Late-Appearing Allergies

(hee, hee, just kidding, I know God reads ILX. He never posts though. That ass.)

Cheer up! It's just tree pollens now, hope the grass pollens in a couple months time don't make you worse.

Also, go to the doctor and get prescriptions for an antihistamine tablet and a cortico-steroid inhalor for your nose.

Then again, it may be the wet, wooded NW climate that's done it to me. I'm moving to another part of the country soon...maybe that'll solve things.

Yugh. My sympathies. :-(

But Horace, just in case you are my father with a case of amnesia, I will remind you of your mentalist solution -- local honey (as in, honey harvested from as near to where you live as possible, not "hometown ho"). I still think it's one of those "it sounds too obvious to work" things (his thinking: honey = made from pollen = immunity to pollen), but he hasn't sniffled or sneezed since trying it.

I also developed asthma in the last 2 years.

Somehow I managed to type that sentence and not end it with "Can I borrow, by which I mean take, two hundred dollars?" Consider that omission corrected.

44, and suddenly autumn goldenrod is blowing up in my sense-organ cluster. Snot everywhere.

Even between your toes?

I developed an allergy to shrimp at age 20.

i've been having an allergic reaction to something lately, and i can't figure out what -- i thought it might have been a heat rash, but it was cold out today. i also thought it could have been a late-developing polyester allergy that i might have gotten by osmosis from hanging out with too many preppies.

last time i got tested for allergies, it came up positive for dust mites, pet dander, pollen, and a slight allergy to milk (which makes sense because i couldn't tolerate it as a baby).

Contact lenses. After a summer of weird inflammatory eye issues and a couple very House M.D. moments, it's been determined that I've developed an allergy/intolerance to them. Weird!

nerd nerd nerd let's go back to my nerd and we can nerd it all night and you can nerd it alright nerd nerd nerd nerd nerd nerd

penicillin.

just great.

CATS! I can't go near em anymore, but I used to live with two of them!

something present in damp climates, apparently year round: allergies present in the northeast us, iceland, scandinavia, and the british isles, but absent in the mediterranean and greenland. maybe mold or something.

The second year I lived in Phoenix (in my early 30s), I developed an intense allergy to russian olive pollen. I either had to live on prednisone for the month of April, or leave town, because people had planted those fuckers everywhere.

I just had my first ever skin-test and breathing test at an allergist..

Things I didn't know that I now know and wish I knew:

* I'm sooo allergic to cat dander, that I'm by definition allergic to people who have cats or had cats up to 2 years ago. A direct quote from my doctor. WTFucknigF?

* Cat dander is more universal than dust mites. It spreads around more finely and sticks around for years on fabric of people who wear the clothes, even with regular washing. Again, WTFuckingF?

* Vacuuming makes dust mite allergen exposure 5 times worse! Yes, again, WTFuckingF?

* Carpet = bad bad news, if allergic to both cat dander and dust mites like me. Not really news, but still, FUCK! :(

* I'm very allergic to grass, especially Bermuda grass (which is everywhere in Southern California, among other places.) Any aspirations to work on a farm or go back to living in SoCal are now gone. But I had none anyway, so...

* Allergic to certain airborne molds. They're all over Eastern Washington but rare in Seattle.. so uh, avoid Eastern WA as much as I can I guess. :-/

* Not allergic at all to anything tree related. PHEW!

* Those hypoallergenic pillow cases and mattress covers really do work, even if they don't look any different. (Hint: dust mites can't get inside, hence.)

Vacuuming makes dust mite allergen exposure 5 times worse! Yes, again, WTFuckingF?

This is because the allergens are small enough to pass through the vacuum's filter. So instead of them being in the carpet, they're blown all around the room whenever you vacuum.

