemed to be on topic for both allergies and hell.

Flamethrower Incinerates Whatever Causing Allergies

Available in fine pharmacies everywhere I'm sure. Probably useful for other maladies as well.

Posted by Ariston (# 10894) on :

Hello eastern red cedars! Don't you go up like a fine and dandy candle! Poof, poof, poof!

...oh shit, all of Oklahoma's on fire, those particulates set off everyone's allergies, and now the pollen that wasn't incinerated is being carried into the upper atmosphere. It's like a cedar Chernobyl.

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :

quote:
Ariston: Hello eastern red cedars! Don't you go up like a fine and dandy candle! Poof, poof, poof!

...oh shit, all of Oklahoma's on fire, those particulates set off everyone's allergies, and now the pollen that wasn't incinerated is being carried into the upper atmosphere. It's like a cedar Chernobyl.

You don't point the flamethrower at the cedars. You point it at whatever part of your body is allergic to them. The allergy will be gone.

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

And as it turns out, I am fuckin' allergic to San Francisco. No shit. i kept getting these horrible upper respiratory things, culminating last year in a chest infection that laid me out for two months last summer. i went to the doctor and growled about wanting to spend less time treating and more effort preventing. She asked me a bunch of questions about how the illness started, and eventuallly concluded that the evidence told her that something in the general smuttiness of the air in the Tenderloin ( where I was subbing) was triggering an allergy, which triggered my asthma, which rendered me a wheezing bag of muck.

Act as if you have an allergy, she said, once she'd stopped the muck from developing into pneumonia. She put me on a 24 hour pill, and a temporary dose of decongestants to get me over the big hump. Damned if it didn't work-- I haven't had a bad cold since.

What freaks me out is the idea that it wasn't one specific trigger, but this kind of miasma of gross that you can practically feel hit your face the second you step out of Union Square up onto Turk Street. Urine, rotten food, asphalt, smoke from a cornocopia of legal and illegal substances, guano, God knows what else.

Posted by orfeo (# 13878) on :

Novel. Normally when people describe the Tenderloin as a health hazard, that isn't what they have in mind.

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

Kelly, move from SF to SA. Friend's daughter was dying from the pollution soup that was 1970s Poland, so he got a job in South Africa. Bingo.

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
Kelly, move from SF to SA. Friend's daughter was dying from the pollution soup that was 1970s Poland, so he got a job in South Africa. Bingo.

In this case, don't come to Jo'burg though. (I'm in Jo'burg right now.)

Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :

posted by orfeo

quote:
Normally when people describe the Tenderloin as a health hazard, that isn't what they have in mind.

Sorry to be stupid, but in my book tenderloin is a cut of meat - so in what context are you describing it as a health hazard other than the blindingly obvious?

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

quote:
Originally posted by L'organist:
Sorry to be stupid, but in my book tenderloin is a cut of meat - so in what context are you describing it as a health hazard other than the blindingly obvious?

It is also blindingly obvious that she is talking about a locality - "The Tenderloin is a neighborhood in downtown San Francisco, California, in the flatlands on the southern slope of Nob Hill, situated between the Union Square shopping district to the northeast and the Civic Center office district to the southwest".

Posted by orfeo (# 13878) on :

quote:
Originally posted by L'organist:
in my book tenderloin is a cut of meat

In which case I find it vastly amusing that it was my post that you queried, rather than being puzzled by Kelly referring to "the general smuttiness of the air in the Tenderloin".

Posted by Moo (# 107) on :

Here is some information about the Tenderloin.

Moo

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

quote:
Originally posted by orfeo:

quote:
Originally posted by L'organist:
in my book tenderloin is a cut of meat
In which case I find it vastly amusing that it was my post that you queried, rather than being puzzled by Kelly referring to "the general smuttiness of the air in the Tenderloin".

No I was not referring to some steamy assignation with a co-teacher.

[ 06. June 2015, 02:58: Message edited by: Kelly Alves ]

Posted by orfeo (# 13878) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Moo:
Here is some information about the Tenderloin.

