We have yet to have the Cedar Pollination Event, but the molds are waking up—we’ve got the air purifiers working full tilt, and those are the difference between falling on our noses asleep from allergies (one of those medically unrecognized symptoms, but a major one for both of us and half of Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Missouri, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida and the Carolinas—)—and being able to function with some writerly ability. [Actually, it really is a known symptom: when I called my allergist after my first shot saying I couldn’t wake up, (a symptom I had had after the tests in his office) he cut my initial dosages in half—and put me on the slow, slow track—7 years on those shots.] Itchy eyes, runny nose—not us. We fall face down in the bean dip.
This is our model. http://www.amazon.com/Oreck-XL-Professional-Air-Purifier/dp/B0015627UE/ref=sr_1_3?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1332343323&sr=1-3 We’ve bought air purifiers of all sorts, and this, outside of one Hepa that makes so much noise you can’t think and requires filters that cost more than the unit—this is the best. One of those in your bedroom, running full tilt when you’re awake and out of there, and life is liveable. We have one in each bedroom, and one in the living room, and you DO need the cleaning fluid. The Truman Cells coat up with a film of zapped particulate as they work, and soap and water won’t cut it. The cleaning fluid will make an apparently-cleaned cell run blackened water when rinsed. And a big difference in the efficiency. You need a new carbon (anti-vapor/volatile) filter once a year or so, or after any really heavy use, like painting the whole house—but the Truman Cells last forever, are your real collector, and clean with either soap and water or the spray they sell for it (recommended). I pass this along for any of you thinking you need a filter. WE can sure tell the difference in our three bad seasons: the Christmas tree (mold grows on the artificial ones, too, and gets on the ornaments.) Spring: cedar pollen. And July-August: fire season—when a forest fire has the sky turning grey, and the smoke comes flowing down the river-channels and mountain passes, these are a really great idea. Most of the time we have wonderful air. But there are these times that really get to us.
As usual, the link won’t work in the original post. Here’s one that does.
http://www.amazon.com/Oreck-XL-Professional-Air-Purifier/dp/B0015627UE/ref=sr_1_3?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1332343323&sr=1-3
The pollen count is only 5174 today in Atlanta. It was above 9000 yesterday. They do not track the mold. I do not have allergies but I will be sure to pass on your favorite filter.
re: source of the problem?
http://www.treesforyou.org/Selection/Articles/allergy.htm
Had my monthly allergy shots today. All this rain has dampened everything down nicely.
Two things for this filter: it’s good for a room. Cycles a room pretty fast. Two, the main filter is user-cleanable and forever. They really kill you on those replacements.
You guys would so benefit from EFT. It works wonders. Whenever I visit my sweetie’s relatives in Montana, we sleep in a basement bedroom. I am very very sensitive to mold and mildew and a basement room is almost guaranteed to have said substances no matter how well maintained. I will invariably start wheezing after laying down (and we do take our air cleaner over there with us too) and so I will do a round of EFT or two about mold and mildew and the wheezing will go away, often for a couple days.
Also, I’ve just acquired a Beurer soft laser aka cold laser which also can be used to alleviate allergies. It is good for getting rid of wrinkles, too! 🙂 I’ve been using it for that (and have noticed a significant lessening of said wrinkles), since I don’t have many allergies other than mold and mildew, but I do intend to use it for the allergy stuff when we again visit my sweetie’s relatives in Montana.
It might be worth your time to check into either or both of these methodologies. The EFT website I like best is http://www.eftuniverse.com. The cold laser methodology for allergy treatments that I discovered is http://www.allergyantidotes.com. I don’t think you have to (or should, even) rely on pharmaceutical solutions despite them wanting you to think that is the only ‘real’ way. It sounds like you’re starting to develop a sensitivity to them anyway, eh?
Oh.. and I got our signed copy of Intruder the other day! I’m loving it! Thank you!
I’m forcing myself to eke it out so I can enjoy it longer… I read over 600wpm and if I let myself, I could have easily finished it in the first afternoon. 🙁
I’ve been a medical transcriptionist for 25 years and a life-long sufferer from mold, dust and pollen allergies, and I’d never heard that drowsiness was a symptom of allergies — (of Benadryl, yes, but not of the allergies themselves), but now that you’ve said it, the light bulb just went on. Like, DUH! — I have times when it is next to impossible for me to stay awake, and now that I think back, they’ve always been during a high allergen period — in fact, right now, when the ornamental pear trees, ragweed and red cedar pollens are currently reading my sinuses the riot act. It’s amazing that I haven’t made the correlation before! I’ve always known that different allergens trigger differ different symptoms, like oak sawdust and certain evergreen pollens makes my eyes itch, water and gunk up, certain molds make my sinuses stuff up big time, flower and weed pollen makes me sneeze and makes my nose run and my eyes tear, etc. But I would never have ascribed this almost narcoleptic drowsiness I get sometimes to allergies. I’ve already been to Amazon and bought one of the Oreck purifiers (and a can of cleaner spray!). I work from home so if this does the trick, I’ll be buying a second one for my office. Thank so much for the heads up!
