Allergies To Pollen and Then Some

Whyemier

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About five weeks ago I was out painting the old shed/shop, which holds all my machinery such as it is. It was dingy and the paint was flaking off, mildew and mold etc. So it needed it badly. Now me...I have a problem with tree pollen, mainly oak. Considering where I live that's a significant issue for me.
While I was painting, the wife, dear to me tho' she is, decided to mow the lawn in my vicinity. Unnoticed by me or her, she was raising a cloud of yellow behind her of oak pollen that had fallen to the grass and stayed there with no rain to wash it down. I breathed it in, not wearing a mask, and began my five week odyssey. First the sinuses, then the throat and finally a very bad case of bronchitis. Laid me up in the house, lying on the bed with a low level fever for at least three of my five weeks. Trips to the doctor and taking med.s. Not being able to eat. No fun.
Well it's all over now, mostly, no more oak pollen. No more med.s. I'm able to go outside (yesterday I finally finished painting the shed/shop). Only left over is the weariness it brought upon me and a backlog of honey-dos and projects unfinished.
O! I also lost eight pounds, a silver lining as I was trying to diet and lose the weight. Didn't want to lose it in quite that manner tho'.
I think I'll be back in the shop tomorrow.
 
Being in the same boat I can feel your pain. Did you forget to mention the blisters on eyeballs? We have giant red oak trees that flower for a few weeks. It keeps me indoors and laying low. Its a good time to plan a trip. If its any consolation, oak is excellent firewood.
 
I had allergies to many many living things. Leaf molds were primary, but many types of pollens were culprits too. Eyes, nose, skin, and bronchia. Doctors were quick to prescribe all sorts of pills, nose sprays, inhalers etc. Many of these helped and many were worse than the allergies. About 25 years ago I finally went to an allergy specialist who drew a 10 x 10 grid on my back with a marker and then proceeded to do a scratch test with different allergens, one per each square. I wish I had gotten a picture of the results of this process. He was able to determine just what I was allergic to. I thought it was just pollens, but there were many molds, danders, and things that I never would have guessed one could be allergic to. Shoe glue?? Anyway, they then mixed up a series of liquids that contained extracts of varying amounts of the primary allergens.
I spent the rest of the year giving myself sub dermal injections of these extracts starting with the most dilute solutions and later with the more concentrated solutions.
There was local irritation to these injections, but it wasn't bad at all. The following year, my allergies were so greatly reduced I could hardly believe it. I still took some
over-the-counter antihistamines on occasion but overall very little. The following decades have been mostly allergy free. I still always have an asthma inhaler that gets
used a couple of times a month in the summer, and a bottle of benedryl that gets taken now and then. I would highly recommend getting hold with an allergy specialist, it sure beats cutting down trees. Just my story, yours may vary.

CHuck the grumpy old guy
 
Chuck, have you ever lived under a canopy of oak trees?
 
Not a lot of oaks out this way, but we often have enough pine pollen in the air that you can get pollenbows around the sun, sorta like rainbows but not due to ice crystals.
After a light rain, any body of water is covered in yellow. My birdbaths are beautiful bright yellow. Great stuff to look at through a microscope. I wouldn't mind a canopy of oaks though, I only know of three or four of them in my local. They're not indigenous to this region.
 
Our area is flush with tall red pine as well as oak. Know what you mean about clouds of pine pollen, which are a brighter yellow than greenish oak pollen. Pine pollen does not bother me at all but oak is another story. Pretty amazing when you think of it.
 
I also have little or no reaction to pine pollen, some years you can see 'clouds' of it blowing of the evergreens. Oak is another story, really affects me bad. I tell myself every year I'll be more careful, take precautions etc. But I don't do it well enough I guess.
 
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