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The Diary of Anne Ku

19 June 2000 Monday hot

HAYFEVER SEASON

The smoky airport in Rhodes, Greece triggered my hayfever in mid-May.  It was so bad that I had to buy antihistamines from a local pharmacy.  I trusted that it was the right stuff, as the label was all Greek to me.

Just when it finally becomes warm throughout the day, my hayfever returns.  I wake up from a bursting sneeze, followed by bursts of smaller sneezes.  My eyes are itchy and red.  My throat is dry.  My head is dizzy.   My ears are blocked.  I reach for my antihistamines.  They save the day, until a friend warns me that they contain steroids.  So I visit the health store and buy a natural blocker. Over the weekend, I squeeze Valencia oranges to make Vitamin C - as well as load myself with the 1,000 MG kind, dissolved in water.  I take my multi-vitamins.  I avoid dairy products from now on.  Apparently, milk causes more mucus to be formed.  So I switch to soya milk. 

My better informed friends tell me to get an allergy test, to find the cause.  Antihistamines only treat the symptoms, not the root cause.

Is there a correlation between high pollen count and nice, warm weather?  I've waited all year for this wonderful British summer.   Why didn't I have hayfever when I was in the US?  Why did I get hayfever as soon as I landed at Gatwick airport three years ago? Only my mother sympathizes.  She had to leave the country during the hayfever season.  Maybe that's what I have to do, too.

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