Ah-ah-ah-ah...ah-CHOO!

It's been about two weeks now since my allergies decided to try to kill me. While trimming the Lilu cat the other night couldn't have helped, it's just the general Austin weather and air full of pollen and such that is bringing me down.

It hasn't been this bad in a couple of years. For a long time now, whenever I felt my allergies might be kicking in, I just started taking a 24-hour Claritin (and then its OTC generic) religiously and I wouldn't have to deal with them at all. I could mow the lawn, wash the dogs, whatever I needed to do outdoors or inside and still be okay.

Well, Claritin appeared to have joined the long list of allergy meds that have stopped working for me--the first being Actifed (which, by the way, is still THE worst tasting pill ever--it started dissolving the instant it entered your mouth so that tasting it was unavoidable--like strange, bitter, sour, metallic lemon rind, or something like that--blech!) I swapped to Benadryl, but that didn't seem to do much other than make me a little drowsy. I finally went to the store and did some comparison shopping. I never took Zyrtec when it was a prescription--I never needed to--but I figured I'd give it a shot. I bought a pack of the generic stuff last Sunday and had high hopes it would save the day. A week later, things are hardly better if not worse. There don't seem to be any other alternative meds, can you think of any?

Today, while mowing the yard, I was so horribly sneezy and runny nose-ed that I actually just took off my t-shirt and started using it as a hankerchief. I know, gross, but I was desperate. (No, I did not put the shirt back on--I'm not that gross.) I'm vacuuming constantly and I've changed my sheets again, I try to change my clothes and brush out my hair as soon as I get home in case I have residual allergens on me. I use rewetting drops all the time to try to keep me from rubbing the hell out of my eyes. (But oh how I would love to rub the hell out of them right now.) I haven't been this bad since two jobs ago when I couldn't even put my contacts in for two weeks and had to wear my glasses to work the entire time. As I type this I am holding back sneezes and trying not to breathe too deeply for fear of starting a major fit of them...I'm a serial sneezer...fourteen in a row is not unheard of for me.

Anyway, since nothing pharmocological is doing the trick, I've decided to go back to nature--which I should have remembered sooner than this--for another tactic. What's the answer? Honey! LOCAL honey produced by bees who are gathering pollen from all the stuff that's making me sneeze. They say a teaspoon a day is a good supplement. I've already had my first dose. Cross your fingers for me that this will work for me since I really do feel like digging my eyes out of their sockets right now. And my throat? I won't even get into how itchy that is. I feel it in my ears!