I didn’t know where to post this, but since it’s kinda related to growing fruit and being outside and stuff, here it is. This is our third year living here on the farm in Kentucky. Both me and the wife have had a bear of a time with allergies this spring. She has had it worse than me, lots of coughing, sinus issues, runny/puffy eyes and nose, croupy voice- the whole gamut. I haven’t had it as bad as her, my main symptoms have been sore throat in the mornings that get better as the day goes on, lots of phlegm (sorry!), puffy eyes, and a bit of sneezing. Had a really hoarse voice a couple weeks ago that’s better now.
My sister, who lives about 800mi from us in Oklahoma, is just getting over her battles with it. She had it bad a couple weeks ago, to the point of losing her voice for a few days. She is much better now, though.
I know allergies are a yearly issue, mostly in the spring, but this year seems especially rough. Have any of y’all had similar problems this season? I wonder if it’s because we had a mild winter here this year?
I suppose it could be. She has had a lingering cough for months, went to various docs, and said her lungs are clear (via X rays), no fluid in them, etc. They were saying it’s likely sinus issues, with it draining into the throat and causing the coughing. But, it seems to have got worse the last couple weeks, since it’s warmed up, and things are blooming around here. Who knows, but it is aggravating.
For me, the hell time isn’t until late May/early June when all of the cool season grasses are pollinating. The absolute worst for me that we have scads of here is reed canary grass.
@subdood_ky_z6b IIRC you’ve had a lot of wet weather this spring. The reactions might be due to molds and the like in addition to pollens. I know that whenever I visit the east or NW my sinuses go into revolt in the humid air for a while.
Yeah, it’s just now started to dry out here after quite a bit of rain in March and April. It hasn’t been hot enough for the humidity to matter yet. It may be my imagination, but the more I stay indoors the more it’s messing with me. I’ve been in most of the day today doing the taxes, and have been coughing, and my eyes feel itchy and swollen. I was outside the last couple of days mowing, and planting our fruit trees and bushes, and it didn’t really bother me. Could be something in the house messing with us.
My wife went to bed early tonight again, she was achey and miserable this evening. She has been substitute teaching three out of four days this week, maybe she caught something at school. She was doing OK earlier this week, but yesterday her voice was croupy, and just started feeling bad, so it may be something other than just allergies.
Possibly mold in your house. The old farmhouse on our property used to smell like mushrooms every spring and occasionally in the summer if it was wet for any length of time. In parts of the house what passed as foundation was timbers set right on the ground, with an occasional rock here or there if level required it. Not an ideal design, but pretty common for stuff built in the mtns 150+ years ago around here (and to be fair it lasted a century and more). But even in a dry environment like ours, water eventually finds wood and rots it…
Well, we live in a single wide home, about 13 years old, so no old timbers to worry about. But, all the rain we had might be causing issues in the house we can’t figure out. Mold? Maybe, but don’t know how it’s manifesting.
But, there is a smell coming out of our master bathroom’s bath drain. I think it’s just not draining properly and the smell is just old bath water collecting when it shouldn’t. I don’t know if that’s causing our problems tho.
This morn my wife’s not much better, her eyes are really red, and she said her head just feels full. So, maybe it’s a bad sinus infection. I woke up kinda snuffy, and coughing a bit. We’re both just tired of this.
A lot of sick people around here at this time. Cough/sinus stuff. I know one of the Youtubers i watch had the flu for like a week and he is in Minneapolis.
No spring allergies for me, but i’m horribly allergic to Ragweed in the fall.
I had similar issues every winter and spring until I remodeled my main bathroom. When we tore off the old sheetrock we found lots of mold. Since the moldy sheetrock and framing has been removed (as well as the leak that caused the mold) my problem has completely cleared up.
For the past 10 years ive had a hard time dealing with pollen in 7a. I typically needed to waste 4 - 5 pto days each spring to cope. We got honey bees last year and ive been taking a spoonful of their honey each morning. This year i havent had any allergy issues and my energy levels have gone through the roof. Local honey is an allergy blessing imho.
Well, my poor wife had had enough with this. Over the weekend, she was getting worse, crusty eyes, facial pain, earaches, coughing up junk, just miserable. It was more than just allergies. So she went to the doc this morn, and they told her she has not only an acute sinus infection, but also an ear infection, plus conjunctivitis.
I called her while she’s getting her meds and coming home, a long drive, about 50mi, she didn’t sound good then. Anyways, she’s gonna be out of commission for a few days to beat this.
I’ve been taking some allergy meds, and been coughing a bit, but I’ll be OK.
Finally stopped raining so maybe I’ll put the gooseberries in the ground today.
We live in a rural area, and there is a lady who is a beek and makes honey about 3 miles from us. So, maybe that would help us as far as local allergies go? Maybe it’s kinda a homeopathic effect? Would you agree with that @JustAnne4?
I lived in tree Texas for 30 years before moving here, so the allergens would prob be different here, and I haven’t developed resistance to them yet. So, maybe some local honey would help.
Local honey is supposed to help with allergies. But it will likely depend how well the beek filters out all the pollen, or not. Even better is supposed to be eating local pollen, collected from the local hives, if you can find that.
As I recall from when I was treated for allergies as a kid, I used to get injections with small amounts of the pollens I was allergic to. So I would presume eating that pollen, plain or in honey, would be similar.
Of course the honey/pollen thing would not help much if the allergens are molds or non-flowing plants…