Actually I have an allergy to dog dander that didn't appear until I was in my mid twenties. Not really a problem as I don't know anyone with a dog. Last time I had an attack, I was interviewing for a job where the manager sometimes had his dogs in the office. Nose/eyes streaming and, er, no, I can't work here unless you ship your dogs off to an animal sanctuary and burn all the carpets...

aaarggrgh!! get out of my brain whatever you are!!!

does the NHS do allergy tests? this is beyond unbearable.

i hear you. didn't really notice my allergies until i was 22-23 something and now this time of year i'm a fucking wreck

It does do allergy tests, DL, but they were keen to point out it's not much of an exact science by any means, and results aren't always conclusive. In my case everything was fine, until the dust mite one, whereupon the pinprick they put in my arm expanded to the size of the Olympus Mons.

Also a sufferer of a late-flowering allergy.

i have a feeling it's dust mites. i only get it in certain places at certain times of the day, and generally being outdoors helps rather than aggravates things, so i don't think it's hayfever. all the same it feels like a small woodland animal is slowly burrowing its way into my frontal lobe.

That's doesn't sound pleasant at all. I tend to find that my lungs have the capacity of tiny squash balls, my nose clogs up, and as a consequence I get a lot of headaches, achey limbs, my heart starts going like the Wreck of the Old '97 and I find it difficult to think clearly - all of it a consequence of the breathing it seems.

otoh, it is something that goes away when I'm somewhere which doesn't have so many of the warmints. I've also got a vacuum with a filter that's supposed to stop that sort of thing being recycled into the air. All so tiresome this sort of thing tho. So much money, and so much superstitious speculation and guesswork. Invisible jiggers in the air - what can you do about that, I ask you?

For many years I've had allergies that bothered me a few weeks in summer and a few days sprinkled across the rest of the year but for the past month it's been erratic, worse than any summer I remember and I've never had anything like this in the winter before.

I'm really worried I'll not be able to figure out or stop whatever is causing it. I hope it isn't a new allergy. There hasn't been many days I've been able to concentrate on anything I enjoy doing.

Probably can't go to cinema next week and I'm dreading the prospect of maybe having a runny nose at the dentist because I have enough trouble breathing when my mouth is being cleaned out.

Mostly alternating between runny nose, blocked nose then occasionally a day where I feel mostly fine.
Some days waking up with an extremely dry mouth and sometimes my lips are slightly sore.

No it's not nearly as bad as what a lot of the allergy sufferers have talked about on the various allergy threads I've been reading.

i insisted on a bllod test in the end and it turns out i'm highly allergic to house mites, which sucks a bit because you can't really do anything about em.

How do you manage your symptoms?

I only just got diagnosed. The specialist said most people do their best to hoover regularly, rotate the (non-allergenic) pillows round, use antihistamines and steroid nasal sprays and to air their rooms, but ultimately it's not that useful. I'm going into hospital soon for an operation on my nose because apparently there's some sort of congestion like a spur or polyp or something that might not be helping either.

It is very rare that allergy pills ever seem to do anything.

Can you sit and do things without you nose annoying you or is it different problems?

Think I should get an allergy test soon. I've heard a couple of times that the tests can aggravate your condition? Please tell me that's bullshit or just a temporary reaction to the test?

February was bad.
Then feeling fine.
There was a bit of trouble in the spring on and off.
Then feeling fine.
Then in the last few weeks a little trouble but this past week has been total shit. Occasionally get this sudden blocked nose and I feel like I'm gasping for air through my mouth. Last monday at work the snot was splashing down me, so glad nobody saw that. Generally when I get working it or go walking reasonably fast it becomes more manageable but not always.

Why do I never see anyone on television or working professionals with uncontrollable snot running down their faces? Not even tv audience members or contestants ever seem sneezy or runny. How is this possible?
Do dancers ever have snotty allergies? Have lots of careers been ruined by developing allergies?

I'm often worrying I'll be snotty at a particularly inconvenient time or I'll splatter all over someone from sneezing or be catching the puddles in my hands when everyone can see.

Funnily enough there's a new comic called Snotgirl, about a fashion blogger who is plagued by allergies.

In my 20s I was allergic to eggs, seems like the entire decade.

Now in my 40s I have determined I have a mild but annoying skin allergy after I eat paprika.

I think I became allergic to stone fruits about 10 years ago. It’s not so bad if I cut out the center of the fruit but it still fucking sucks. Sore throat, trouble breathing.

my granny developed hayfever in her late 70s.