Woke up yesterday with a sore throat, headache, dizzy as a hoot owl, and not feeling well at all, when the two days prior I’d been on top of the world.
Yep, the tree. We have to have an artificial tree: I’m so allergic to trees in general it’s pathetic, and can’t even touch raw or living oak wood—I could NOT have been a Druid—but cut evergreen has been the bane of my Christmases lifelong.
As a kid I was sick every December, and would come down with a roaring ear infection that would keep me abed during most every Christmas, and with an infection that would last into mid-January. Ie, when our tree came down, and when everybody else had to put theirs out, I’d begin to recover. For those of you who don’t have allergies—the infection follows shortly on the irritation of tissues that comes from bad post-nasal drip. It’s such fun. In those Jurassic days, every school, shop, church, and most houses had cut evergreen all over the place. There was no escaping it.
Of course in the 1940’s nobody knew much about allergy, and half the medical profession didn’t believe in it, outside of ‘hay fever’. I was accused of going outside without my cap, or scarf, or maybe it was gloves; I was bundled indoors at the first hint of snow and told I was too sickly to go out and play. And there would be the tree, cut fir, or worse, at my grandmother’s house, cedar straight from the fields; and I’d be abed again for the season, shut in WITH the source of my problem, with all doors and windows sealed against ‘cold air’. I tried to tell them the ‘cold air’ relieved the problem. But of course the doctor knew best.
It wasn’t until the ’50’s that they figured it out, and we got one of the early holiday trees: aluminum. You couldn’t put lights ON it: they came from a color wheel that sat on the floor next to it. You could hang ornaments on it, and we were counted very modern; but they still had real trees at school, and at church, and I was a bit better for longer, but still sick every Christmas. I was forbidden to go out in the snow because, yes, now baby brother was reactive to ‘cold air’ and ‘sickly’, and I couldn’t go out because the baby would want to go out. Sigh.
Then we discovered a new thing: instead of me growing out of it, it got worse. I got to where I couldn’t visit a house with a tree. I taught school for a decade—and routinely, every Christmas, I’d totally lose my voice: they still hung garland in school. So I’d be voiceless for at least a week.
And the new fiber trees have one drawback: if you don’t replace them every 3 years, they get mold. And mold has just about the same effect on me as real evergreen does. My ears ache, my nose pours, and, as with many molds, they’re psychoactive, and I get depressed and Jane gets her own version of it.
Well, darn it, we have a tree we love: the last of the really good fiberoptics. And it’s, yes, old. And we should replace it, but it’s up, and it’s beautiful, one of the prettiest trees we’ve ever had…
I went off to Costco yesterday while Jane was on the ice and got an air purifier, and we set it beside the tree going full blast, which I think, this morning, is helping. It’s one of those Oreck things, with a killer throughput and good filters, and the air is much cleaner in the living room. My room only has one of the passive electrostatic flow sorts, that puts out a trickle of good air. But at least I’m on the upswing: I slept all yesterday afternoon, watched Hell’s Kitchen, then went back to bed and slept hard; and this morning, though I now have some of the symptoms of a sinus infection, congestion and the remains of a sore throat, I’m hoping I can throw it off.
I could so easily become a Grinch. But I’m going to enjoy the season. If it takes antibiotics again to do it.
“I used to wake up at 4 A.M. and start sneezing, sometimes for five hours. I tried to find out what sort of allergy I had but finally came to the conclusion that it must be an allergy to consciousness.”
— James Thurber
U.S. author, cartoonist, humorist, & satirist (1894 – 1961)
😆 seriously, if you have an allergy attack at the same time every day, precesssed for seasons, it’s mold. They spore ‘by the clock’, and some if not most are psychoactive, so if you have depression, panic attacks, or fits of rage at the same time every day, you’re not nuts, you’re allergic to bad housekeeping!
There are beautiful black metal trees that really make awesome ornament display features! I have 2. One is ~ 6′ tall (theme – Siberian huskies) and the other is ~ 3′ tall (theme – chickadees). No mold….I leave the Sibe tree up all year (grin).
