Hi, friends! I love those things that thirtysomething me is super excited about but young me would have been like “REALLY OLD LADY???”
So it’s the POLLENING and I’m not okay. I had to load up on a second allergy med today and my eyes were a swollen, itchy mess this morning. I haven’t had windows open in a week, so it’s not like I’m letting pollen in every night.
I was commiserating with a coworker and they were explained that after they got a few air purifiers, their spouse’s allergies got noticeably better. And the one they bought is on sale at Costco right now.
As you may imagine, I drove my ass to Costco after work and now I have my new air purifier running in the bedroom. I am so hoping it helps with the sinus and eye issues I’ve been having.
Lightweight. I was tested for allergies at 27. My parents didn’t believe in them. The nurses were excited because they usually did the scratch test on children and I had a “broad back” and there was plenty of room for them to make scratches. I tested positive for 39 out of 40. I’ve been on various allergy medications since that day. Not shots — I tried them and broke out into a rash. I was literally allergic to the allergy shots.
Daily medication has been part of my life for decades now. Plus surgery, which helped a LOT.
@bryanlsplinter
I feel you. I loved how they kept telling me I would grow out of them like it was a pair of pants. WRONG. This fall I got rechecked because the summer was brutal. 50 tests with 12 injections under the skin. No surgery on my end so you got one on me. The one bright spot is I can’t clean the house for too long or there is a good chance of an allergy freak out.
I can deal with the sinus problems, that’s not new. I have a severely deviated septum so my nose has always been half-assingly useless for snot maintenance.
However, it’s amped up to the itchy rash point this week and I really hate that around my eyes and neck. I can dab on the prescription strength hydrocortisone cream for the neck rash, but eyelid skin is too sensitive for that stuff to be used more than once in a while.
I had my severely deviated septum fixed — that’s the surgery I referred to. I still have the allergies, but I can breathe “around” them much, much better.
Wait, there’s a surgical procedure to correct allergies?
Not precisely — see my comment above. I had my severely deviated septum fixed. Basically, my entire life I’d been trying to breathe through two tiny apertures in my nose, and when I was congested (literally all the time) I breathed through my mouth. Always.
About 12 years ago I got checked for sleep apnea and they said, dude, you just can’t BREATHE. So I went to an ear/nose/throat doctor, who concurred. I had my septum fixed, I had my turbinates reduced, and he said I should have had my tonsils out (they are apparently huge) but my mom didn’t believe in that and now I’m way too old.
The recovery from the surgery was rough, but holy crap, when the doctor pulled out the inserts from my nose I got hit with a massive surge of oxygen. I’ve never felt anything like it. I was basically high as balls the rest of the day — practically dancing around, everything was bright and shiny, it was fucking AMAZING. Took a couple of days for me to adapt to it.
So I still have allergies, but even when I’m congested I can typically breathe through my nose now. It just never worked before.
I grew up not being allergic to anything. Like, absolutely nothing. Then, when I was 24, I moved to Middle Tennessee and suddenly started sneezing and having itchy eyes all day long. Whenever I would leave TN for vacation or some other reason, my allergies would stop. So, I thought when we moved to New England fifteen years later that my allergies would be over. Nope. Seems I’m keeping these allergies forever. The good news is that the allergies are pretty mild. I just take a couple of Chlor Trimeton a day and I’m good. It’s just weird that I had no allergies…and then I did.
Immune systems can become oversensitive to allergens over repeated exposure. I used to never have a reaction to poison ivy, but at some point I hit the tipping point and now it’s a problem for me.
This is absolutely true. There are lots of cases where people hit that tipping point — I’ve read about horse owners who can’t ride their horses any more, dog owners that can’t keep their dogs, on and on. I can’t have dogs or cats — I can tolerate being around them for a while but I can’t take them 24/7. That’s why I have a turtle. My daughter wanted a pet and he’s hypoallergenic.
Exact same, growing up w/ constant saline mist in the air I had no allergies. 6 mos into living in PNW, learned all about tree pollen, cherry blossoms, & all other great seasonal allergy creators. I grew up w/ a surf report on the local weather news, now I have pollen count/ allergy report!
