I've had allergies, occasionally severely, almost all of my life. They really became an unrelenting feature of my existence at about age 12 or so. At that time some of them were indeed quite severe, and I've written about that elsewhere on this blog.
One of the oddities of my allergies is that one of them is to sagebrush, which is a fall pollinator. That a person who is an outdoorsman would have that allergy is one of life's troublesome ironies. Other people with an allergy like that would move some place else, but not me.
I didn't have that allergy when I was young, which means its an adult acquired one. I came home from my second stint at the University of Wyoming with it. In other words, it's something I developed in law school. The University of Wyoming is in Laramie which is situated in a high plain over 7,000 feet in elevation. The area has very little sagebrush and something about being away from it for three additional years caused the allergy to develop. Or so's my belief on the situation.
When I came back from UW not only did I have an allergy to sagebrush, it was severe. That didn't stop me from fall activities but it has made a lasting impression. I finally had to resort to allergy shots to address it, and it considerably abated. Just recently I've done that again, as we acquired a dog and I'm allergic to dogs as well.
Last year I managed to go through the season without much of an impact. My wife, who does not suffer from allergies, was impressed and arrived at the conclusion that I must be okay now. I knew better. This year it's back. So far its mild, but its there enough to notice.
Which means that I've took some of the over the counter allergy medications this past weekend.
I don't care what the bottles or advertisements say, all of those medications impact me. I had nearly forgotten one of those impacts until last night and was a bit concerned until I recalled.
The one I always remembers is that Claritin, which isn't the one I took this weekend, sends me into a crashing depression. As it always does that, I'm alert to it, which makes you non depressed. I.e.,. as soon as I feel really blue after taking it, I remember that of course I do, I've taken Claratin, which makes me non blue. Odd, I know, but true.
The other thing these medications all do is make me incredibly tired. Not tired while I'm out in the sticks, but as soon as I get home, I'm done for. On Saturday I went up to the high country and hiked a long ways in very difficult country while blue grouse hunting. To be honest, I noticed that I was walking, as things went on, at a slower pace than normal. When I came home I was really tired and by 7:30 I was struggling to stay awake.
My wife kept asking, "Is everything okay?". I finally gave up and went to bed. I'm not a night person anyhow, but 7:30 is early enough to be concerned.
For one reason I just had some blood work done and for the very first time ever, my "bad" cholesterol was about the recommended limit. I was really surprised, but it's only barely above the level it should be and I'm pretty certain that I can get it down and that the test may have only been an anomaly. But that does stick in your mind, and here it's 7:30 and I'm super tired.
Sunday, after Mass, I went back out in a different location. As its still warm I have my Jeep windows off and was sniffling the whole way. When I got home late afternoon I was extremely tired, but I was also experiencing allergy related symptoms and it dawned on me. The medication. I didn't get so tired so early in part because I became engaged in a new Ken Burns documentary, but the relationship between the two, combined with sleeping in this morning (5:45) makes it pretty obvious.
The funny thing, I suppose is that my spouse is stunned and concerned that the allergies are back. Somehow or another she really convinced herself that the shots cured allergies. They don't. Every time she asked over the past year the question "can you still tell you are allergic to dogs?" I honestly answered "yes.". She just didn't want to hear that answer as I tolerate our dog pretty well, but I can tell I'm allergic to the poor thing. One time last winter in asking it I grew a bit exasperated and answered "Yes, I keep telling you that" when one of our kids was present and she said "well you said the opposite". That offspring chimed in "no he didn't, he always says he is", which was deflating to her. But that's the truth. At least normally its so mild, and I don't wrestle with him or anything, that it doesn't matter much. But in combination with the sagebrush, it's more than enough to be a problem.
Oh well, a problem that's seasonal in nature and hopefully over soon. At least it's not some sudden new ailment I haven't lived with my entire life.
I really wonder what people did when these things couldn't be addressed medically at all. And that wasn't that long ago.
2 comments:
I've had some sort of allergic reaction (headaches, skin rashes) to grass pollen, cedar pollen, etc. since my twenties that I can sort of control with Clariton and other similar OTC drugs. My grandfather had something similar that they used to call "heat rash?" and I don't know if he had anything besides some sort of body powder to treat the symptoms.
Your comment about how you were feeling tired and your cholesterol went up slightly prompts me to share a story that I hope isn't too alarmist.
The greatly condensed story is that in the spring of 2018, I went to the doctor because my blood pressure was running a little high, the doctor was concerned enough that he ordered a blood test and referred me to a cardiologist.
My blood test showed that my cholesterol was slightly elevated which was treated with Lipitor, but the cardiologist suggested that I get a stress test. Five days later, I had bypass surgery.
After surgery, I healed up, regained my strength and everything was back to normal a few months later.
The point of this story is that I never had any of the "classic" symptoms of heart disease. The only symptom I had was my knee hurting from a recent injury (amazingly it stopped hurting after my surgery), feeling tired at times and my blood pressure being higher than it should have been.
I hate to be "that guy", but if you are feeling unusually tired don't just assume it's allergies even though it probably is just your allergies.
Thanks Rich, I appreciate it. I actually had some similar thoughts.
I actually had a stress test a few years ago, which came about due to some symptoms that were likely excessive coffee consumption related. My blood pressure is good to go and in the stress test they had a hard time "stressing" me enough to have it work right. So while its easy to discount, my cholesterol was never high before and I likely shouldn't assume too much and it'd be a good time to go in and get a physical no matter what.
Post a Comment