An very interesting thing happened on Monday.
But before I tell you about that, you need to know that my dog has allergies. We know this because her eyes get goopy, she paws at them, and she scratches them until the sides of her wee-puppy-dog eyes get sores and she bleeds. Nothing* is sadder. So our vet told us to put her on daily antihistamines, unless we want to spend $800 to find out exactly what makes her allergies flip out, then pay $100 a month for allergy shots. Um, yeah right. I love you dog, but I also love a cheap fix. So off we went to the land of plenty (aka Costco) and purchased a bottle full of generic Claratin. And it worked (when the darn pooch doesn’t pick it out of her food and leave it in random places around our house). About a year later we found her eyes goopy and sad again. The vet told us that like humans, dogs’ bodies can get accustomed to a medicine (remember this for later), and we should switch it up. Costco again. Giant bottle full off something different. Success.
Now, back to the other mammal with allergies writing this.
Recall back at the beginning of my migraine journey, my neurologist told me my headaches were caused by allergies? My brain doesn’t know how to process so much darn tree sex (because let’s be honest, that’s what pollen really is). My brain backfires and migraines, essentially. But I wasn’t so sure so I went to the allergist who kinda-sorta-agreed but more importantly was horrified by the giant blob of mucous stuck in my nasal cavity.
Now that we’re all up to snuff. heh, get it? snuff?
I have allergies. They may or may not be causing my migraines.
I realized I forgot to pop a claratin and called my friend Diana who was also heading to the zoo with me that day. Diana has an uncanny ability to have everything anyone might ever need always on hand. She also had antihistamines, but not my beloved claratin. See, when the dog reached her max with the claratin, I started taking it as my go-to-daily antihistamine. Ya know, the one I take every day? Diana instead had Zyrtec. I took it.
And then we walked around, outside, for 4 hours and I proceeded to have the best head day in weeks.
About 2 hours after getting home, I realized my head felt great all day and still felt great. There was some pressure, but no pain.
I recycled through my day’s activities: cell phone store, zyrtec, mexican food, outside, awesome lions as the zoo, froyo, home. The one difference? Zyrtec! The one different antihistamine I tried all these weeks? Zyrtec!
Since, like dogs, our bodies can get used to a medicine taken over time, there might be truth to changing things up a bit.
Diana and I traded bottles of antihistamines.
It might be time to trade the dog’s, too.
And it’s been right there, under my nose, the whole time!
*there are many things worse
Disclosure: this is NOT an add for Zyrtec, although it might seem like it. I found a product I really liked and it might be the key to unlocking my pain mystery!
Living in our nation's capital allows me to learn something new every day. So does teaching 2nd graders. My nose piercing and tattoos keep me from normalcy, while my job and religion keep me grounded.
