Okay, yes it is true, I have allergies. I have ALWAYS had allergies as far back as the age of 5, when my parents were transferred back to the US of A from Germany, I have had a miserable time with allergies. When we arrived in the US, in central Alabama, I learned about misery. Don't get me wrong, I had had some rough times with illnesses when we lived in Germany. But day in and day out constant misery, I had not experienced.
For example, I remember clearly, when running wild in Germany as a child, the sense of exhilaration of running around playing all day long, climbing trees, seeing the incredibly beautiful country we lived in and loving every minute of my existence there. There were amazing golden yellow blooms on some shrubs that I dearly loved to see each summer that I called butter cups, I loved the cattle that I called coos, I loved the onion dome churches, the quaint villages, the sheep, the mountains, the kinder theater and children's opera on Saturday, the marvelous bugs like the metallic green flies in our quarters stairwell windows and the frightful looking stag horn type beetles - oh so scary! I spoke German like my native born nanny and wept when we left her to return to the states because I loved her so dearly. My love for Germany is as strong as ever.
Alabama was a pretty enough place to live. It was hot and green with nice hills, no mountains. I started 1st grade in a private school because I didn't speak English well enough to go to public school and then I repeated 1st grade to attend public school after a year of learning American ways and English. So funny. But I had a Shetland pony, I was so happy.
But my misery was all the time. I could not go outside in summer when the red clover was in bloom as my eyes would actually swell up so bad they shut, then were glued together with secretions. My ears and nose and eyes itched constantly. I had awful congestion. Then there were the hives. I had huge angry red whelts or swellings all over my body, no little hives but ginormous things. Asthma. I was on adult strength allergy medicines all the time and lived in a sort of half aware sleepy state. To tell the truth, the dream state really interfered with my ability to do so much and to set memories. Most of those days remain a fog.
Then the allergy desensitization programs began. Oh dear, you would not want to endure what I did in the tests and treatments. I endured allergy shots sometimes up to 4 a week until I was 28 years old. When I was in 3rd or 4th grade, I experienced a complete anaphylactic shock reaction in the doctor's office to one of my weekly allergy shots, I died--literally my heart and lungs stopped. Finally, at 28, the current allergist said it was pointless to continue as I just could not ever be brought up to maintenance strength shots, that he thought the episode of anaphylactic shock had made it impossible to proceed to success.
So for nearly 50 years, I have lived on antihistamines and decongestants, and for 22 years I took allergy shots. I still have allergies and some other things that go along with them. Now, with my promise to myself to find alternative ways to heal myself, I am in the process of researching how to reduce my allergy problems without resorting to powerful mind numbing medications that only numb me while reducing my symptoms but not curing me. This means I'll be heading to the health food store tomorrow to begin learning about natural methods of reducing the misery. I will tell you all about my allergy explorations as this trip unfolds for this past week the pollen counts have been in the medium to high range and rising higher daily here in Northwest Arkansas and my sinuses, eyes, and nose are letting me know to get ready for misery with itchy red-eyes, nasal congestion, sneezing, wheezing, ear itching, etc.
Happily will I share my experiences with you my dear Health Nut readers in the high hopes that I can help you avoid some allergic symptoms and misery and perhaps you in turn will make comment on my research with kernels of wisdom you have found in your own lives. Or at the very least give you something to laugh about and feel somewhat luckier than me.
My Gut Reaction? Is it cheating to take Claritin?
No comments:
Post a Comment