Hi everyone,
I have been getting pollen allergies increasing in severity for the last 5 years or so. This years tree pollen season has started here, and I'm getting my butt kicked. What is really worrying me is that I seem to be getting a systemic reaction to it now. I am taking a daily 10mg loratadine which just about lets me see and breathe, cuts nasal irritation, eye itchiness and watering, but still have puffiness and can still "feel" the effects... fine you say, you're good... no, this is with VERY limited exposure by staying indoors with the windows closed and the furnace aircleaner running... 10 minutes exposure in anything more than low-mid levels has me back in the house, short of breath, dizzy, eyes puffing, knees going, skin starting to prickle, and then my stomach will be cramping, face will flush, and my lips begin to numb a little. I have been taking 1st gen short acting antihistamines to control this on top of the loratadine, currently a chlorpheniramine/pseudoephredine/acetominophen combination seems to just about fix it if I sit quiet for an hour. A couple of times in the past week I've had the feeling I really need to lie down, with extreme tiredness and weakness and fell asleep for a couple of hours.
My symptoms to me appear to be suggesting 1st stage anaphylactic or anaphylactoid shock, which would appear to be very unusual for pollen allergies. I can find no helpful advice thus far online. I had a fairly harsh allergy season last year and signed up with a doctor, who proved useless, gave me a physical and pronounced me A-1, hardly surprising, by the time I got the appointment the pollen had been over for 2 weeks. She also didn't appear to be believing a word I said, and offered no help or advice. Doctors here are oversubscribed and there are waiting lists. I can go to an urgent care clinic or an emergency room, wait two weeks to a month to see that waste of a stethoscope or wait months to get accepted by another family doctor.
Anyway, it feels like I very barely have this under control, with as much avoidance as I can, and I'm stuck indoors too weak and dizzy to do anything. I don't know what to do because from everything I find online it appears there is very little that can be done immediately, no further prophylactics, (BTW I'm also saline rinsing several times a day) and I'm fairly sure that another try at this "Doctor" won't do any good for getting referred for testing and shots. What can happen otherwise? I've gotta be outside an hour to get to the urgent care clinic, so I'm nervous about making it, and what would happen there? They give me an epi shot? Which by the way would not impress my "Doctor" one jot, because in mentioning my previous few clinic visits, she basically said "Well you couldn't have had that, they don't know what they're doing there" (Being strep throat, sinus infections etc)
So I'm getting really frustrated, I have responsibilities to attend to and can't get things done, looks like this afternoon is gonna get wasted on another doze, feeling really hot right now, running 101 on the forehead with a dose of acetominophen in me.
Any ideas? I'm gonna need a "bubble" if this keeps up.
thanks,
Flaked.