Hay Fever

Boogie

I have noticed the first sniffles of hay fever. This is very annoying for a keen gardener.

I've been eating (very) local honey every day in hope it helps - we'll see

Any Shipmates who are fellow sufferers?

🤧 🤧

TheOrganist

Oh yes. I also have what my GP and an ENT man describe as non-specific rhinitis - shorthand for we know you have allergen problems (hay fever) but also other irritants which we can't pin down. The result is that I have to take anti-histamines daily - sometimes they work, more often they don't.

Oddly enough, the one thing which doesn't make me sneeze is dust ... 🤔

Roseofsharon

Mr RoS gets explosively sneezy in bright sunshine. Can't pin it down to anything inhaled, but his eyes water, and his nose runs. Hayfever tablets help, along with a shady hat & sunglasses.
I have rhinitis all year round. Particularly aggravated by dust, so I avoid disturbing the stuff as much as possible. Also oil seed rape pollen, but not as much is grown round here as at our previous location.

Caissa

I take industrial strength antihistamines year round. The first inklings of spring are producing a greater stuffiness and a few sinus headaches.

A Feminine Force

Not very helpful, maybe, but I was a chronic hay fever sufferer from age 8 to 24 and 12 years of allergy shots did nothing for me. I would go all winter with a low grade fever, then full symptom set would flare once it was warm enough to open the windows and I would barely be able to see or breathe for the next five months. Putting hay in the barn was just - unbearable.

When I was 24 I had a "close encounter" with Jesus Christ. I refer to the event as my baptism in the spirit. The spring after that was the first year I could remember when I wasn't miserable.

A few years later I was pursuing a course in holistic healing and my teacher described allergies in terms of not "what am I allergic to?" but "who am I allergic to?"

It occurred to me that my hay fever coincided with the onset of a severe depression and inwardly-directed anger (it was never safe to express anger in my family) coupled with a cripplingly low level of self esteem. My encounter with Christ literally flooded all of that out of me and the first year I felt relief from my allergies was the first year I felt like I was good enough and lovable enough because He told me so.

I spent all that time being allergic to myself, it seems.

It's maybe a useful question to ask oneself, and see what kind of answer arises. Claritin and sinus rinsing might also help.

Hope you feel better no matter what.

AFF

Spike

I never used to get hayfever until I stopped smoking. Now I get it every year. It seems to be tree pollen in the spring that affects me the worst.

Bishops Finger

I had hay fever in my Yoof (mostly in my 20s), but have been free from it since. Cthulhu and Marduk are sometimes merciful.

OTOH, my Pilates Torturer (a fit young lass in her 40s) suffers horribly from hay fever very early in the year - round about now, in fact* - though she's OK once we get to May...she lives on anti-histamines, which seem to work fairly well, but it's not unknown for her to take a day off work if the pollen count is extremely high.

*I wonder if this is a result of climate change?

Nenya

Yes. Mine is grass pollen and there have been some years when the onset is so late that I hope I won't be getting it... then I do. So I am fine at the moment, despite the heavy loads of tree pollen around, but will probably still be snivelling and sneezing well into September.

Bishops Finger

It is indeed a miserable affliction. At this time of year, my Pilates lass is happy to go to the seaside, no matter how cold the wind and weather, as she is at least free from it there.

TheOrganist

@Bishops Finger That would chime with my experience. My hay fever/sneezy thing was much less when we lived on the south coast, and I never sneeze on the boat.

jedijudy

Here in Flower Land, there is pollen almost all year long. I'm starting my nineth year of allergy injections, and they have helped a lot. Still have tears building up in my eyes right now, but so much better than five years, and especially a decade ago! I was getting bronchitis with 104 fevers at the same four times every year.

My dark blue car was yellow in March!

Boogie

I really feel for exam takers - usually taken in the worst of hay fever time.

I remember it well.

Diomedes

The first year I got hayfever was the year of my A Levels. It was so bad at times that I had to do my Zoology Practical in the Medical Room in the school basement. It was a miserable little dark space designed to make sure skiving was discouraged - but it was at least pollen free. This year has been a rotten one for me so far.

Lamb Chopped

After years and years of allergy shots the tree pollen no longer bothers me. The dust inside the house, on the other hand… i live on antihistamines all year. Multiple forms.

Puzzler

This is the first time I have had hay fever for many years and certainly the earliest I have ever known it. My eyes are stinging all the time, with occasional sneezing, prickly throat, runny nose.

Bishops Finger

The Met Office gives our local pollen count (north Kent) as Very High, so presumably that's the case elsewhere in England.

Graven Image

Not me but the dog is on her annual spring allergy meds. It does not help that she runs around with her nose pressed to the ground into the weeds on the side of the road. Soon, she is itching and scratching. It is a yearly thing with her until the fall rains come.

Bishops Finger

Graven Image wrote: »

Not me but the dog is on her annual spring allergy meds. It does not help that she runs around with her nose pressed to the ground into the weeds on the side of the road. Soon, she is itching and scratching. It is a yearly thing with her until the fall rains come.

