I can see! It's a miracle!
So it turns out there's a downside--a seamy underbelly, if you will--to these beautiful sunny English days. No one bothered to warn me, but English pollen happens to be the *&*% nastiest £$%& bunch of *^%$ you may ever come across. I'm telling you--it doesn't just want to see me uncomfortable and sneezing and weepy-eyed. It won't rest until I'm fully prostrate on the ground, sobbing and begging for mercy between sneezes as I try to claw my own eyes out.
I've been taking Claratin (the American kind) all week, but possibly England just laughs at American medications, much as it laughs at American chocolate. My American friend Goldilocks is dying, too.
In addition to the Allergies Which Threaten to Close My Throat and Kill Me Outright, there's also the heat factor. Seventy degrees in England and seventy degrees in UT are such very different things, friends. In fact, when my weather pixie showed 81 degrees yesterday I seriously thought, "Eighty-one??? Are you serious? Oh my gosh, we're all gonna die!!!" And then I had to go hide under my bed, even though there are hairy spiders the size of cats under that thing. Yes, the big spiders are back out now. And I just know that one of them is going to come out from under the bed when I'm asleep and then crawl up my nose and eat my brains. Because that's what all spiders secretly dream of.
So it's been a week of sneezing and pill-popping and sniffing and rubbing eyelids that quite possibly have shards of glass beneath them. This morning, though, I woke up feeling strangely calm and comfortable. My eyelids weren't swollen shut, and I could breathe. The air felt cool and lovely. I took some Claratin just because my momma didn't raise me to say no to pharmaceuticals, but perhaps it's going to start getting better.
Or, you know, it's just the calm before England decides to bring out the big guns and finish me off for good.
I'm Steph, a librarian and mom of 3 (not sure how that happened). Let's chat books, food, Sumptuous Literary Adaptations, poop, knitting and maybe some crazy Mormon Feminism.
10 comments:
I don't even have hayfever, and my eyes have been swollen shut. I feel for you.
I think the fact that you're not used to the different types of pollen here may be why it's so bad. I heard eating local products like honey etc builds up your immunity to local pollen..... but that's not going to be much help now!
Hey just an idea, I used to take regular Claritin but it didn't do enough for me and then I tried Claritin-D. Wowzas! That stuff really stops everything and gives you a buzz the first few times you try it, too. Allergies suck.
I feel for you! I'm having allergies more this spring than I have ever had in my life because I'm living in a pollen ridden area (the Willamette Valley) and it was only after I moved here that I found out that this is one of the worst places to live in the United States if you have allergies. It probably doesn't even compare to England! My sympathies. I tried Claritin-D and it made me sick, just FYI in case you decide to try it.
Ugh! Allergies are the worst. They turn me into a simpering fool who can't think straight. Even during the nasty, humid, pollen-filled Austria summers, though, Claratin-D does the trick for me (Allegra-D is my favorite, but it requires a prescription). When I take it (which is all spring, summer, and part of fall), it's really easy to wake up in the mornings - but I drag and go through pseudoephedrine withdrawals for about a week when I stop taking it.
For your itchy, burning eyes, I recommend Visine's super-dee-duper allergy eye drops. I put them in about 5 minutes before I put my contacts in and have no problems.
Good luck!
I had hayfever in London, too. Yeck. And the heat there is SOO humid—there's a huge difference between Utah heat and England heat.
Funny thing: I never had allergies until I'd been in Provo for four years. Then I started getting allergies and then I got hayfever in England. I don't really get allergies anywhere else, though (yet/that I know of). Not in AZ, AR, MI, CA, Australia, etc. Maybe there's a nastier version (in England) of something that's also in Utah?
Yay for local honey! We buy it by the bucket, and the only allergy problems I have are one half-hour sneezing fit every morning. It's beautiful. Of course, I'm not allergic to pollen, but still. (Not sure what the sneezing is all about.)
Daltonboy and -man are quite allergic, however, and I think they've gotten much better since we've started getting the local honey. No other meds needed. You need to take up beekeeping. Or bookkeeping. Or collecting bras. And you need a valet named Sneller.
I hate allergies with a vengeance! I suffer from them pretty much year round. If I don't take something for them every day, then I risk an allergy attack which then causes an asthma attack. It's a vicious cycle that I try to avoid at all costs.
Oh, and I had forgotten about those evil spiders. Yikes!! You better watch your back with those things. Ewwww...the memories of those pictures make me shudder! :)
So sorry about the allergies. I never got allergies per se, but my asthma flared up when the blossoms popped out. And I totally think allergies are worse in high humidity areas. In Houston I got a sinus infection on an annual basis (good thing we only lived there two years, eh?). Hope things start looking/feeling better for you.
I've decided that allergies are of the devil. If my mom sends me some of the "good stuff" I may just share with you Nem, and then we can laugh at all our poor English mates because they wouldn't want any of that "American-lower-class" stuff anyway. With our renewed power and strength we'll basically take over the world. That's the plan.
Walrus, I've heard that too about the honey. Too bad I didn't know about that back in January . . . next year though, I will be prepared!
Hi Claire! I've never tried the Claratin-D but I have other friends who swear by it as well. Must look into that . . .
Oooh, Maggie. I'm so sorry. It sounds like you probably do have it much worse than me!
Thanks, Kristee! I just realized that my Boots "soothing and reviving" eye drops expired about 6 months ago. So, you know, that might explain some things. :-)
JB, you feel me. It is so unfair that such beautiful English flowers are trying to kill us.
Daltongirl, you are so right. And I need to get one o' they Ford vans and go about the land like the apostles of old!
Yes Jaime, the spiders. They are back and they're after my blood!
Hi Desmama, have you had your cute new baby yet??? :-)
Goldilocks, we are one in purpose, I feel. Mwah-hah-hah-haaaaaah!
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