It's Here
It's here. Spring has finally been unloaded upon us and the rain has been taken away at least until next weekend. And, along with the bronze, apple green, and lime green new leaves, there is a fine cover of dust everywhere. Pollen.
The dust begins around March, with the yellow-green pollen from the pine trees covering everything. That pollen doesn't bother me, strangely, but I tend to find it everywhere. When it rains during those days, yellow rivulets run down the car, and the puddles are framed in yellow. My problems come later, with the warming of the air and flowering of other trees. And with grasses. And with flowers. And with weeds of all kinds.
There was a time, before I went to the specialist, when I would go to the beach in July and spend most of the time sneezing and reaching for a tissue. While I lived in Boston I did have episodes in May and September with sometimes severe symptoms, but that was a city. This is the country. I was miserable.
The specialist determined I am allergic to just about everything that floats in the air except pine pollen. I am also allergic to various fruits and get a dermatitis from the nickel in costume jewelry. (I'm expensive to deck out, only gold can touch my skin. That's why I don't deck out.) Since I am also psychologically allergic to needles, he prescribed a sublingual vaccine to be taken over several months to bring my allergies under control. I started taking it, but dropped it midway through. But I took enough so that my life stopped being a living, miserable hell during the most beautiful time of the year.
He also prescribed an antihistamine that doesn't leave me drowsy. Fortunately, I don't need to take it very often any more. In fact, I think I didn't have to take it all last year (Imagine how much it must have rained in the spring and summer to keep the pollen counts down.) But this year I had to go running to the pharmacy to get it.
It has rained enough, and the sun has come out at a strategic moment, for the pollen count to be high. I checked a map of the pollen count in Spain and it turns out that birch and plane tree pollen are extremely high here in Galicia. My nose and eyes were telling me that last week, already.
So, today I visited the pharmacy. I hope this isn't going to become a habit this year.
The dust begins around March, with the yellow-green pollen from the pine trees covering everything. That pollen doesn't bother me, strangely, but I tend to find it everywhere. When it rains during those days, yellow rivulets run down the car, and the puddles are framed in yellow. My problems come later, with the warming of the air and flowering of other trees. And with grasses. And with flowers. And with weeds of all kinds.
There was a time, before I went to the specialist, when I would go to the beach in July and spend most of the time sneezing and reaching for a tissue. While I lived in Boston I did have episodes in May and September with sometimes severe symptoms, but that was a city. This is the country. I was miserable.
The specialist determined I am allergic to just about everything that floats in the air except pine pollen. I am also allergic to various fruits and get a dermatitis from the nickel in costume jewelry. (I'm expensive to deck out, only gold can touch my skin. That's why I don't deck out.) Since I am also psychologically allergic to needles, he prescribed a sublingual vaccine to be taken over several months to bring my allergies under control. I started taking it, but dropped it midway through. But I took enough so that my life stopped being a living, miserable hell during the most beautiful time of the year.
He also prescribed an antihistamine that doesn't leave me drowsy. Fortunately, I don't need to take it very often any more. In fact, I think I didn't have to take it all last year (Imagine how much it must have rained in the spring and summer to keep the pollen counts down.) But this year I had to go running to the pharmacy to get it.
It has rained enough, and the sun has come out at a strategic moment, for the pollen count to be high. I checked a map of the pollen count in Spain and it turns out that birch and plane tree pollen are extremely high here in Galicia. My nose and eyes were telling me that last week, already.
So, today I visited the pharmacy. I hope this isn't going to become a habit this year.
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