Allergies: the worst cities in the US
I spent 3/4 of every year on the strongest allergy meds, while taking the allergy shots for 7 years, and I ended up working whenever the wind changed or the molds had died down, because at other times it was like having half your brain disconnected. I’d sometimes fall asleep in mid-work—sleepiness being a very major way allergy can get to you. Emotional upset is the effect of some molds, and we had those, too.
Up here, I rarely ever take any allergy med, maybe one week a year, don’t take the shots, and have a brain full time with no effort. If an environment gets you as badly as Oklahoma City got me, dear friends, it’s time to find a place that doesn’t. Life’s too short…
I’ll be so happy to visit there for Soonercon this June, but I’ll be packing the allergy meds, and so will Jane. I love the place. I have dear friends down there that I greatly miss. And now my brother’s moved ‘home’ again and is so happy to be back… but alas, it’s a place that was killing me, bit by bit.
I’ll be happy to see it and meet old friends.
Grass Valley, CA.
I never had allergies for 40 years until I moved there.
Then when I left 3 years later the allergies followed me back to Colorado – acckk!
My #1 symptom is itchy eyes – really itchy eyes.
Someone just told me about an eyedrop called Optivar which I will try Friday – I’ll let you know how that goes.
So far so good,
Claritin + eye drops has eliminated moderately itchy eyes this morning. Even the the generic for this Rx is pricey – $105 for a teeny little bottle. So glad I have a job with good insurance – my cost $10.
Still waiting for that magic email from the library telling me I can pick up Protector……….
I wish you luck! Ayr brand nasal stuff also puts out a nasal saline rinse, use-in-shower sort of thing, same effect as a neti pot, but neater. One caution: use pure water. There have been cases of serious illness from some exotic local bacterium getting into the water. Just use purified water and you’re good with it.
Thanks CJ. I’ve been nasal rinsing daily (or more) for several years. I credit that with not getting sick this winter when my wife and daughter were both sick for a month.
Russ says we are going to SoonerCon. I sure hope so! But you never know how work will go in the next few months. He’s being transferred to a new group that should be better, though.
I am just glad to have survived another winter. Now I’m looking at moving my desk to another corner of the house just for a different ‘view’ of things. We’ll see. This location actually has the best windows for bird feeders.
Spring! Finally! We’re almost up to 50f today!
Yay—we’d love to see you.
Oh can I sympathize! Payson gets some of the worse in the country — and that from my allergist. We’ve had pollen counts over 11 for weeks with juniper and cypress and now the manzanita is blooming. It’s particularly evil if you have to work outside in the wind. Chlorotrimeton is the only thing that helps; can’t take the steriod shots for other reasons and have decided the Rx sprays have more side effects than help. Would love to move, but finagling it is not gonna be easy 🙁
Lubbock is like OKC, only wester and souther. Tree pollen and mold are my bugbears. Barring winning the lottery, well. . . Thought I’d pass this along in view of your interests, http://mentalfloss.com/article/49763/7-fun-facts-about-dothraki-language-game-thrones
Tulsa can get pretty bad; don’t know if it is worse down in the Oklahoma City area or not. I still get allergy shots once a month and use my prescription meds rarely these days. I’m relatively stable and have been for about 5 years now.
My brother never did tell me how Tulsa and he got along. Tell me, does it smell like oil all the time? I go by the Husky Energy oil refinery in Lima, Ohio once in a while, and you can smell the oil. It used to be a Standard Oil refinery, but I haven’t seen Standard Oil in years here in Ohio.
Only if the wind blows from the refinery over to our side of the river. The river is west of the Arkansas and most of the city is east. It’s only noticeable every so often. Then again, I may well be used to it.
Corn and cotton harvest times are hell for people with allergies. (My allergies actually improved while I was living around Halfway. They haven’t been as bad since I moved back to SoCal as they were before I was in TX. Go figure.)
No, it’s fairly good air, re aroma. It’s what you can’t smell that gets you.
Then there’s Texas, when the wind blows from the traffic of Mexico City or Denver. Second-hand smog. Yum!
But the last few times there, we found the air much better than about 3-4 years ago. There was one time Jane and I had to sing, talk to each other constantly, do anything we could just to keep awake in that air to get to the mountains over in NM…where it was, indeed, better. There’s another such seasonal patch on I-40 in Tennessee: I know the culprit there—honeysuckle. Know the bit in Wizard of Oz where they hit the poppy fields? It’s like that. And when you’re driving, it’s brutal.
It’s particularly bad here when we have a strong wind from the Midland/Odessa area (SSW)as there is a patch of very alkaline soil there and breathing that dust does a number on everybody, allergies or not. When the cotton gins rev up in the fall, the air is full of little bits of cotton fiber, gin trash, and bits of leaves coated with defoliant which they typically spray if we have not had a hard frost by the time they’re ready to start stripping cotton. It is said that the doctors at the Mayo clinic can spot somebody from our area by the condition of their lungs. Not surprisingly, with all the agricultural chemicals floating around, we have a high incidence of Parkinson disease.
Ow, that’s rough!
We’ll be attending SoonerCon just to meet you! Will be my fist CON.
I hope you’ll enjoy it!
some places are horrid for allergies. huntsville al was known by the indians as “bad air valley” or something very close to that, over here in the atlanta area we still have a HUGE influx of pollen over about a 3 week period. flourescent green pollen has started up and will cover cars/roads in a few days – and don’t have your windows open or it will be in your house! and that’s just the most visible pollen, it seems there’s always something blooming here in the south….
i’ll have to look up soonercon! i would love to meet you and i know you aren’t interested in coming to dragoncon 😉
D