BY KYLE LOVERN
I truly love spring. I love hearing the echoes of the first frogs croaking on a mild evening. I love daylight saving time and getting that extra hour of sunshine. I love baseball season.
I love watching the green grass grow again. I love seeing the trees like dogwoods and redbuds blossom and line our hillsides with their natural beauty. I love seeing the yellow forsythia bushes bursting out with color. I love seeing the first daffodils, bright red tulips and other spring flowers sprout from the ground.
Or course most of us really love the warmer temperatures, especially when they hover around the low 70s. That is near perfect, not too hot and not too cold.
Now to what I really hate. I hate the hay fever it brings and how bad it makes me feel. I’ve suffered from seasonal allergies all of my life. You would think I might outgrow them, but it seems like they’ve gotten worse with age.
The pollen is filling the air and you can actually see it on your car windows.
I’ve recently been battling one of the worst cases of the “crud” I’ve had in a few years.
I’ve had laryngitis, a scratchy throat, stuffy nose and horrible cough.
It’s taken a couple of steroid shots, a couple of Rocephin needles jabbed into the butt, plus a round of oral antibiotics, strong cough syrup, an inhaler, allergy medications and my always daily vitamins to try to get over this junk.
It’s tough when you go through 3,000 tissues and your eyes feel like they have sand in them. I told my wife Vicki I should have bought stock in Kleenex.
You may have heard the old joke, “My nose has done more running than an Olympic track athlete.”
In all seriousness, here are some tips to help with the pollen and allergy season as we head smack dab into the worst part of the season.
I’ve had to put a halt to work in my backyard garden and really want to get back to that fun chore. It’s already time to plant my potatoes and green onions.
To reduce your exposure to the things that trigger your allergy signs and symptoms (allergens):
* Stay indoors on dry, windy days. The best time to go outside is after a good rain, which helps clear pollen from the air.
Avoid lawn mowing, weed pulling and other gardening chores that stir up allergens.
Remove clothes you’ve worn outside and shower to rinse pollen from your skin and hair.
Don’t hang laundry outside — pollen can stick to sheets and towels.
Wear a face mask if you do outside chores. (We’re used to this after the COVID pandemic.)
Seasonal allergy signs and symptoms can flare up when there’s a lot of pollen in the air. These steps can help you reduce your exposure:
* Check your local TV or radio station, your local newspaper, or the internet for pollen forecasts and current pollen levels.
If high pollen counts are forecast, start taking allergy medications before your symptoms start.
Close doors and windows at night if possible or any other time when pollen counts are high.
Avoid outdoor activity in the early morning when pollen counts are highest.
Rinsing your nasal passages with saline solution (nasal irrigation) is a quick, inexpensive and effective way to relieve nasal congestion. Rinsing directly flushes out mucus and allergens from your nose. I just use warm salt water and it really helps. I started this a few years back on the advice of my doctor.
Taking your allergy meds on a regular daily basis is a good thing to continue. Just follow the instructions and don’t take more than the dosage allows.
I drink hot tea with lemon and honey and that helps my throat. I like to drink this in the winter too, but it really helps when you are choking on the exploding pollen in the morning hours.
An early spring, as much as we love it and are glad to see the cloudy, cold days of winter disappear, means a long allergy season. Trees, weeds and plants start to bloom a little earlier and that means pollen and spores will be in the air for a longer time. In short, pollen has exploded from plants much earlier than normal this year after an exceptionally warm February in the South and East. Remember those 70-degree days last month?
(Kyle Lovern is a longtime journalist in the Tug Valley. He is now a retired freelance writer and columnist for the Mountain Citizen.)