Allergies

Growing up in Southern Oregon, I had some pretty severe allergies. I was sent home from elementary school one day because my sneezing was a distraction to the class. By the time the teacher called my mom to pick me up, I had tally marked 76 sneezes on my desk - in a span of about 2 hours! My teacher rarely opened the windows on mowing day after that.
I used to walk around the house with little wads of Kleenex shoved up my nostrils because I would get so sick of blowing my nose. My parents could easily find me in the house from a tissue-trail. They teased me relentlessly about my constant sniffing and sneezing. I never took allergy medication. Ever.

Then I moved away to college (I'm tellin' ya, my health changed SO much for the better after I moved away to college!) and sought help for my allergies for the first time. She recommended some nasal spray and daily preventatives. That saved my life, as college was located in the grass seed capital of the world.

After my four years in the grass seed capital of the world, my allergies were few to none. Until this year. Unfortunately, this year's allergy season has KILLED me! The pollen levels in my state are more intense than records books have shown before. I'm constantly amazed at the what the levels look like! At this point, I am looking into allergy shots so that the rest of summer will be bearable, but am still concerned and confused.

In the meanwhile, I continue to use Nasocort and take a daily Zyrtec. Otherwise, training for this 5K would be even more miserable!