aaah..ahhh..aaahhhchoo!

*sniff.....sneeze......sniffle......cough.....sneeze......drip......wheeze......sniffle.....

It may look cold, gray and gloomy outside like a winter day, but my nose, throat and eyes are telling me otherwise! Yes, along with trees budding and flowers beginning to pop up here and there, the lawns turning green and weeds and bugs reappearing,... so, unfortunately have my allergies! I don't need the weather channel or the Farmer's Almanac to tell me that Spring has arrived, all I have to do is look in the mirror at the dark circles under my eyes, my cherry red nose from blowing and the tears rolling down my cheeks,...yup! It's here!

I look so forward to Spring, warmer temperatures and being outside, but along with that comes the misery of seasonal allergies, every year, just like clockwork. I keep hoping that one of these years my body will have outgrown them or developed an immunity to them, but so far no luck. I'll finally start feeling better around,..oh,..July,...and then around mid-August they'll start kicking in again because the ragweed will begin to bloom. This will go on until the first freeze, somewhere around November.

The really weird thing is, I never had allergies as a kid, not one! I was not allergic to foods, animals, plants,..nothing! I never had seasonal allergies until I was an adult, the first Spring after I had my first child. The doctors have told me that the trauma or stress of pregnancy may have changed my immune system. I have no idea,...all I know is it really stinks!

Anywhoo,... I go to the allergist this afternoon, my yearly visit to have a check-up and get my new prescriptions. I've been on everything under the sun, Claritin, Allegra, Singulair, currently I'm taking Zyrtec-D in combination with Nasonex which have worked pretty well. Unfortunately, Zyrtec has gone over the counter now so I can no longer order it through our mail-in pharmacy. This is a good thing for most people, but not us, because it's much, much cheaper to buy it mail-in than at the store. I checked around and it's nearly $20.00 for a bottle of 24 pills, which would last only two weeks. I can get a 90 day supply, or three months worth of pills for $40.00 mail-in. I'm hoping my doctor has some new prescription medications for me to try, otherwise I'll just have to suck it up, I guess!

Do any of you have seasonal allergies? Any suggestions or opinions on any medications out there at the moment? Give me a holler if you have any ideas, I'd appreciate it! Well, sorry this is so short, I wasn't even sure if I'd post at all, but trying to squeeze everything in! (being that it's not acceptable to not post, per Hallie and Kim-d!) Sheesh! You two are slave drivers!! :o) (but I luv ya!)

I'll just be taking my dripping nose and weepy eyes to the shower now. People who don't know me are avoiding me like the plague, kind of funny! I was at the store the other day sneezing away (so embarrassing) and this woman looked at me and moved away, she probably thought I had a terrible cold or the flu. I wanted to yell, "Hey, come back! It's okay, I'm not sick, really! It's just allergies, honest!", but she had high-tailed it out of there already. I can't blame her, I'd probably do the same thing! :o)

ps. Anyone else having problems with spacing on Blogger? This is driving me nuts!