Hayfever

Did you miss the pages involving intentionally stinging yourself with nettles?

Also fuck grass pollen.

I normally go: half dose nasal inhaler > +half dose Loratadine > +full dose Loratadine > +eye drops > +top-up Piriton as necessary. Usually starting from April.

Just about to enter the +eye drops stage, and possibly quickly transition into +top-up Piriton.

Being inside during lockdown and too injured to run has helped this year. Swings/roundabouts.

Much easier than the contortions and ablutions discussed since.

fuck grass pollen

what the fuck is the point of grass anyway? stupid green stuff, all thin and spindly. BAN GRASS.

yes fam, hayfever o'clock right here.

Source for the rinsing positions was my GP. The picture was just something off google I found that matched what GP told me.

Promethazolone tablet and piriteze nasal spray still working for me but man my eyes are scratchy after the run I just did.

One thing I noticed is that the branded version of Loratadine I ended up having no choice but to buy recently (Clarityn), seems to actually be less effective than the own-brand Superdrug version I also have. Probably just imagining it out of resentment of having to get Clarityn, but who cares if I feel better for it.

Did you miss the pages involving intentionally stinging yourself with nettles?

This sounds NSFW

2x fuck pollen.
Sat in A&E with my toddler who has rubbed her eyes so much that they’ve pretty much swollen shut...

Miserable. Sorry to hear that.

Has anyone had any joy with air purifiers / HEPA filters etc.?

Oh that sucks! Is she doing better now? "Don't rub your eyes!" is one of the hardest things to enforce for young kids and, in my experience, they really don't like eye-drops/baths.

We're wondering about trying the Dyson one. I was also curious about pollen-screens, which would allow us to open a window without contaminating the house.

Tried for 30 minutes to get her to use a nasal rinse, to no joy.
Her eyes are looking loads better, on Thursday the lining of her eyelids were so inflamed, that they looked like it was a blister on half her eye.

Ceterizine liquid twice a day, and piriton if it gets particularly bad.

She also had a fairly big nose bleed, no doubt from the blocked nose, and vicious toddler nose picking.

Couple of thoughts, as a doctor with really bad hayfever myself. I am worse in the spring and early summer, I was tested when I was a kid and I am most allergic to some of the tree pollens. This year I am already over the worst. Other people can be more allergic to other tree pollens and grass pollens and will have their worst symptoms later in the summer.

Everyone is different obviously. I have tried most of the newer generation antihistamines - Loratadine (Clarityn), desloratadine (NeoClarityn), Cetirizine (zirtek), fexofenadine etc. For me, Clarityn and neoclarityn are the most effective, and I didn’t find any difference between them. From the clue in the name, the two drugs are very similar molecules, desloratadine is the active metabolite ie. the liver converts loratadine into desloratadine which is what actually has the effect. Some people’s livers are better at this than others, which is why some people do better with neoclarityn.

The important thing with oral antihistamines is to take them as soon as symptoms start, every day. The effect builds up over a few days or weeks, so taking them now and again doesn’t work if symptoms are severe. I usually take Clarityn daily for a couple of months and then stop later in the summer.

Steroid nasal spray is very effective, Fluticasone (flixonase) is better for most people, but I use betamethasone (beconase) because it works for me. Again, taking it regularly 2 sprays each side twice a day, is the important thing. Effect builds up over a few days / weeks as with oral drugs. You’re not really supposed to but I take it 3 times a day when symptoms are bad and it doesn’t seem to do any harm.

The older antihistamines, Piriton (chlorphenamine) and phenergan (promethazine) are also very effective but cause drowsiness / grogginess. I take Piriton at night when symptoms are really bad, as well as the other drugs. Not a great idea to take these regularly in combination, but once in a while is ok.

I find cromoglycate eye drops very useful, they really help eye symptoms and can be used up to every four hours. If I’m wearing my contact lenses I use them morning and evening. Sunglasses while cycling are vital!

Nasal irrigation can be helpful but is a bit of a pain, I don’t really bother with this but I wash my face every couple of hours when things are bad and every time I come in from outside. Vaseline around the nose helps for some people too.

I looked at air purifiers a couple of years ago, they are so expensive, and to work properly you would need to keep all windows closed, so didn’t bother.

I have been thinking about desensitisation treatment for a few years. Your GP can refer you for this, it’s a series of injections that is apparently very effective. Every year I struggle through and then when symptoms improve after a few weeks is forget about it. Really should get round to it, maybe next year!

Maybe the most annoying thing about hayfever is how little non-sufferers understand about it. To them, it’s a kind of comedy non-illness, but if you have it badly, it’s at least a couple of weeks of absolute misery until symptoms subside. Also, it sucks that cycling definitely makes it worse when pollen counts are high!

Sorry for the epic post. Tl;dr - take tablets and nasal spray religiously for a week or 2 and they will make a difference.

Really useful info!

I find fexofenadine basically makes me want to walk off a cliff so try to avoid it but have gotten by with Ceterizine. Will try desloratadine...

I found fexofenadine to be the least effective of all of them, but it will work for some people.

One thing I forgot in my last post is that chemists usually have generic, non branded versions of all of these which are much cheaper, if you ask by the drug names as given in my previous post. I don’t actually know if generic desloratadine is available yet.

I take generic Desloratidine all year round, as I'm allergic to dust as well.
I find the Desloratidine less sedating than Loratidine.

It sounds like you have it very similar to me, I have a runny nose for a bit most mornings but am already past the eye irritation stage. Do you know what particular pollen you react to?

I use a Cetirizine and Loratadine combo. Every day.

It works 90% of the time

Fexofenadine for when shit gets real

Thanks for that. Sensible and useful stuff.

I was tested for about 20 different pollens, I think I reacted most strongly to birch, hazel and willow. This was about 25 years ago so I can’t remember all of them. Grass pollen wasn’t so bad interestingly, I think many people are most allergic to tree pollens.

This is quite useful:

https://www.ukallergy.com/pollen-allergy-peak-seasons-in-the-uk/