O dear. Distressing for her, of course, though she won't understand why, but distressing for you, too. Presumably the meds do help?

Piglet

There was an article in (I think) the Indy online the other day about something called a Hay Band that you put round your elbow. The person writing about it was already using several pharmaceutical remedies, but found a distinct improvement when they added the Hay Band to everything else.

Bishops Finger

Piglet wrote: »

There was an article in (I think) the Indy online the other day about something called a Hay Band that you put round your elbow. The person writing about it was already using several pharmaceutical remedies, but found a distinct improvement when they added the Hay Band to everything else.

If I remember, I'll ask my Pilates lass about this tomorrow. As I've said, she suffers horribly from HF round about now, but not when May etc. arrive. At the moment, she is subsisting mostly on anti-histamines...

Did the article mention anything about what was in the Hay Band?

Piglet

I'm afraid I can't remember, but I've done a bit of googling and it seems they're based on acupressure, so perhaps not much in the way of actual ingredients.

Bishops Finger

Piglet wrote: »

I'm afraid I can't remember, but I've done a bit of googling and it seems they're based on acupressure, so perhaps not much in the way of actual ingredients.

Ah - I see! I'll mention it to my Pilates lass, anyway.

Bishops Finger

ETA:

I did mention the Hay Band, which Herself hadn't heard of. She's going to ask one of the practice osteopaths who uses acupuncture, to see if he's aware of it.

She does use Hay Fever Wipes, which are anti-histamine based - she brings them to work (along with a complete change of clothes), and washes herself all over with the wipes about halfway through the day. This provides some much-needed relief...

Boogie

I like the wipes too - I wipe my face with them when I get indoors.

So far my vague sniffles have not come to anything. 🤞

Nenya

I've not come across hay fever wipes - must look out for them.

MrsBeaky

I find the allergy thing completely mindboggling.
I used to suffer from appalling hay fever and sat every set of Summer (important) exams with piles of tissues strewn around me, red eyed and snivelling.
Then in my late twenties it stopped entirely and I haven't had it since.
However I now can't go near a horse without becoming scarily breathless and insect bites also produce a very unpleasant and extreme reaction.
I really don't have a clue as to why!

Bishops Finger

The whole allergy thing is mindboggling to scientists...

I no longer suffer from Hay Fever (although, if I didn't live close to salt water, and away from most trees, that might not be the case), but I do have the occasional outbreak of eczema, and have had that on-and-off for most of my 74 years...


I don't often encounter a Horse, but I know I'm allergic to the fur of Cats and Dogs - hence my keeping a stock of anti-histamines on the Ark, even though I avoid the animals in question.

Roseofsharon

I stopped buying kiwi fruit a few years ago, as they are too sharp for Mr RoS, and were being left at the bottom of the fruit bowl. Last week I bought a pack on a whim, but was reminded after eating the first one that they give me itchy ears.
Also, it was a very ripe one, and as I bit it the juice squirted down my throat, causing a coughing fit - and for the rest of the evening my voice was reduced to not much more than a whisper.
A search on the internet has informed me that kiwi does have this effect on some people, and it is an allergy - which in severe cases can cause anaphylaxis.
Kiwis are now back off the shopping list!

Bishops Finger

Roseofsharon wrote: »

I stopped buying kiwi fruit a few years ago, as they are too sharp for Mr RoS, and were being left at the bottom of the fruit bowl. Last week I bought a pack on a whim, but was reminded after eating the first one that they give me itchy ears.
Also, it was a very ripe one, and as I bit it the juice squirted down my throat, causing a coughing fit - and for the rest of the evening my voice was reduced to not much more than a whisper.
A search on the internet has informed me that kiwi does have this effect on some people, and it is an allergy - which in severe cases can cause anaphylaxis.
Kiwis are now back off the shopping list!

That reminds me of an incident many years ago, when I had a couple of rolls with Danish Blue cheese and a stick of celery for lunch - I was working in London (South Bank) at the time. When my lips and finger tips swelled up, I hied me to A&E at St Thomas' Hospital, where they gave me a couple of hefty anti-histamine pills, and told me to go home...

24 hours later, and all was well, but I've carefully avoided that combination of foodstuffs ever since. Celery on its own makes my lips tingle very slightly, so I avoid that vegetable unless it's cooked...

Anaphylaxis can be very serious indeed. I once dealt with a patient who had been stung by a wasp not 10 minutes before a friend brought her into the hospital where I and my crewmate happened to be, awaiting further orders. A swift run to A&E, calling for assistance, and the crash team was there in no time - we learned afterwards that the young woman might indeed have died, had she not received such quick treatment.

MrsBeaky

When we were based in Kenya I had a couple of sneezing and sore eye experiences but nothing like what I'd previously experienced on the hay fever front.
However one Sunday we went into a very isolated rural area to visit a parish priest and an unidentified insect stung me. My hand swelled up like a balloon, my heart started racing, I was sweaty and clammy and my chest became tight. We were hours away from a hospital and I had stupidly forgotten to bring antihistamines but thankfully by the time we reached home the scary symptoms had subsided and only the swollen hand remained.

