Achoo!

I am allergic to simply everything. I found this out in 2005. It's not like in 2005 that I developed all of these allergies. It's just in 2005 I was officially diagnosed. It really wouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out. I sneeze in the presence of anything.

Back in 1988 we had a crazy cat lady neighbor. She was a nice lady with 5 cats, but once you have 5 cats in a very small space, you get the "crazy cat lady" designation from me. Well, anyway, every time I went over there I would sneeze up a storm and then be miserable for a day afterward. Everyone in their right mind would conclude that I was either allergic to dust or cats or both, but not my mom. She would just tell me to knock off all the sneezing (as if I could control that).

It was only when I got married and my lovely husband could actually see I wasn't faking symptoms that I felt like my allergies were valid. And he was such a nice husband that he would rub my sinus cavities to try to drain them. Was? He still does. It is oh so lovely to have your bulging sinuses rubbed. And he even rubs in the direction of emptying them. Oh so lovely feeling.

In 2005 I went to the actual doctor for these symptoms. Heck, I knew I was allergic to cats, grass, maybe dogs, pollen, dust & a ton of other stuff, but I wanted medical confirmation that I wasn't sneezing all the time to get attention (as my mother claimed...since why else would I sneeze since she didn't have allergies).

I found out that my system was pretty close to allergy overload. Not only am I allergic to anything that is airborne, but my system has been fighting it for so long that it's completely worn out. I left the office with about 8 prescriptions to fill and to take religiously for the rest of my life.

And I haven't taken many of them. I still claim that I don't have asthma like the doctor said. I refuse to take the asthma prescriptions out of protest. Now that Zyrtec has generics that are sold over the counter, I take that every so often. I very rarely take the nasal steroids, and I can't remember the other stuff I'm supposed to be taking. Oh yeah, and I'm supposed to go get allergy shots too.

I've been puttering along with my allergies. During grass pollen season I'm miserable. I have to take Zyrtec daily to get through that misery. Even then, I have to add a Tylenol Allergy & Sinus every so often. I love, love, love Tylenol Allergy & Sinus. It makes you fall asleep. It's a nice drug-induced sleep, and when you wake up, your nose is dry.

As I've been complaining out since we moved in, I am allergic to this dang house. Seriously allergic. It's like the world's longest grass pollen season. I do not know what's in this house, but I can't take it anymore. Since we've done all we can do (that I know of), we're down to cleaning the air ducts (I think professionals do this) & changing out the carpet.

I've resorted to taking Zyrtec AND the nasal steroids. You know it's gotta be bad when I'm hitting 2 drugs a day. The combo is putting me in a drug-induced stupor that allows me to get a few hours of sleep here and there. I'm asking for nightly sinus massages.

I'm contemplating sleeping at the old house. Whatever I'm allergic to in the new house has definitely invaded the sleeping quarters. I'm much better downstairs where there is hardwood. So that leads me to think it's something in the carpet. I think the Hwangs changed out the bedroom carpet recently, and I don't think they had pets. Even so, we've steam cleaned the bedroom twice. And we've painted all the walls in the bedrooms.

So at night I'm wanting to extract piles of cat dander from the ductwork and carpet. I'm dreaming of hour-long sinus massages. And I'm envisioning taking my pillow and blankie to the old house and sleeping in a vacant bedroom. Because people who are faking allergies to do that sort of thing all the time.