August....aka "Hell Month" for this allergy sufferer

There, I said it. I have dubbed August "Hell Month" because it is by far the absolutely worst time of year for me as far as allergies go.

I began taking Zyrtec back in May or June, in an effort to get it good and set in my system to hopefully have no allergy symptoms this month. In addition, I have been using a homeopathic for weed pollen.

The Zyrtec/homeopathic have definitely helped as far as the sniffling, sneezing, itchy throat and ears problem. I've still had some of that here and there when I've gotten myself immersed in ragweed pollen...or eaten melons(hello Oral Allergy Syndrome...)..but it really does nothing to help my eyes. Oy, my eyes! Itching like mad for weeks now.  I've been staying inside for the most part, not enjoying the beautiful weather at all. :(

I actually double-dosed on Zyrtec one day last week in my desperation to feel better.

Sunday night, my digestive system started giving me fits...Monday morning, my chest hurt and I've got the acid thing going. At first I thought "oh no, I hope I'm not developing asthma!" because it hurt to breathe....but as I woke up and moved around, I remembered feeling this same way awhile back....

I think the hiatal hernia is back and/or I got into gluten this weekend and it's caught up with me...

...and I have itchy skin that tells me I've gotten into something I shouldn't have/my body is in react-to-everything, high-histamine mode.

Suspects:

• Oatmeal cookies I made for the kids this weekend, made with regular (non-GF) oats...I had a few...
• Non-GF oats I had in a meatloaf over the weekend (and I forgot to take my digestive enzyme)
• Some other source of gluten/other food ingredient I have an issue with?
• The double-dose of Zyrtec causing GERD
• Eating Mexican food too close to bedtime on Sunday(though I had it before w/o issues)
• My body has just been pushed to the limit with the allergies and decided to randomly go haywire?

Maybe oats should be cut out for awhile. And I need to pay better attention to my Zyrtec intake and not double it...no matter how desperate I am.

I do know that the bone broth chicken soup I made for myself yesterday did wonders in helping me to feel better.  Looking at the Mark's Daily Apple blog post, it looks like other people associate gluten/grains with acid issues. (it's not just me!) Looking at my past with my elimination diet...when I was off of all grains and trying to add in wheat, one of my warnings that this was a no-go was the sometimes rather intense acid reflux and chest/back pains, and when I took it back out, that would go away...

I find it interesting that, looking at my blog post history, the last two years I have blogged about having this issue around the Fall...August 2010 and October 2011...and one of them was definitely related to a gluten/wheat exposure.

My Plan:
1. I am going to resort back to GAPS-like eating for a bit, using bone broth at least once a day for myself and hope my gut/digestive system will heal up again. 

2. I plan to remember to take my probiotics and digestive enzymes!

3. I am going to avoid oats(and gluten) until this passes.

4. I am going to try this method of Hiatal Hernia Massage, and if this doesn't clear up within a week, I will go to the chiro and get it adjusted as I have in the past.  Usually, when I get into something that bothers me, it takes about 3 days to pass.  This is day 2.

 5.I am going to look into getting some eye drops for my itchy twitchy eyeballs!

Pray for me--this is a hard time of year for me! I kind of hope it freezes soon, but that wouldn't be fair to all you who are enjoying this weather, would it? ;)