You Give Me (Hay) Fever
May 11th, 2010 by Kateastrophe
Guys, I can’t breathe. Like, ever. Not breathing means no sleeping and no sleeping a cranky Kate makes. The reason I can’t breathe? ARI-freaking-ZONA.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Phoenix. I love the restaurants, I love the winters, I am even starting to love the look of the desert landscape, but let me tell you, there are parts of Arizona that can kiss it.
A few months ago when I was sick as a dog (which turned out to be H1N1, so I guess technically I was as sick as a pig??) the doctor did an allergy test on me to see if that was part of the problem. As it turns out, I’m allergic to Arizona. Well, more specifically, any plant that isn’t native to Arizona but happens to be everywhere. That would include the “summer” or Bermuda grass which grows here NINE MONTHS A YEAR. I’m also allergic to Queen Palms. You know, the big gorgeous palm trees that are EVERYWHERE and also have a very very very long growing season. I’m allergic to dust mites and Arizona just happens to be the dustiest state in the union. Randomly I’m also allergic to horses which is weird because I’ve never had any sort of problem around them.
Cut to the wettest winter we’ve had in forever, which means that the plants have pollinated at leaves never before seen on earth and then. THEN. we have all of a sudden turned into The Windy State. You can see the clouds of pollen blowing in the wind and right. up. my. nose.
I’m exhausted. I took a sick day on Friday to try to rest and get some of my energy back. It didn’t really work as I went to bed early Friday, took a two hour nap on Saturday, slept nine hours Saturday night and took ANOTHER two hour nap on Sunday. Followed, of course, by another nine hour snooze that night. But of course the sleeping wasn’t so much because of the whole not breathing thing. I’m on all sort of random allergy meds, none of which seem to be working.
I’m about ready to go to the ER, insist they stick a breathing tube through my throat and sleep for the rest of my life. That THAT, allergies.
- Posted in The Awesome Continues
May 11th, 2010 at 3:08 pm
boo to allergies! i feel your pain. i seriously am allergic to life and it sucks. there needs to be a cure all for every allergy pronto.
May 11th, 2010 at 8:30 pm
I hear ya! I’m dying over here. Finally got some good eye drops that don’t feel like I am putting alcohol in my eye. Zanador works great then am double dosin the Zertec D to try to get some relief. Chad thinks we all need to go to the steam room to clean us out.
May 12th, 2010 at 4:45 am
gosh I had no idea there existed a palm tree allergy. I’m so sorry to hear you are suffering from so many
I’m also allergic to grass polls and dust mites (which has nothing to do with dust like sandy dust near a desert….but all to tiny tiny inhabitants of our sofa’s & carpets & bed covers that live on our skin pieces and we’re allergic to their shit (no kidding! ugh). We have no carpets in our house and we use special vacuum bags to prevent the vacuumed air getting blow through the house again.
But that means you’ll never be able to fully prevent it and that sucks big time. hang in there
May 13th, 2010 at 3:20 am
I’m sorry to read about your plight. Having suffered from hay fever myself in the past (though not as badly as you are suffering), I can empathise with you.
What I found helped enormously was to give myself a few acupressure exercises. Acupressure is like acupuncture but without the needles. It’s a system that has been practised successfully in the Far East for hundreds of years, and it has helped thousands, if not millions, of people. For example, here is an exercise that should help you.
Hold your left hand out with fingers and thumb together. Note the point where the muscle between your forefinger and thumb is at its thickest. Then stretch your thumb away from your forefinger and place your right thumb on that point. Place your right forefinger on the other side of the “webbing” between your forefinger and thumb and squeeze, not too hard, for about a minute while breathing deeply. Then repeat on the other hand.
Direct the pressure slightly towards the bone leading up to your forefinger. You’ll be surprised to find that this little exercise brings a large degree of relief from hay fever and enhances other treatment.
Don’t do this exercise if you are pregnant, though, as it can induce premature contractions of the uterus. Subject to that, I recommend you give this a try.
I hope it helps.