Is your tree waterproof? My mother switched to a very beautiful artificial tree later in life, mainly for ease of handling. I definitely recall going to her house one day to find the tree in the shower and my mother spraying it with a flit gun (Am I dating myself?) full of water and liquid dish soap. She then showered it clean. She *said* it was dusty. Whatever it was, it looked like new when she put it up. 😉
BTW, I find vinegar and then hydrogen peroxide an excellent mold killer and general cleaner. 🙂
have to chuckle at the allergens in your books. seems the US is almost as bad as Cyteen. sorry to hear you are feeling rough again …
I’m not too good with holiday plants. Poinsettias, easter lilies, Christmas trees. The whole genre. They are fine when I encounter them outside but inside buildings like my office or churches where I am trapped in with them and they have days of build up in the air — not good. Not good at all. And when I ask for them to be moved to the other side of the office or explain why I am a wreck somehow I’m the bad guy. Great logic, people. The whole mind over allergy thing is still in full swing here. Very puritanic. *sigh*
My doc used to say there are 2 kinds of people: those with allergies and those who believe it’s a character flaw.
Last I heard, back in the 60’s, it was theorized allergies stem from RH factor incompatibility in genetics, and that would make Americans, who have very mixed-up family trees and few of whom have a genetic heritage on this continent—prime targets, one supposes. Dunno the truth of that at all.
But Jane and I, and many of European descent, particularly north European, which we both are, are allergic or sensitive to New World plants: potatoes, tomatoes, bell pepper, paprika, the lily family (onions, garlic, leeks); Jane’s iffy with corn, if overdone. And I lived most of my life in the US Allergy Belt, ie, the southern Great Plains—and I’m allergic to grass mold, wheat smut, blackjack oak (deathly), scrub cedar (everyone is!), sagebrush, wild honeysuckle, and of course the usual ragweed, hogweed, this-weed, that-weed, all of which grow wild and ubiquitously over the Great Plains. It’s not the tornados that do in the population: it’s allergy. Allergy clinics rake it in. The only safety is to get next to the ocean or high mountains, where the incoming air hasn’t been used for a thousand miles or so, and where pollen is scarcer. Spokane is as close as we could reasonably afford to get, and at least its air comes off the mountains.
Being near the ocean doesn’t always help. I was brought up in Sydney and the plethora of molds, fungi, dust, etc make good allergy triggers. This was before air conditioning and all the windows were always open to get any breath of fresh air. I know I bought my allergist a new plane and I still have shots once a month.
My family is from Wiltshire and not that far back. Sheep herders who later owned a pub and then trickled over here…some trickling back there. Even on my Dad’s side they were coming over from England mostly though some really early (Mayflower through the Doty line) and some later like the Wiltshire branch. Before Wiltshire mom has us going back to France through the Picard family who left during a state religion shift.
I’ve noticed the further north I go the better I feel. Surrounded by thousands of acres of genetically modified crops here in the midwest just isn’t good for me and I’ve been growing into the allergies rather than out of them. I went with some friends to Seattle a few years ago and didn’t have any trouble besides the elevation shift.
Seattle has good air, better the higher you are, or the closer to the sea you are. And of course out and about the area. It also has very British Isles flora: the Scots who emigrated to the New World and didn’t stop in Nova Scotia kept traveling clear to the West Coast, which they found congenial. And they often, the story goes, had packed their fragile items in bracken fern and broom, the planta genista of legend. The packing material was thrown out, scattered on the wind, and more than the Scots found a congenial environment: bracken fern and broom abound clear to Vancouver WA and Vancouver BC.
Alas, I’m allergic to broom, though it’s pretty; and I wish the heather had taken off to the same extent: but the area around about Seattle reminds me of some towns in Scotland, where you’d swear elves and brownies come out and trim the lawn edges.
Sorry to here that you are allergic to evergreens and other trees. I would think that would be a problem living in the Northwest. Me, I live in Iowa, sometimes called the ragweed capitol of the world. Half the people I know have touble in the ragweed season. Personaly I’m allergic to dust mites, which exist everywhere people do, so there is no getting away from them.
Hope you have a enjoyable holliday inspite of tree problem.
So far so good with live outdoor pines and firs and even juniper. It’s when dead—possibly a mold that grows on them—that they give fits. Cedar is something I try to avoid—everybody in the Southwest gets ‘cedar fever’ when that stuff pollinates (several times a year!)–
In cedar fever season, in Texas and Oklahoma, there are wrecks because people are rendered so allergy-stupid they shouldn’t be on the road: I’ve witnessed two cars sitting at a stoplight collide because one of them wouldn’t believe she couldn’t change lanes, and with incredible slowness just plowed right into and nudged the car next to her. That kind of stupid. Do not trust anyone on the roads during cedar pollination!