Moo

The first sentence made me burst out laughing.

CONS: It's dangerous.

PROS: It's affordable!

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

Affordable |San Francisco Neighborhood.

Posted by Wesley J (# 6075) on :

I'll never have a Kelly Alves-ergy. [Axe murder]

Posted by Doc Tor (# 9748) on :

Look, the flamethrower was a good call. But even 5th grade jokes about somewhere called 'Tenderloin'* are better than that smiley.

*We have Cockfosters, Brown Willy, Scratchy Bottom and Fannyfield. You can even go and climb The Bastard if you want.

And I really wish you would.

[ 06. June 2015, 12:53: Message edited by: Doc Tor ]

Posted by no prophet's flag is set so... (# 15560) on :

You might Love* to come to Climax* or perhaps neither have enough Smuts* for you.

*Saskatchewan

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Welease Woderwick:

The ones I can prevent aren't so bad - I avoid anything that might be caffeinated or have chocolate in it and if I fuck up, as I do sometimes I try not to complain too much - though when a friend insisted Green Tea had no caffeine in it and I didn't sleep for two nights I was, at the very least, mildly peeved!

I went to a foodie event yesterday, and last night had one of the worst episodes of insomnia I have ever experienced. i was bewildered, as I hadn't had any coffee that day. Finally, at just before six iin the morning it hit me-- the fucking tiramisu.

Posted by Bene Gesserit (# 14718) on :

So, I go to the nurse practitioner about an ear infection (or is it blocked with wax?)

Turns out to be neither - it's my hay fever resulting in a blocked eustachian tube.... [Killing me]

And what a pathetic little allergy it is.

Posted by Stercus Tauri (# 16668) on :

My Dear Wife and a friend were discussing how beautiful the phlox has been this year, and he was boasting about the magnificent photos he had taken. The day the phlox blossomed I lost most of my hearing, my eyes wouldn't focus, I couldn't sleep and the allergy remedy made me throw up. That phucking phlox can wither and die just as soon as it pleases.

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

I am now wondering why Jesus really cursed that fig tree.

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Kelly Alves:
I went to a foodie event yesterday, and last night had one of the worst episodes of insomnia I have ever experienced. i was bewildered, as I hadn't had any coffee that day. Finally, at just before six iin the morning it hit me-- the fucking tiramisu.

It was a beautiful hot and sunny day on Thursday so I went for a long walk after work, finishing off with a coffee-flavour ice cream.

Somewhere around 1 am I was still wide awake and doing mental arithmetic in an attempt to bore myself to sleep. Answers were speedier than they'd been in years and accurate. I got 3.5h sleep and went to work the next day with still enough impetus to see me through the day.

Maybe one day they'll make decaff coffee ice cream (and decaff dark chocolate), but I'm not holding my breath.

[ 13. June 2015, 06:40: Message edited by: Ariel ]

Posted by anoesis (# 14189) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
It was a beautiful hot and sunny day on Thursday so I went for a long walk after work, finishing off with a coffee-flavour ice cream.

Somewhere around 1 am I was still wide awake and doing mental arithmetic in an attempt to bore myself to sleep. Answers were speedier than they'd been in years and accurate. I got 3.5h sleep and went to work the next day with still enough impetus to see me through the day.

I'd like to be able to say that sounds ghastly, but - it doesn't. If caffeine makes you usefully mentally alert, for a long period of time, including after a period of sleep, even though it be reduced from the norm... well... compare to my experience of coffee. One cup has no discernible effect on the grey fog emanating from the damp and mouldy cotton wool ball that is my brain. Two cups make me shaky, sweaty, and anxious. Without increasing my mental acuity one jot, that I can tell.

But anywaaay, allergies. I'm allergic to privet - fuck that stuff. It is a notifiable weed here, and from my window I can see it in three neighbours' gardens. One of whom took a chainsaw to everything on the northern perimeter boundary EXCEPT the two privet bushes last year.

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