Allergies

[Nerf]

So who else has awful fucking allergies that won't go away, and whats worked for you?

I'm sick of this shit, having one nostril plugged 50% or more all the time is brutal, and according to my dentist, bad for my gums as I have to breathe through my mouth at night.

So far I've tried:

Claritan,
Sudafed,
Zyrtec-d - which takes the blockage down from maybe 75% in both to 50% in one,
rx steroids which did nothing,
a neti pot,
some natural shit called "Hista-block" - which made me nauseous but did nothing for my allergies

I've thought about getting one of those powered neti-pot-esque things that shoot water in your nose instead of letting gravity do it, but I'm willing to try just about anything at this point.

[Trippy]

Do you know what you are allergic to?

Try Benadryl but take it at a time where if it makes you feel sleepy that's not going to cause problems. The new-fangled "non-drowsy" antihistamines are actually less effective than the old fashioned "put you to sleep" stuff.

I take the 24 hour Claritin when my hay fever is really bad such as when I can't see through my constantly tearing eyes. Otherwise if it's just my nose that I constantly need to blow I generally don't bother taking anything unless I need to go out and actually interact with people. I used to take Dimetapp but they stopped making the pill form I used to take so I looked around for other products and Claritin worked so I've just been using that since.

There's also an entire industry making products for allergy sufferers. There are air purifiers, vacuums, special bedding, saline "nose rinsers" (like you mentioned above), and so forth. It would help, though, to know exactly what things are triggering your allergies and then you can work on eliminating from your environment, like your bed room, which might help you sleep better without needing to take antihistamines and other drugs.

[Nerf]

Not a clue, I don't have health insurance and up until recently it wasn't bad enough for me to go to a doctor over, although she didn't do any tests, just gave me some steroids, some antibiotics (Thought I had a sinus infection), and told me to start taking zyrtec-d.

I forgot about the eyes, the red-hot painful constant burning in the eyes goes away with the zyrtec, but its the breathing thing I want to fix.

[Trippy]

Give Benadryl a try. It's not something I would recommend taking regularly because of its significant impairing side-effects but it's kind of like the "super antihistamine" -- e.g. it can be used to treat severe allergic reactions to insect bites -- so it may give you a better baseline to compare other newer antihistamines to.

There's also Allegra you can try. Apparently it's very good at relieving itchy, watery, red eyes.

If breathing is an issue, that sounds like asthma, which is different than hay fever, though asthma is often allergy-related as well. Benadryl might actually make that worse so you need to be careful. The drying effect from Benadryl might thicken the mucus stuck in your airways.

Edit: actually I take back that asthma thing. I forgot (already?) the breathing issue is from your blocked nasal passages.

[Hawkbit]

Flonase.  Smells like having a brewery in your nose all day, but knocks out my allergies hardcore. 

Go get tested at an allergist.  It's good to know what causes issues so you can try to avoid it. 

[Tale]

Sneezing allergies? I thought I was going to get to talk about aquagenic pruritus.

[Jimbo]

When we moved from New Mexico back home to Indiana, my son and I got hit hard by seasonal allergies too.  Our Doc has us on Singulair and Nasonex, which is nice because it is once a day for both of those meds and I and the kid know to start taking them before spring and summer when all the shit is flying around in the air.  That or move to New Mexico, they had beautiful country and great air, which isn't going to happen...so taking the medicine I do.  These are prescriptions so you would have to get a provider to write you one.

Really bad cases of the allergy?  Benadryl (Diphenhydramine) is an antihistamine that stops the allergic reaction (hence why I want to beat anyone's ass who tells me they are allergic to it...no mother fucker I'm not giving you dilaudid and ativan for an allergic reaction, but if you tell me the pink pills made you vomit and itch I can believe that and give you the injection or the liquid or uncolored type).  H2 blockers is another drug that can help, pepcid, zantac, tagament, & axid, will help settle your stomach and reduce the amount of histamine floating around.  Unfortunately that cocktail will help you breath but you probably will sleep soundly for 8 hours +. 

Our insurance went and changed our pharmacy formula again so now I have to pay full price on Singulair and Nasonex, which at CVS here ran me like $60 freaking dollars apiece.

Stuff you can do:  Hepa filters or good filters on your HVAC in your house, change and clean them every month.  Clean the house spotless, yeah it sucks, but the less stuff is around the less it will hurt you, hepa masks for when you go outside on high allergy days (that sucks too, I hate wearing the masks), and stay hydrated.

Once again, I'm not giving medical advice, just stuff I would do for me or my kid (hey they start tracking what people blog, I guess I should get paranoid).

[Selby]

Do you have pets?  I found out after 18 years of not being able to breath through my nose that I was allergic to cats and mildly so to dogs.  No more pets for me.