But up here, the air is pretty good most all the time. It’s wonderful! Ragweed gets us a bit, but it’s not too serious.
oh God you have no idea with the cedar and juniper here in Arizona. The two are related, but cedar gives me fits, sensitizes me for the juniper that starts about a month later. If I’m lucky I don’t get a triple whammy — juniper, oak [about 3 different species go off at once: gambol emery and scrub oak] and manzanita pollenating all at once; which means this can last a good two months. Just shoot me. Have tried shots which only work for about 3 weeks, sublingual therapy, steroid nose spray and hiding indoors. Which doesn’t work well while employeed with the Forest Service. Such fun to have a branch smack back at you in the face and get a monster puff of yellow stuff all over your face. The cedars are weird though — wind can make the branches and trees crash against each other and you get such strong puffs of pollen that it looks just like smoke and people have reported it as fires. I truly hate spring. In the winter I’ve never been sure if it’s just the smoke that bothers me or the fact that most people burn juniper in their wood stoves.
Oh, that’s rough! Can the Forest Service get you a post in, like, Cle Elum, WA? Okanogan? High and all piney woods—not the same, my allergies can inform you.
I started to buy this beautiful tree called, I think Korean fir. Beautiful blue-white color, interesting little pompoms—I disturbed a branch and a cloud of yellow erupted. I did NOT buy that little tree!
I guess I would be part of your problem, then. I dislike almost all artificial trees, partly just on principle and partly because most are ugly. In general I feel that plant imitations are a poor idea (don’t like artificial flowers either), unless they are clearly NOT real plants but a stylized form inspired by the natural form. The black metal trees sound interesting. And I like copper wire gem trees and their bigger cousins meant to display ornaments.
Occasionally, depending on landscaping needs, I have had a living small pine, and often the Norfolk Island Pine in a pot has done duty, with lightweight origami ornaments. If I want a full-size tree, I can generally find a cedar that the property can do without. I love the smell, so I guess you better not visit me at Christmas.
I have been fortunately free of almost all allergies all my life, though I seem to be developing my mother’s October ragweed hay fever. But I’m paying for it by showing signs of the ataxia (cerebellar deterioration) that runs in my father’s family. Why couldn’t I have inherited my father’s low blood pressure instead, and not his ataxia and my mother’s hypertension?
Hope the air-cleaning regime works for you for the season, and that it is a merry one.
AbigailM – I’m kinda in your park….the black metal stylized trees appeal to me. I’m not into artifical trees and hate killing a little tree for a few weeks of ‘fun’. Besides, I love collecting my thematic ornaments. Lenox does way more chickadees that I can afford all at once! Stay away from CafePress ornaments also (grin)….I let myself have 4 new Siberian husky ones per year.
I always feel for those with allergies that cause respiratory reactions. I’ve been lucky, I guess. I’m of northern European origin as well but only had a few years of ‘hay fever’ trouble in my 20’s in California. Grew out of those allergies or moved away from the source material….not exactly sure. I’m pretty sure the main culprit was plantain (Plantago spp) which seems to be everywhere (grin). Now, food sensitivities are another matter. Without an IgG antibody panel, I’d never have known that I have a huge reaction to almonds! I don’t believe I have any IgE reactions. But identifying the trigger foods for inflammation has been a huge factor in getting a handle on weight control!
Now, we CAN recommend our book covers as Cafe Press ornaments! 😉
Sorry to hear that—one wishes the low blood pressure could have offset the hypertension.
Do you have any further reading you can suggest on mold allergies? Some mold or molds appear to be asthma triggers for my husband. We’ve established that humidity is bad and indoor humidity is worse, and if I can smell mildew he’ll be wheezing in a couple breaths, which is what makes us suspect mold. (Seattle is hell.)
Good guess. I’d research black mold, among other things: but study molds as a type of critter—they have several characteristics, including sporing, which often happens ‘by the sun,’ ie, at a rigidly defined time of day. They can trigger asthma, shortness of breath, they can be psychoactive, producing hair-trigger temper outbursts, weepy fits over nothing—but both of course provoked by something real, sure; Jane gets rage or panic attacks depending on which mold; I get depressed and gloomy. We’ve often said there are probably people on death row for nothing more than bad housekeeping and the incidence of people sharing a house and both having the rage reaction. Check under sinks for wet spots, check anywhere there’s a potential growth area and moisture; check under panelling on walls, etc, and if you do find a problem, there are companies that can go after it, or you can attack it with X-14, bleach, Kilz, and other products that seal it in. The internet has some reputable info, and some crazy stuff. But that is probably the most up to date. You might also get your air conditioning ducts cleaned. Furnace and fireplace soot can be a problem, and may require steam cleaning.
