Pollen!!!! Allergies!!! ARGH!!!

My allergies hit full blast this week.  Living in the south has a lot of advantages - beautiful foliage in the spring and the fall, but the one BIG disavantage is when all those trees pop out in their beautiful flowers, so does the pollen.  And I happened to be severely allergic.  I went through all the testing and took allergy shots for over 6 years.  My first allergist told me that if I would stick with it for at least 3 years, I had an 85-95% chance of being cured with the new medications, and the pollen here would never bother me again.  That sounded like a deal to me, so I pain-stakingly got my shots - one in one arm, and 2 in the other twice a week to start with, then once a week, year round.  I was so allergic, that I would have large welts on my arms each time, which required them to have to go at a slower pace with me.  Then my doctor died about halfway into this, and the new doctor ramped up the dosages in spite of my reactions.  So I got larger, itchy, welts to which I would apply ice and take an antihistamine.  In the middle of all this, I developed occular (eye) rosacea (had never heard of that until then).  The allergy season would exacerbate it most years.  Then my eyes would be terribly swollen, constantly tearing, and cause MUCH misery for the next 6 months.  I would have about 2-3 months by the time it ended until the next spring allergy season would start.  Two years ago, after I received my allergy shots I went to the car and started sneezing violently.  It immediately started up the rosacea.  The next spring, I told my doctor that I was not going to take the chance of that happening again.  I wanted to stop.  I apparently was in that 5-15% that there was no cure for.  She simply said that it works for some and doesn't work of others.  She said we would just treat the symptoms as they came.  That is what I did last year - took two oral antihistimines, an antihistamine nose spray and antihistimine eye drops.  I had the best year last spring that I ever had.

So when the symptoms hit last week, I started all the meds.  This week I developed a terrible cough - didn't feel bad - just coughed.  Plus my eyes teared a lot, but it didn't seem to be turning into the dreaded rosacea.  I prayed hard and stayed inside all I could, which is just dreadful when the weather is so nice and the sunshine so inviting.  You just feel like a prisoner on your own home.  :(  Yesterday, I went to the doc-in-the-box hoping to get a shot of Betamethazone.  I usually have to get at least one to get me through the season.  (Yeeeeowie, do those hurt!!!!) I think it has given me the boost I need.  My eyes feel soooo much better today.  Praise the Lord!!  Thank you, God!!!  If I make it through this season without the rosacea, I'll be so eternally grateful!!

Now to enjoy a little basketball for the rest of the day.....