Spring is here, Norway is finally defreezing and I am overwhelmed... this leads to lot's of good and bad things that don't really combine such as ice-cream and colds, beautiful sunny days and work, flowers and allergies... Wait! Allergies? I never had them! Why am I suffering like this now??
To be completely honest the first time I had allergy to polen was last year: had just defended my PhD in January and shortly after began to sneeze like crazy. Having never had allergies before and having lived in the same city for 4 years it took me a while to self diagnose myself and accept it at a fact. Relief came when I flew to Brazil mid March. And I thought relief would be perpetual.
Except that this year, my trips to Paris began to be a combination of runny nose, itchy eyes, and sneezing from mid March. Since I only spent weekends, 2 days were manageable and I got better as soon as I got to Oslo (which was still frozen). Easter trip was painful... lot's and lot's of polen during the trip until I got antihistamine eyedrops. These helped enormously and made life much better. Italy was great though... as it was almost Summer my allergy all but disappeared, only to come back when we went back up to France. And now it is Spring in Oslo... and there are birch trees everywhere (seems like those are the worst). And I should go to the doctor... but I am not a medicine person (always treated everything by homeopathy and never took an aspirin in my life...) and I'm pretty sure this has to do with low resistance and there should be a better way around it than drugging myself. Plus A. and my brother are here, which definitely takes over all the extra time I have. Plus we are living at a hostel, meaning little space, no privacy and additional stress... Plus I think I got a cold, which confounds the symptoms of the allergy: am I coughing due to cold or trees?
So yesterday was much cooler (back down to 5oC/40oF) and my allergies were very tame. I thought I was getting over it but suddenly I woke up with hives today... not good, not good. Oh well.... I think I need some rest, having my own apartment, and a fast forward of the season... is it too much to ask for?
To be completely honest the first time I had allergy to polen was last year: had just defended my PhD in January and shortly after began to sneeze like crazy. Having never had allergies before and having lived in the same city for 4 years it took me a while to self diagnose myself and accept it at a fact. Relief came when I flew to Brazil mid March. And I thought relief would be perpetual.
Except that this year, my trips to Paris began to be a combination of runny nose, itchy eyes, and sneezing from mid March. Since I only spent weekends, 2 days were manageable and I got better as soon as I got to Oslo (which was still frozen). Easter trip was painful... lot's and lot's of polen during the trip until I got antihistamine eyedrops. These helped enormously and made life much better. Italy was great though... as it was almost Summer my allergy all but disappeared, only to come back when we went back up to France. And now it is Spring in Oslo... and there are birch trees everywhere (seems like those are the worst). And I should go to the doctor... but I am not a medicine person (always treated everything by homeopathy and never took an aspirin in my life...) and I'm pretty sure this has to do with low resistance and there should be a better way around it than drugging myself. Plus A. and my brother are here, which definitely takes over all the extra time I have. Plus we are living at a hostel, meaning little space, no privacy and additional stress... Plus I think I got a cold, which confounds the symptoms of the allergy: am I coughing due to cold or trees?
So yesterday was much cooler (back down to 5oC/40oF) and my allergies were very tame. I thought I was getting over it but suddenly I woke up with hives today... not good, not good. Oh well.... I think I need some rest, having my own apartment, and a fast forward of the season... is it too much to ask for?
No comments:
Post a Comment