No junior, that’s not Tinkerbell’s pixie dust sprinkled around Austin, it’s POLLEN. Ripe, potent, stay-inside-and-oh-my-god-we-need-a-HEPA-filter tree pollen. The bane of my existence. And with central Texas having such a warm climate, even the winter months are horrid! What’s a traveler to do?
Background
I’ve been a major allergy sufferer since my youth. Basically I registered a 4++ on every skin patch test done by my doctor’s office — except one, I think. I’ll have to dig out the last one and check.
- Dust mites? Oh yeah.
- Animal dander? In spades.
- Mold? Fungus? Yes and yes.
- Tree, grass, and flower pollen? Fuggedaboudit.
(Thank goodness I don’t have any food allergies, at least. Or asthma.)
Before we hit the road, I’d been getting allergy shots every 3 weeks for over a decade to mitigate my seasonal and non-seasonal allergies. That’s in addition to a daily pill, a daily prescription nasal spray, and the occasional prescription eye drops as well. I was the FourSquare mayor of my allergist’s office and think I still am, despite being gone for 6 months.
Yes, several times I tried weaning off the shots, or getting them less frequently. But 3 weeks seemed to be the magical number to keep my eyes open and sinuses clear.
When I gleefully announced that we’d be leaving the area to travel, my longterm allergist was no help. Basically I was told to discontinue the shots; “good luck.”
I think this is rather unfair. Diabetics give themselves insulin shots on a daily basis; why couldn’t I/we be trained to measure and administer allergy shots in the correct dosage once a month?
So without any other recourse, I received my last allergy shot in September of last year. Not much is blooming in Michigan at that time of year except ragweed, which doesn’t bother me as much (silver lining – hah!). So I didn’t see a huge change in my histamine response as long as I’m diligent about the other treatments. Yay!
Zoom Ahead to Today
Here in Austin about 3 weeks ago, we both noticed that we were a little sniffly. And the trailer and car were looking kinda yellow. Then Shawn had a full-blown sinus attack, which blew an entire weekend (hah! no pun intended there) before a daily Sudafed got it under control.
Friends, there’s so much tree/grass/flower pollen now that I got the car washed and within an hour it was completely coated again! Anything left outside will accumulate a coating in an afternoon.
OK, so maybe we need to limit our visits to Austin and the rest of central Texas to winter, and depart before spring. But NO! Mother Nature has a hidden secret weapon to torture allergy sufferers in central Texas even during the winter months: cedar pollen, which I was alerted to by a local friend on Facebook.
Look what came up when I started a search. Austin is the very first most-searched item for cedar fever. This is apparently a widely known thing in the Austin area. EXCEPT FOR STUPID TOURISTS, LIKE ME.
The little light bulb went off. If we stick to our plan to seek the 70-degree nice weather, we’re going to experience an extended spring over the course of several months. This is NOT ideal for two people with severe seasonal allergies and requires some major consideration as to our destinations and timing. OR we are going to end up spending far more time in the desert than I had envisioned.
Any ideas??
Tomorrow we hitch up the buggy and leave Texas, headed for Hot Springs, Arkansas. Giddyup!
40 Foot House 
Ah, I remember that gold pollen… Last year I drove to Atlanta and saw my car when I woke up and went WTF!?!?!Went to a car wash on the way out of town, but the car was coated again while driving! Wow, big learning experience! Maybe you’ll come to love the desert? 🌵 Arizona? Florida? Hugs,Art
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I feel ya. We are also currently in the throes of the annual pollen sh*storm known as springtime in Georgia. Sho’ looks pretty, though!
I can probably offer you nothing but sympathy. I discovered that I had allergies after moving to the Atlanta area over 25 years ago, and suffered with major sinus issues for many of those years.
One complicating factor was narrower channels on one side that would screw up drainage of all the gunk my sinuses produced as they freaked out from something or another pretty much year round. I had that fixed (in the glory days, when there was such a thing as health insurance) and had fewer problems.
Going off all allergy meds – which seemed to have stopped working anyway – possibly had a reset effect. I suffered a while before I thought to try taking a daily generic Zyrtec again. It has been working pretty well for over a year now.
Also, knowing I’ll feel the worst when I wake up, and better after I exercise, helps me cope. And move my rear end.
Saline rinses helped a lot for a while, but I haven’t had to do them since getting back on the Zyrtec.
Wish I had a silver bullet instead of just sympathy. Truth be told, your post has ruined my own plans to always go where there are no allergies. Dang it.
Cedar is not likely the culprit right now… we just (barely) survived that sh*t storm… however, you are enjoying the rest of the trees… like every tree ever (except cedar) is sneezing it’s pollen all the *&^% over us. I’m sorry you caught us at our pollen-y apex… okay, who am I kidding? We’ve got SOMETHING all year. Mold gets real bad too. 🙂 I totally enjoyed this! Makes me feel better. You know, misery loves company and all that. The difference is that you get to escape! We’re stuck for a few more years, right here in the Allergy Capital. LOL, luckily, Austin’s pretty cool. It could be worse. It could be Houston or something. ❤ Happy trails!!
Ugh sorry. This sucks. Kevin has worse allergies than I do, but even I have felt it in Texas. You’re not just kidding about the pollen here. It’s crazy! Unfortunately, we’ve just had to keep the windows closed and the AC on all the time to keep the pollen from coating everything inside the rig, but as soon as we walk out, it’s everywhere. Anyway, I have no helpful advice, just lots of sympathy. Hope you’re able to find something that works!
Try these ideas…
https://wellnessmama.com/8370/allergy-relief-remedies/
Netti pot is a great help to me as is local honey.
Hope it helps!
Peta
Yikes! Pollen is still bad here. It would seem that you’d be able to do your own allergy shots since they are given subcutaneously–I do my own RA injections (opted for that course instead of IV infusions because we’re on the road) and B12 injections. They are probably worried about the reaction. But if you’ve taken them for years, you’d think the reaction would be predictable. Too bad the national chains like Walgreens or CVS couldn’t do it in their Minute Clinics, etc. Either way, hope your allergies are doing better in your current location and you’re enjoying the change of scenery. Take care!
Thanks Dawn. I’m doing just fine in Arkansas, despite pollen still dusting everything. Shawn has been sneezing a lot, thus the gripe on Facebook about not being able to get Sudafed without a prescription in Arkansas (as a non-resident).
When I originally went to the allergist (in 2002! I dug through my records) I was actually told that once we nailed down my accurate dosage(s), my GP’s office could perform the shots. Later I was told that was not the case. Le sigh. I like your point about the pharmacy. Well, either I won’t need them or perhaps science & the pharmaceutical industry will advance enough to give me other options. In the meantime, we’re looking into a new HEPA filter.