It's Allergy Season

Apparently, my allergies have decided to make a come-back.

I haven't been really bothered by allergies since I moved out to the country back in 1995.  Prior to that, I was miserable from spring through to the first frost.

You see, I'm allergic to all things that grow:  trees, grasses, etc.

So from the first buds on the trees, I would start suffering.

Miserably.

Allergy shots never worked for me, mainly because I reacted to the shots (I also suffer from the usual household allergens, of course).

Antihistamines never seemed to do anything for me other than make me hyper (you'd have to peel me off the ceiling when I used them).

So years ago, my doctor would give me a series of corticosteroid shots to keep me under control.

But that treatment had its downside and was not recommended as a long-term solution in someone my age because of the problems that could develop down the road (that being the difficulty with administering anaesthetic, due to the body's inability to respond to perceived trauma).

When I moved out here, and was living in the woods, my doctor was actually quite concerned because he figured that my body would go into overdrive.

But exactly the opposite happened.

I didn't have my annual allergic responses.

At all.

So the theory at the time was that my body must have developed a tolerance to the allergens since I was living right in amongst them, essentially saying if I was going to live in the trees, there was no point reacting to them.

And it's worked that way for 15 years.

Until now.

On Sunday evening, as I was visiting in Ottawa, I started sneezing.

I knew it was allergies and thought it would be short lived.

Yeh, guess again.

That night, my nose dripped all night long.

By morning, I was in a definite allergic reaction.

Obvioulsy, my body wasn't liking those city trees that are budding.

I went to my physio session and my nose continued to drip like a leaky faucet.

By the time I met up with my niece and my little chickadee for lunch, I was in a full blown allergic reaction:  drippy nose, runny eyes, post-nasal drip causing a cough.

I just wanted to go home to bed.

Which is what I did right after lunch.

And the symptoms just worsened.

I managed to see the Jays' home opener but only to the third inning (seems to be a pattern developing there) and then I hit the sack, taking two Tylenol and an antihistamine on my way.

And again, my nose dripped like a leaky faucet all night long.  And the cough continued.

This morning, I woke feeling worse than I did last night (of course, I had awakened every two hours all night long).

And oh, I look awful.

I tried another antihistamine this morning; it took about an hour before that kicked in.

Historically, antihistamines don't work well for me (nothing works as it should with me, it seems).

So I don't know how long I'll put up with this misery before I put in an emergency call to my doctor and plead for a corticosteroid shot again (I'll have to remind him that we used to do that).  Surely my age now will not be an issue for that treatment plan.

The return of these allergies after a 15 year absence really raises the question:  What the hell did that Cesamet do to my body?  Is there a relationship between the one and the other?