Oh, and I got my !autographed! copy of “Invader” yesterday — arrived safe and sound. <3<3<3!
Sounds like a good filter.
Any ozone (bleach like) smell around it?
No. Maybe if you literally pressed your nose against the outflow, but you don’t get that. An occasionally electric snap as a piece of substantial dust or the like hits the charged wire, but for the rest, it’s not smelly. The carbon filter actually helps remove volatiles and noxious gases from the air, and it’s the most easily changed, easily cleaned filter we’ve owned. It’s on the same principle as the big Honeywell filters, which cost over a thousand dollars and maybe move air a little faster, but we can be really suffering and stupid from allergies—and turn this thing on, cleaned and in prime condition, and begin waking up and breathing clearly in about half an hour in a 20×15 room.
I’ve been so enjoying the unseasonable warmth, and the blooming flowers and trees here on the North Coast.
But as I couldn’t sleep last night due to congestion, it’s a sealed office and the (noisy) air filter for me today! And allergy fatigue *is* a major factor for me, too; my eyes get swollen and watery (or worse) and my body seems to think that’s a sleepytime signal. 🙂
I tell you, it *should* be recognized as a symptom. I don’t get a runny nose. I didn’t even turn red from the allergy patch test: they dismissed me as a patient and told me I didn’t have allergies: this was the big Oklahoma Allergy Clinic, that serves the whole state. At the time, I was nearly incapacitated as a writer from the severity of the falling-asleep problem. I was dosing Sudafed in such quantities it was affecting my pulse rate, just to keep going. I found a small allergy clinic that specialized in children, but I got a personal ‘in’ there, and went in for the test. I told them my experience. I gave them one heckuva sob story—and said I was desperate. They did the patch test. They said I had a slight redness on ‘oak trees’, and ‘a few other things’ so they would give me the shots. Ok!!!!! I went home. The shots arrived in the mail. [In Oklahoma, you give your own.] I gave myself the first one—I’d been told how. And I started falling asleep as if I’d been drugged. Heavily. Scarily. I managed to get the phone book. I called the doc, got the nurse, told her the problem, and the doc himself got on right away. Told me, I think, to take some Benedryl, and call him back immediately if I got any worse or if it didn’t get better. Asked me about rashes, that sort of thing. Nope. Just the sleepiness. He told me not to take any more shots. Throw them out. They’d make up new ones for next week and cut the dose way, way down.
Which proves to me, yes, sleepiness is a symptom.
There’s a stretch of I-40 through Tennessee that has a lot of honeysuckle along the margins. And driving that once with the stuff in bloom was a nightmare. Jane and I kept stopping and trading drivers about every ten miles. We turned the CD player up to ‘stun’ and talked to each other and sang. I bit all the way through my lip trying to stay awake and not run off the road and kill ourselves and somebody else. THAT’S what allergies can do to some people, and I don’t wonder they have wrecks on I-40, of experienced drivers with big rigs.
I apparently don’t have allergies (always test negative) but am “sensitive to particulate matter” and get wickedly stuffed sinuses when large-spore pollens are out. My eyes start throbbing from the packed sinuses behind them. Oddly enough, falling asleep seems to “reset” my sinuses and clears them. So, for me, the unconscious association with throbbing eyes/packed sinuses is to go to sleep (not pleasant to concentrate visually with achy eyes anyways). Don’t know if that set of responses of mine are related to your allergic snoozes or not.
I have always figured that the sleepiness/fatigue was part of the allergies – if only because it is so much work to breathe, and what respiration I manage is far from efficient. I’m beginning to think that there is a business oportunity organising Antarctic tours during our summer for those of us who are desperate ot get away from the seasonal crud. – and maybe Iceland in our winter for our Southern Hemisphere brethren who need to get away then!
I think I’ll make my billions by inventing a purifier mask with attached Bluetooth earphone and built-in microphone, compartmentalized for nose and mouth, where the mouth part flips up to enable eating. It will have customizable skinning capability and will support attachments, such as an oxygen concentrator, air humidifier, aromatherapy dispenser, glasses/goggles that can be obtained with prescription lenses and which have sunglasses/polarizer mode and infrared mode, and a voice-activated iPod attachment with earphone. Not only will the wearer be protected from allergens, but also from germs and viruses.
Horrible allergies! I pretty much hate spring anymore. Took chlorotrimeton as a kid near Bakersfield (dust and sagebrush) and its still the only thing that really helps. Running nose is rare, but everything just swells shut, I get visious headaches and flat can’t take the shots. Doc has me on Omnaris and sublingal drops–and had surgery a few years that didn’t really improve anything. Not a fun experience. But I agree with the sleepiness! Makes sense when you remember that allergies really mess with you immune system.
But its miserable for everyone this year–warm winter, minimal precipice and the Arizona cedar and the juniper AND the manzanita are all pollenating at once. Payson is having pollen counts in the high10,000s and forecast for over 11,000 for next week (12,000 is the top of the scale). Makes my job with the forest service and a 3 day field session recording some new archaeological sites next week not fun. Which plain sucks.