dust & allergies

[digitS']

Franko's elucidations on "cedar fever" inspired some thoughts and the following is too long but here's a synopsis: It is wise to protect your respiratory system by using a mask when working in dust and loratadine may help with your allergies.

When I first read the reference to "cedar fever" I thought of "farmer's lung!" A lot of people think this is just an allergy but farmer's lung can develop into a chronic disease as we get older. I grew up on a farm and was always involved in haying every year. Fortunately, I didn't really have any "hay fever" as a kid but I sure have that problem now . . .

I once had access to lots of wood chips and covered the paths of one of my gardens with them as a mulch - worked great! Then, a neighbor had a spruce tree taken out - and I got a nice pile of chips dumped in my driveway. It took filling the pickup 3 times to get it moved to a distant garden. During this effort, Winter came on and rain/snow delayed the process. It took me about 6 weeks to move those 3 loads and mold had begun to grow throughout the pile. After the last load, I began to develop a fever and cough. It was the most lingering bout with the "flu" I ever had! Lesson learned - - wear a mask when handling dusty stuff!!

I always keep Benadryl around because it is useful for bee stings and I react rather strongly to those. And, I've got those "seasonal allergies" that can really knock me off my feet during the Summer. Even tho' my home is backed up to the mountains, here in the interior West it is darn dry. The respiratory system takes a beating at various times of the year (we're going into one of those times right now :/.

My daughter had asthma and still has lots of trouble with allergies even now that she's grown. The doctor prescribed loratadine for her but when it didn't work very well, I decided it couldn't be much good. Loratadine (Alavert, Claritin, etc.) is supposed to be a non-sedating histamine blocker. I just continued giving & taking Benadryl and turning into a "zombie" after a few hours . . . You should know that taking pseudoephedrine with any of these anti-histamines just dries me out more - I can turn into a real basket-case after a few days.

Anyway, I complained to some gardeners last year about this problem. Kinda hard to garden when I darn near couldn't leave the house by mid-day. A few folks suggested loratadine and I decided to try it. After a couple days, I was more-or-less fine! Whereas, it wasn't much help for DD, it did help me thru those few weeks in mid-Summer when the pollen count was so high.

Steve :tools

 

[miss_thenorth]

Claritin keeps me clear in the early summer, but was the Dr. giving it to her for seasonal allergies, or for her asthma? Seems, to me she needed more attention to her asthma. My ds takes two inhalers--one for everyday and one for acute episodes. My dd takes singulaire, which is an asthma med, although she doesn't have asthma, but some type of seasonal allergy. Both are doing fine. I get seasonal allergies, and I use loratadine--if I don't-- I feel like my head is a balloon,attached to a foot long long string that is attached to my shoulders, and full of mucus.

 

[digitS']

Miss, DD was best treated for asthma (in my opinion) with albuterol and a nebulizer. And, that was the regimen when she was pre-school age and for a little while after. Then she graduated to an inhaler. There were a few times when she needed a little more, including Singulair, but most of that stuff has fallen by the wayside, thankfully. In fact, she hasn't used an inhaler since she was about 14.

The MD said that her allergies are much the same as the asthma just higher in the respiratory track. They continue and continue.

I can just sneeze and sneeze and become pretty useless about mid-day in mid-Summer. It becomes a little exhausting to have trouble breathing and doesn't do much good for one's perception of the world - blink, blink, kof. Oxygen deprivation, I suppose, is part and parcel.

Steve

 

[miss_thenorth]

I hear ya on the sneezing.... Funny thing though when I lived up north--no allergies. Just since I moved back down here to smog central.

edited for typo...