Sinus challenges!
During a six week period the spring of 2013, if you would have asked me what was wrong with me, I would have told you that I had Strep Throat and Bronchitis. Three doctors disagreed and said it was pollen allergies. My GP said that he has had several northerners move to Memphis Metro and evenly have a serious allergy problem. I still have no clue how pollen allergies can cause a severe sore throat and deep bronchial cough. It had been 13 years since I had had that same ordeal – after compromising my lungs in below zero weather one Chicago winter night. A few days before this all started in April 2013, I compromised my lungs again (burning sensation) on a mountain in already high San Jose, Costa Rica. So – I am still a little skeptical of the diagnosis. Whatever the reason, the sickness prompted hours and hours and hours of reading on the web. I have always felt that allergies were an poor immune system response, so I was determined to build my immune system to combat the people that were saying: Once you have had it, you will deal with it every spring and fall. I was not going to give in without trying. A higher dosage of a quality antioxidant that I had heard was great for allergies was my first my step. Enough sleep was easy to add because a new fatigue followed the attack. But by the end of the year – I felt like the bar had to be raised even higher, and I removed sugar and white flour from my diet right after the holiday travel was over. It is almost the end of May – and the pollen has not been an issue (consider that success), however, I have a new issue. My right nostril was running 24/7 after a kind of traumatic basal cell surgery the end of December. More hours of reading – how to stop rhinitis! Surgeon and ENT did their thing and said it was not related to the surgery that actually involved detaching that nostril. My smart sister-in-law Sharon asked how can something be so traumatic on the outside and not affect the inside as well. I think she has a point. The answers I have found, along with taking an anti-inflammatory antioxidant, getting enough sleep and eating a better diet, I believe kept me from having pollen trouble this year – in case they were right. I am convinced they would help a lot of people from having pollen trouble. But first – tell me what you have found to help your seasonal allergy attacks. And, my sinuses are definitely different, more sensitive, burn a little, after that six week ordeal and all I have tried – the right one more so. Can you relate to that?