Bishops Finger

Even in the UK, horse flies can cause much Pain and Anguish:

https://www.countryliving.com/uk/wildlife/countryside/a36670830/horsefly-bites/

All the more reason to keep away from livestock!

Celtic Knotweed

This year I'm using a nasal spray to hopefully hit the hayfever before it really sets in. Probably ought to have used it last year, but I was being optimistic after a couple of easy summers. At least I no longer work in a building surrounded by fields of oilseed rape!

Oddly enough, I've watched a horsefly bite me whilst I was doing some work in a fen, and the total reaction was a red bump about 5 or 6mm across for about a week. But if I leave hypoallergenic tape on my skin for more than a couple of hours I react to it and it itches. My immune system is weird.

Roseofsharon

I used frequently to get bitten by some insect in the garden of our previous house. Never saw it nor felt the bite, but developed a warm, red area and a itchy spot that blistered and became a painful, weeping sore.
Eventually I came to know what to expect if a bite appeared and I'd felt nothing, so would treat it with a mild antiseptic solution (actually a Tea Tree mouthwash) which cleared it up before it got to the blister stage.
I still have no idea what had been biting me, but happily they don't seem to infest this neck of the woods.

Sandemaniac

@Roseofsharon if you are in the UK, that sounds like Blandford Fly - tiny, look like a fruit fly, but the after-effects of the bite are out of all proportion to its size. I rarely react to insect bites - I've seen mosquitos land, felt the bite before I squashed it, and had no reaction - but that one gets me too.

Many years ago I popped out to the allotment one evening in sandals as I only wanted a sprig of some herb. I ended up very slowly disentangling a grass snake from someone's strawberry netting - and the little bastards played merry hell round my feet and ankles! The next day my feet were twice their size, first batch of anti-histamines didn't touch it, and I ended up on Piriton which worked, but completely zombified me for 48 hours.

Sarasa

I don't get hay fever, well at least not yet. I do get nasty reactions to insect bites. I still have the scars from a week in Venice twenty years ago.

Boogie

I'm highly allergic to wasp stings and carry an EpiPen. I have to behave like I'm afraid of wasps even tho I'm not.

A Feminine Force

Boogie wrote: »

I'm highly allergic to wasp stings and carry an EpiPen. I have to behave like I'm afraid of wasps even tho I'm not.

My dad was deathy allergic to wasp and bee stings and carried an epi pen as well. Didn't stop him from mowing the hay field or the 3 acres of lawn, or from hosting a local beekeeper's hives on the back of the property near the tree line. To my knowledge he never had to use it.

I have never had a problem with wasps or bees until a couple of summers ago. When I swim in the morning in the sea, occasionally I'll come across a honey bee that got too far out and is in distress. I've rescued all but one which was the last one. The last one stung me and my hand swelled up like a balloon.

So bee rescue is now off my list unless I can scoop them up on a stone or something.

AFF

Boogie

I was hospitalised once and had to use the EpiPen once. Doesn't stop me gardening or picnicking. 🙂

Bishops Finger

The EpiPen is one of those deceptively simple inventions that really does what it says on the tin, so to speak. Mrs BF's niece had to have one, and IIRC used it once or twice at school. This would have been 25+ years ago, so they've been around for some time.

Having read this thread, I meant to buy a pack of anti-histamines when I was at Tesco earlier. Of course, I forgot - but my local Co-Op sells them, so I'll try to remember when I go there tomorrow. It's not for Hay Fever, but I do have one or two other allergies, and it's wise to have a remedy in stock.

Stercus Tauri

I've found that the Epipen is highly effective wasp deterrent. I've never had to use it since a couple of the beasties earned me a couple of days in the hospital, yea these thirty or so years since.

Backing up the thread a bit to AFF's thoughts on "who am I allergic to?", the question is not unreasonable. I can believe that all kinds of conditions that might otherwise be trivial can be aggravated by stress, and the intense mental stress resulting from interactions with toxic people is a good example. I could, but won't, quote experiences apart from one, when I developed shingles soon after finding myself out of what had been a well paid and seemingly secure job. Coincidence possibly, but a later repeat performance made me doubt that.

A Feminine Force

Stercus Tauri wrote: »

...

I can believe that all kinds of conditions that might otherwise be trivial can be aggravated by stress, and the intense mental stress resulting from interactions with toxic people is a good example. I could, but won't, quote experiences apart from one, when I developed shingles soon after finding myself out of what had been a well paid and seemingly secure job. Coincidence possibly, but a later repeat performance made me doubt that.

IMO the human immune system is and remains a Great Mystery. What we don't know about it fills volumes.

AFF

Bishops Finger

Well, this thread helped me to remember to buy a pack of anti-histamines at the Co-Op today - just in case!

Puzzler

So that’s why I’m falling asleep in the afternoons.