I'd purposely waited until work slowed down to start taking the new allergy medication - trying to work with 'antihistamine head' and the accompanying delayed reaction time is miserable at best, dangerous at worst ("Look out!" "Uh, what?" :Clang: "Oh. Look out. That really hurt.").
The doctor tells me these effects are temporary, and as my body gets used to the medication, that wrapped-in-cotton feeling will go away - hence my attempt at timing. I'm hearing the next couple of weeks are going to be dead, which is just about how long I figure it will take me to get accustomed to this stuff.
Have I mentioned how happy I am to be able to breathe (and hear - the congestion had gotten so bad that I had fluid building up behind my eardrums)?
Of course, not even 12 hours after taking the first pill, I got a last minute call to work tonight, which I unfortunately had to turn down. I hate turning down work, but I'm currently not able to work safely so I'd rather stay home and work on the script for this next project*.
Even when I'm not doped up, I have a hard time with last minute night calls. They didn't bother me so much 10 years ago, but now staying up all night after not having had any sleep during the day is really difficult for me.
*Hey, Lewis Carroll churned out a masterpiece while he was on Zyrtec, right?
Oh, wait. That was opium.
Never mind.
8 comments:
Zyrtec's pretty sedating. Have you tried anything else? Claritin? Allegra? Might also think about nasal steroids (not sedating at all but only good for sinus issues) or Sudafed (though can make you jumpy, which might be just as bad.)
I was on Sudafed which was doing nothing, but I have wierd reactions to drugs sometimes, so this is the one that the doc thought would work the best.
Hmm... That's one set of severe allergies you've got if Sudafed doesn't do much.
I've heard of cases of people getting used to the drowsiness that Zyrtec causes. Hopefully, that happens for you. If not, you might want to consider trying Allegra, which does come in a once a day form and also in combination with Sudafed. I've had less issues with drowsiness with the drug, but people's reactions do differ.
An all-natural solution is the Neti (Netti) pot, which many of my patients swear by.
By the way, I'm an ex-internal medicine physician in Boston. Though I have nothing at all to do with movies, I find your blog to be completely fascinating. Keep it up!
Man, last night my head felt like it was going to explode. I knew my sinuses were doomed when I woked up yesterday morning and found ash on my car from the fires. It built up all day until I was in agony after dinner.
I take something called Entex, it's a prescription decongestatnt and rather than making you feel doped up, it's kind of like speed. The problem is you can't take it at night because you can't sleep. It also elevates my blood pressure and heart rate. It's a pretty serious med.
There are two version of sudafed out now. Decongestants got put behind the counter because they contain ephedrine (I think it's ephedrine) that gets turned into meth. SO Sudafed came out with some new stuff, called Sudafed PE that can be out on the shelf, but doesn't work as well.
I used to have serious allergies. Something in duveteen used to give me major attacks, as a grip that's not acceptable. My ear nose and throut Dr. suugested this thing he uses. It's called Sinus Rinse (www.sinusrinse.com) I have only found it @ Longs Drug store basically it is a nose douche / enema try it better than a stupid Neti pot. I turned the other grips onto it and they are amazed. Yeah I know evryone has there remeadies. Take it from a 15 year sinus sufferer it reallyworks.
FYI, Generally Zyrtec makes you drowsy when it's not working against the allergy, at least that's my experience here in San Antonio when I'm fighting the Mountain Cedar (Ash Juniper) pollen.
Entex is a combo of sudafed and guinfenasen (sp?). For serious allergies, Claritin or its generic equal is not as effective as Zyrtec or even Benedryl. YMMV.
Rick in
San Antonio
I have a good acupuncturist. It would help ease the transition.
I used to have a problem with allergies until I started to take 12,000 mg of vitamin C. I was on nasal pump spray and Sudafed for months. You have no idea how many tissue boxes I went through. Within a few days of taking mega doses of vitamin C, I no longer used my pump spray, no longer had need for decongestant, and no longer go through boxes of tissues.
mega doses of vitamin C is the answer
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