Interestingly, looking back at previous years' blog posts, August 17 or so is the day that I really started complaining about fall allergies, both this year and last year. Something to take note of.
I re-evaluated my hayfever problem and have made some changes around the house to hopefully help me out this season.
1. I am continuing the Gluten- and Tomato- free thing, especially through the end of this allergy season. I am also avoiding cucumbers and melon (and zucchini), as they are associated with Ragweed allergy and can cause problems similar to hayfever when consumed during Ragweed season (Oral Allergy Syndrome). Just because I've had that problem in the past and know I am still struggling with hayfever....trying to give my body the best chance to NOT increase the "bad" things it has to deal with.
2. I have closed nearly all windows in the house. I'd prefer to let the cool night air in to cool the house off, rather than torture us with hot rooms to sleep in....but for now, the (clean) fans are working 'good enough'.
3. I have made our bedroom an Allergy Safe Zone.
This means:
- Closing the windows
- I have gotten a not-doused-in-pollen-fan to help circulate air
- I swept the floors with my vacuum that has a HEPA filter
- I got rid of the laundry pile on hubby's side of the bed
- I took off ALL of the covers and pillows from the bed and washed them on HOT and dried them thoroughly in the dryer. As I was taking the pillow cases off of the pillows, I had a sneezing fit. A couple of our pillows' allergy covers are worn out/holey and I need to replace them.
- I have also mandated that we each need to take a shower before going to bed---no bringing pollen from being outside into the bedroom!
After my sneezing fit when handling the pillows, I really think my "Allergy Tank" was overflowing when I was trying to sleep in my pollen-doused room/bed. Even I wasn't showering every night (tsk-tsk)...the pollen built up over a couple days on our pillows and bedding---pollen that was stuck to our hair after walking around outside in the garden/fields. I wasn't getting the rest I needed to recuperate at all, and it was having a snowball effect.
At my last post, I mentioned that I thought about taking Claritin on top of my homeopathics. I did so, and drank a TON of water to hopefully prevent the sinus-clogged-effect I got the last time I took a 24 hour allergy med. Still, once the Claritin wore off, I found that I actually felt better OFF the Claritin! (makes me wonder whether there is something in the allergy meds that doesn't agree with me...corn? I hope not.)
Weird. Especially since today's allergy level on Pollen.com is even higher--a 10.6 on a 12 point scale. Maybe finally taking these precautions is actually helping.
So anyway, yesterday and today so far I have only taken my homeopathic and used my Neti Pot once or twice. It's supposed to get HOT today...we'll see how it goes from here on out.
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