I’ve been using those 7 foot white spiral trees the last few years. You know the ones you see at the drugstore, designed to go in the yard? They make dynamite ornament displays – just hang things along the spiral, in between the lights. And Sooooo much easier to pack away – no chance of losing a little ornament amongst the greenery when you take it down.!
Oh, I laughed (ruefully) at this post – I’d just been whining about the allergic to tree problem in my LJ. I love cut trees, but can’t handle them at all. My allergies to them never got as bad as yours, though (too busy being allergic to everything else!)
I do get tired of people treating me like I’m crazy when I tell them I’m allergic to onions or Xmas trees – I agree with your doctor. But a poorly functioning body is not a character defect.
I never heard about the RH factor connection, which is a huge problem personally and in my family. I’m going to follow up on that one, thanks!
I recall a week one spring where I suffered through a week-long headache, despite trying several different painkillers. Then I remembered a conversation you’d had with me and several other people at a convention (Miscon?) re: allergies, and I took an antihistamine.
Headache was gone within the hour.
I figure it was mold in the air conditioning at my place of work. The allergy symptoms petered out after several weeks, as the system cleared out the old standing stuff. I had a smaller, similar reaction when the heating came on the following autumn. Rinse, repeat.
Interesting re: the Rh reactions. I’m mostly Heinz 57 Northern European; you have to go back three hundred years to get to anyone born in France, let alone further south. Sounds like a fun research project for the evening!
Smartcat’s suggestion about cleaning an artificial tree, or perhaps replacing it, is a good idea.
Both my mom and one of her best friends were badly allergic to real trees. I grew up with an artificial tree: dark green plastic, meant to look passably lifelike. Heck, I didn’t see any reason to cut down a tree; that didn’t seem nice. (We didn’t need it for firewood, either.) I grew up perfectly happy with having an artificial tree.
I’m glad, though, that I never have had allergy problems with pine or fir trees, or trees generally. Mold and pollen allergies? Yes, when I was younger, and possibly recently resurfaced. Hoping that will calm back down after this year being run down so, too, often.
However, I haven’t put up a tree at my house in a few years, and have only done so a few times. — I’ve had a bad cold since Saturday, getting steadily better since yesterday. So I haven’t yet put up a tree for my grandmother, and may just skip it, unless I do a small tree. — It isn’t that I don’t like Christmas, it’s that I was initially grieving, and then for a few years, didn’t much feel like celebrating still, at Christmastime. It’s only in the last two to three years that I’ve finally felt more like celebrating, and not felt like the season was too much of a reminder. I suppose at some point, I’ll get back to that real enjoyment of the season, I don’t know.
— I hope you get well soon, so you and Jane and friends can fully enjoy the holidays.
I wish the joy to come back for you—Jane and I have a similar low spot around my birthday: we collectively lost 2 parents in the same half month, a year apart. But the joy has indeed come back to that season, along with the best memories. We can really celebrate again—partly for the occasion itself, partly for the fact we have good memories of our parents dusted off and cloudless again.
May you find the same this season.
Our first Christmas as a married couple was in northern Maine. So we decided to go out to a tree farm and cut one down. It was all very picturesque, going out in the snowy north and finding the perfect tree. They look much smaller outside.
We managed to get it in the back of the blazer, (spent months picking needles out later) and attempted to put it up in the hosue, but alas it was much larger than we thought. I had to cut some off the bottom and then had to use fishing line attached to four walls to anchor it at the top to keep it from tumbling over. It smelled great! For a couple of weeks anyway. Then it’s just a health hazard.
That was 18 Christmases ago and we have used artificial trees ever since. In fact we have 5 up of various sizes. My wife figured out this year that prelit trees, although nice when you first get them, are a real pain when they start to go back and need replaced. No more prelit for us either.
She also suffers mightily from allergies, but we keep the trees bagged and boxed in the offseason.
back = bad, still looking forward to that edit button. =)
Bagged and boxed—ditto. But our tree (we got to thinking) is 10 years old, and they don’t make the good fiber optic trees any more. Sigh. So we did get an Oreck air cleaner, and I swear, they’d be wonderful in bedrooms…the air in the living room is now sparkling clean and good to breathe. The bedrooms, where we each live and work—not so good.