Mold spores on clothes are what really get me, and after I went on a total laundry spree a couple years ago to rewash everything, and also bleached down every dresser drawer and my closet walls, things have been much better. I am now fanatical about making sure everything is completely dry before I put it away, and I try to hang any laundry getting close to my face on the clothesline to fully dry and air out first — shirts, pillowcases, sheets, towels…. Clothesline drying seems much more reliable than the dryer for stopping mold spores from taking hold.
thanks for the reminder, I should look up air purifiers soon.
During the smoke last summer/fall, I was thinking I should get an air purifier, but the prices were jacked up, if they were even available, so I was thinking I should wait until the winter to get one. Guess I have something that needs doing this upcoming weekend…
should probably also look into getting a window fan or two while I’m at it, the summers aren’t going to get any cooler…
My “feeling old” tonight, is basically a “less smashy” version of Evelyn from Fried Green Tomatoes;
Got home at about 6:40 tonight, after driving through all sorts of slush, snow, and street-snot (first day of my observation hours at a district not quite 25 miles from home), only to discover that *some asshat* with a little red Prius (who doesn’t pay for a space!😒😒😒) decided to just take mine…
Parked the jackwagon in, then ran up to the office, in the hopes that maybe someone was still around…
No dice.
So I called the “after hours garage help” number…
Only to be told by the lady who answered that all she could/would do, was to “put in a notice for the office to deal with tomorrow”🙄🙄🙄
Meanwhile I was stuck wondering where exactly to park, so that my car wouldn’t get towed (if a Snow Emergency gets called), broken into & tossed at best–or at worst, stolen (because i still have that taped-in-place rear passenger-side window)…
Texted the assistant building manager out of desperation, only to learn she’s on vacation out of state (and felt TERRIBLE for bugging her on vacation!), then decided to email the manager, and just wait to see if the asshat Prius’ driver would show up…
Heard back from the manager, at nearly 8:00, and she offered to cover my parking fees, if I parked in one of the nearby garages. She was going to have maintenance tag the vehicle, and call the towing company, too, if the car didn’t move…
By the time I got back home, let Lily out, and decided to take one last check of the garage on the way back up to the apartment, the asshole was gone.
Sooooo Lil and I went back out for juuust a bit more walking, got the car, and parked it in my spot.
I re-emailed the building manager, to let her know she doesn’t need to reimburse me (AND let her know that there may be some other asshats *also* taking spots that aren’t theirs, over on the other side of the garage–i stopped and chatted with a neighbor who was cleaning his car, and he’d seen at least one other driver double-park like I did, looking frustrated & confused, before driving back out of our garage), and then fiiiiiiinally made it upstairs about 2 hours after I first pulled into the garage🙃
Lost a good 3+ hours of homework time, which is where my real frustration lies… and now I’m just tired, and kinda just wanna go to bed… even though I really DO need to crank out some more homework🙃
I definitely had moments tonight, where I wanted to pull an Evelyn… or just call up the building’s towing company myself, and have them tow the asshat’s car…
Just because it happens with enough regularity (every couple months, or so), and I’m tired of not being able to just *be done*, when I get home on evenings like this. (Which is inevitably when this crap happens!🙃).
My dad used to have a pack of hard-to-remove stickers to put on asshats’ windshields…but that was the 70’s and Canada. I always liked the fuck you-ness of that story. But in reality it defeats the point because it takes the asshat longer to drive off if they can’t see. Also what if they are a crazy violent person? What if they have an emergency?…needless to say I’m a big chicken and would never resort to stickering an asshat’s windshield.
I’m REALLY starting to think I need to print up a bunch of pictures of Slash from GnR (maybe on stickers?) so that I can start “Slashing” their tires, when it happens😉👿
Matt Wille (@herbehancock) Tweeted:
slashed someone’s tires today because he parked like a jackass.. was it justified? I think so. https://t.co/91g0Vb8km1 https://twitter.com/herbehancock/status/1071229177083453441?s=20
…I saw a thing the other day that included the phrase “you’re lucky your shit don’t get keyed” but that might be a tad bit on the side of escalating the situation
…but maybe you need something like this…& some industrial adhesive?
i think i might be slightly allergic to alcohol….
(the world is a cruel place….)
but whenever i drink i get coughs n sneezles…and a limitless suply of phlegm
cleared right up in a couple weeks of not drinking….even my early morning hacking up a lung to get me started coz 20 years of smoking is mostly gone….just a civilized little cough or two now…
guess i need to find a new hobby…welp psychedelics are fun and never hurt me yet