This weekend was beautiful and I opened all the windows in our house on Saturday afternoon. We got new windows on the main floor last year and I opened all thirteen of them. Within a few hours, the sore throat I had been enduring all week spread into sinus pain, sneezing, itchy eyes, and a runny nose. "NO EFFING WAY," I said and A suggested, "Take one of my Zyrtec." "NO," I replied. "I AM SICK. I DO NOT HAVE ALLERGIES. THE ONLY THING I'M ALLERGIC TO IS SULFA."
A few hours later, I succumbed and took a Zyrtec. It helped. DAMMIT. I walked around in a snot-free zombie-like daze for the rest of the day and bought some Claritin the next morning. I spent the day feeling like I was drunk in public, but trying to act normal so people wouldn't know, like "Can they smell my breath? Do they suspect anything?" I was on call this weekend and had to go in twice to put in emergency pacemakers, but I could pull myself together and focus for those. Really, I just wanted to go to sleep.
I feel hungover this morning even though I got a solid nine hours of sleep. This is awful. I'm going on a drug holiday. I'll see if my allergy symptoms come back and if they do, I'll try half of a pill. I cannot spend weeks feeling stoned every spring. I'm too old for this.
Speaking of old, I went to the dentist on Friday and when the hygienist asked, "Any problems?" I said, "Yes. A few months ago I was not eating, but suddenly had pieces of rocks in my mouth. I think I may have broken a tooth." Five points to Gryffindor! I was right. I haven't been wearing my bite splint at night because I hate the feeling of something in my mouth. I keep waking up enough to be aware of it and end up feeling exhausted in the morning. But my bad habit of stress jaw clenching led to a cracked tooth which led to a broken tooth which is leading to a $400 crown next month. Getting old is bullshit.
I take my allergy meds (yes that is plural) at night so I can sleep off the worst of the "hangover feeling". Zyrtec works pretty well for me but it puts me to sleep. After one caffeinated beverage in the morning the hangover is gone.
Posted by: chris | April 29, 2013 at 01:20 PM
Ok, this intrigues me because I too have middle-aged-onset seasonal allergies and think it is THE PITS. Never had allergies before in my life, and got diagnosed last September when I went into the doctor saying "WTF is up with this itchy itchy cold I've had for six weeks."
Anyway, where does the hangover come in -- from the Zyrtec? Claritin has helped me without any drunk/hangover-like side effects. Am I just lucky? And how is a drug holiday going to help you? Curious.
Posted by: caro | April 29, 2013 at 01:21 PM
I like Allegra :) Good luck with the yucks!
Posted by: CaraH | April 29, 2013 at 09:56 PM
Yep - zyrtec at night works for me. And helps, too, with the itchy throat feeling when it's wearing off. Better to have that at 3 pm than to have it wake me up at 3 am. :)
Posted by: Flyover_Belle | April 30, 2013 at 07:50 PM
Zyrtec makes me feel like I took sleeping pills. Alavert is the only non-drowsy that is really non-drowsy for me. I wear a night guard and hate it too. My TMJ has acting up and giving me awful headaches, but will I wear the damn thing? Nope. I call bullshit right along with you. Getting old sucks.
Posted by: Michelle | April 30, 2013 at 08:56 PM