Four-Eight-Four [dot org]

Folks who know me know that I’ve had an awful time with the hay fever type of allergies for most of my life, and I also am officially allergic to an awful array of substances, including shellfish (no shrimp! arrrrgh!), beef, pork, egg, chocolate, soy products, and two other things I can’t remember any more.

Fortunately, the only one of the foods listed above that really bothers me is shellfish (though I really, really, really miss eating shrimp). It’s a good thing, because I’m not giving up steak and bacon until eating them comes close to killing me.

People who’ve known me since high school know that I controlled my allergies with Benadryl at that point. It worked really well, except for the drowsiness factor. Once I’d recovered, though, I’d be fine for a while. Then000 one day after I took some at school, I drove home under the influence and couldn’t recall getting there. I was told I backed into a bush dropping a friend off.

That was it for Benadryl. After that I tried a whole slew of medications … drowsy and non-drowsy, prescription and non-prescription. The ones I remember include Actifed, Tavist, Sudafed, Seldane, Claritin, Allegra, Nasalcrom, Advair, Nasonex and Astelin. Without fail, the ones that did work would stop working after weeks or months. I guess my body builds up resistance to them or something.

The most recent disappointment was Astelin. My doctor gave me a few trial dispensers, and at first they’d dry me up so fast I didn’t have time to count to 10. If I wasn’t careful, I got an awful aftertaste in my throat for 15-20 minutes afterwards, but that was a small price to pay for a non-drowsy solution. Then, before I even got through my third (and final) trial dispenser, right at the time I was about to call the doc back and ask for a prescription, it quit working. Completely. Totally. Wouldn’t even slow down the allergy train.

At least I hadn’t invested in any yet.

Then while I was at my parents’ house over Christmas, my allergies got so bad on Christmas Eve that I drove to Wake Forest with my brother, and after staring at the selection of OTC allergy meds, hoping to find something new and potentially useful, I finally just settled on a box of plain ol’ Benadryl.

I took it as soon as we got back, and within the hour I was out like a light. But … when I woke back up, I was allergy-free. In the days that followed I resorted to Benadryl a number of times. It disrupted my workday, but it wasn’t nearly as disruptive as trying to program while sneezing and dealing with burning sinuses. Trying to concentrate in the midst of that pure misery is absolutely impossible.

Then, about a week and a half ago, I stumbled upon some advice online. Somebody suggested taking the Benadryl at night before I went to bed. After all, if it put me to sleep at night, that was no big deal. I’d never thought about that before. I’d always taken it reactively … never proactively.

I’ve been doing that since then, and it works quite well. Most days, I’m completely clear. On the worst days, I have minor sniffles. I have probably been consistently productive more in the last 10 days than I have since I first entered the work force.

So, I’m posting this thinking that perhaps somewhere out there in internetland, there is another poor soul who has suffered for twenty-some years as I have who might benefit from this advice.

I’m crossing my fingers and hoping it keeps working.