Allergies

[Jeremiah Johnson]

Has anyone else got allergies. Pollen, ragweed, dust, ect? I've had them for years and I was getting anti-allergy shots to make me immune to them but I stopped after a year. That was age 13 or 14. They just recently, as in 2 days ago, flared up again. And I mean really bad. It was so horrible today, that I took twice the amount of Claritin D 24 Hours than I should have. I know, not a smart idea but I was suffering. I also took a nasal spray. Does anyone else have allergies this bad and if so, how do you treat them?

[anna~marie]

haha I've got allergies, they're not terrible but I hate 'em.
Slowly expose yourself to the things you're allergic to - it really is suppose to help. For example, I'm allergic to cats, tree pollen, and dust (among other things, bleh). I own cats, I live in a forest, and I work with dusty hay.

*edit*
I also take Allegra, and that works pretty darn well

One day I discovered one of my friends is allergic to soy... now he hates soymilk

[Jeremiah Johnson]

That's exactly what the shots were for. Exposing me to the allergens with small doses in liquid form. It worked great but I was supposed to do it for 6 years. Well, it got rather expensive rather fast and the insurance wouldn't cover it.

[Katie Reynolds]

Ugh, yes, and they've been awful this summer!

I take Zyrtec-D (every 12 hours), use a saline nasal spray as often as I feel the need, and Nasonex nasal spray before bed each night. I also use this to help determine when pollen is supposed to be bad. It doesn't stop my allergies from flaring up, but it gives me some indication of how miserable I'll be the next day:

http://www.weather.com/outlook/healt...eather/tenday/

Good luck!

[SamC]

I'm allergic to Claritin... found that out the hard way! But i'm not sure what else...

[Dan Petrovic]

I have allergies, and they have really sparratic outbursts. One day I'll be perfectly fine and the next I'll be tearing up from all of the allergies and I can't do anything.

Clariten > All

[Mike Schroeder]

I am allergic to work...

[Adam Richards]

Originally Posted by anna~marie

haha I've got allergies, they're not terrible but I hate 'em.
Slowly expose yourself to the things you're allergic to - it really is suppose to help. For example, I'm allergic to cats, tree pollen, and dust (among other things, bleh). I own cats, I live in a forest, and I work with dusty hay.

*edit*
I also take Allegra, and that works pretty darn well

One day I discovered one of my friends is allergic to soy... now he hates soymilk

Soy is overrated anyway.

But yes, I happen to know a bit about cat allergies. I'm somewhat allergic to Michelle Celio's cats.

[Michelle Celio]

Originally Posted by Adam Richards

But yes, I happen to know a bit about cat allergies. I'm somewhat allergic to Michelle Celio's cats.

So I am..but I've gotten used to them

[nehalita]

i have allergies to pollen, dust, cats, and season changes but they haven't acted up lately. this could be because i haven't been outside in a while or because i'm at a place wehre the season is usually the same year round. also we're extra cautious at home.

i use zyrtec. it works on normal occaisons after a few hours but if it's really bad then i just have to wait until it's gone.
i used to get allergy shots when i was little...like 3x a week. i don't know if it helped...i was too young to remember. i didn't even know what the shots were for.

[Morgan Gillespie]

I have allergies, strange ones at that. I will either be fine all day until I sneeze and then, runny nose, runny eyes, constant sneezing, and itchy eyes out of no where and it would last until I took medication or I would have it in the morning and no amount of medication would help. I would try many different OTC medications, Sudafed worked great for months, but then it stopped working. That would happen with everything until I turned to Benadryl. Yet benadryl during the school year would have me sleeping from 1st period until lunch... I now take prescription Allegra D 24. Works great, when I remember to take it...

[Jeremiah Johnson]

On my way to the fair yesterday I picked up some generic allergy sinus relief medicine from the gas station and it works better than the Claritin IMO. That was my extra dose of meds that I said I used. I took it again this morning and I have yet to sneeze. I've blown my nose a couple of times and my eyes are about to get itchy, I can feel it. But it's working quicker than Claritin. But lasts only about 6 hours.

[lukevanoort]

I'm allergic to jellyfish, found that one out the hard way, had welts from that incident for months. It doesn't impact me much though, there aren't jellyfish in my area and they don't float around in the air or anything like that. Luckily, I don't have any other allergies that I'm aware of. (After reading this thread I'm doubly glad, sounds like you guys have a tough time in the summer)

[Ashley Weed]

IMHO - I would of stayed with the allergy shots. The five years goes by a lot faster than you can imagine and if the regimen is successful you will be a lot happier than you were before. If you went through the unpleasant allergy testing to find out what you were allergic too - the once a week shot is a drop on the bucket. I was terribly allergic to mold and dust (on top of a couple others I tested positive for but chose not to treat for). It comes down to do you want to make a choice between taking all the carpet, etc out of your house to eliminate allergens or begin a treatment plan. I have chosen to not treat my remaining allergy flares with any of the OTC or Prescription drugs due to the way you feel in result of them. I've been through every companies distribution and would rather fight the allergy than feel drowsy effects of the medicinal treatment.

Why would one own a cat if they tested positive for feline allergens?

[sciguy125]

The only stuff that I've found to work to my liking is Benadryl. Everything else seems to come in waves. It'll work really well for a few hours, then completely stop doing anything for about half an hour.

If you get the Benadryl pills rather than the gelcaps, you can break them in half. That seems to be the right balance between drowsiness and effectiveness. A whole pill stops any allergy symptoms completely, but puts you to sleep. Half a pill makes you a little tired but makes the symptoms managable.