Welcome to Allergy-Ville

Some people get allergies...and I'm part of that group. My first allergy was to chocolate--and happily I outgrew that one by the end of my teens. It was NOT fun being the only kid on the block who could not eat chocolate. I remember going to birthday parties where everybody got all 3 flavors of Neapolitan Ice Cream but I only got Strawberry and Vanilla. I remember getting lots of Peeps for Easter as it was the only candy that did not have chocolate on it.

In my 20s we moved to one of the allergy capitals of the world...the Central Valley in Northern California.  Springtime there is a nightmare for allergic folks as the blooms spread their pollen everywhere. One spring I coughed so hard I broke a rib! I was teaching elementary school and my kids tried to best each other bringing me the colorful boxes of Kleenex. I went thru about a box a day as the allergy morphed to a very runny nose alongside the  cough. My young students thought it was funny I had a backpack that I wore on my belly filled with tissues. 

In those days, we would load our little motorhome up on Thursday night and when I got home from school on Friday, we would head out of town where I could get some rest and relaxation in a non-allergic place 160 miles to the east. We even brought our laundry with us and we did it at the campground. It was not a vacation--it was absolutely necessary to get away from the bloom. We would come back on Sunday night and the allergy would start up on Wednesday. The get-away gave me 3 days of relief before the persistent cough and running nose returned.

Finally, my good doctor advised allergy shots which I took 2x a week for over a dozen years. The persistent spring cough and runny nose disappeared. The shots "worked" and while I no longer dreaded spring, I was careful. Somehow I knew the allergies could reappear. 

Fast forward to now--and my reaction to springtime allergies has morphed again. I live in 2 locations that get spring at different times of the year. Spring in the desert is early while spring in the mountains is late. Now I get vertigo--two times a year. I thought coughing so much to break a rib was bad--try walking around dizzy all the time? It might be worse. When I have vertigo, everything is miserable. 

This year springtime in the desert was not too bad. I had a couple of days where vertigo "started" but a squirt or two of Flonase solved the problem. No big deal! Move on. Now it's springtime in the Rocky Mountains and the flowers are having a grand time blooming their heads off...and a squirt or two of Flonase is not even touching the vertigo. Have you ever tried walking, without moving your head? All I could do for nine horrible days was sit in a chair, in a darkened room and look forward. Eating was difficult. Getting out of the chair involved a series of motions a contortionist would have loved. I did not want to jar my head and start the spinning again. Writing in my blog was impossible. Moving my fingers on the keyboard made me dizzy. Dizziness is not any fun. I increased Flonase to a dozen or more squirts, quadrupled antihistamines, put hot compresses on my head, took seasick medicine...and none of it stopped the world from spinning out of control. I could stand to do some coughing right about now. It's far easier to deal with a broken rib than a spinning world!

Finally, after nine pretty bad days I dragged myself to Urgent Care. Driving there was a real test of courage. Nineteen miles and I could not turn my head. I did not go speed limit and the other DrC acted as eyes for corners and turns. I made it to UC and saw a doc. He heard my history and sympathized and said "I need to give you a big gun to stop that vertigo" and he did. Forty milligrams of Prednisone is a "Big Gun" medicine. I've never taken 40 mg of Prednisone EVER. But that's what he said to do. I start with 40 mg for five days, then 20 mg for five days and finally 10 mg for five days. Fifteen days is a major dose of Prednisone. 

It took 11 hours for the Prednisone to start working its magic. The world stopped spinning. At first I did not know what was wrong. Nothing was turning around? I was not dizzy. I felt like my head had been gone through a pummeling. It felt bruised and a little achy but it was not spinning like a top and the scenery was standing still. It was the most amazing feeling. I was able to move my head without feeling like I was tilting out of control. I've been on Prednisone for 2 days now. My world is back to normal --  or I should say I'm back to normal. I have a thirteen more days of this marvelous wonder drug. I'm wired like you cannot believe. I can't sleep for very long. The world is not spinning! Glory Days! I hope this does the trick and the vertigo will remain GONE during the rest of spring! 

I moved from Geezerville to Allergy-Ville, in an aspen forest with a healthy understory of plants in bloom. It's absolutely beautiful. It has been absolutely awful for me this spring. I'm thankful I went to Urgent Care. My world stopped spinning. 

For those of you who suffer with springtime allergies I wish yours never morph into something worse than a cough, a sneeze or a running nose. Vertigo is not any fun. I hope mine is "verti-gone." Remember, we're all in this together.