Allergies in the Northwest

posted by Jeff | Wednesday, June 30, 2010, 10:25 PM | comments: 0

With allergies that have come and gone over the years, the theme in my 30's has typically been to have issues toward the end of May, lasting two, sometimes three weeks. Of course it varied a bit depending on weather. Last year I can remember a few days where I was really bothered with sneezing, but turning on the air conditioning helped.

Since moving, I expected things would be different because of the climate and plants out here. I can't quite target when I noticed actual sniffles, but I think it was around a week or so ago the first time. It's definitely much later than the Cleveland symptoms. What's weird though is that it's not consistent at all. I'll have a short bout at work, when I'm mostly indoors, but go outside and shoot a few hoops and be fine. I also have little sneeze-fests before bed. Then there's the issue where just having allergic symptoms, some smells that wouldn't otherwise bother me (cosmetics, foods, etc.) trigger annoyance. I couldn't tell you what plants cause the issues.

Diana, who is one of the worst allergy sufferers I know, has had a slightly easier time. In Cleveland she would be on generic Zyrtec and a prescription nasal spray pretty much year-round, but since having Simon and finally being able to take anything, she's just doing Zyrtec. It seems like she has a somewhat easier go of it.

What's fascinating to me is the biology of it, in terms of what produces the right spores, pollen or whatever to agitate a person. Clearly the triggers are less here, and I wouldn't be surprised if the air quality was better anyway. The lack of 80-degree days is strange, and dare I say I don't like it as much, but I'll take the reduced allergy reactions.


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