Anticipating the first frost

As I sit in front of my computer and begin work on this column, I have a stack of full size paper towels close at hand to battle my constant sneezing and nasal drip. I have had to wage this war against “hay fever,” since I was very young.

I am quite certain that many of you will sympathize with me, as a significant number of you are suffering as well. Allergies nag at our sense of well-being and at times they can become deadly.

I was about 8 years old when my initial significant bout with hay fever first manifested itself. At the time we lived on our family farm, and it must have been a really bad pollen year. At some point my parents became so concerned that they brought me to see Dr. Wray, our family physician.

He suspected that the amount of nasal and sinus passage drainage had become so severe that I was actually experiencing pneumonia in my lungs. He entered me in the hospital for a couple of days.

After we moved into town about a year later my annual recurring allergic reactions lessened. I would not have another bad experience until I was in college. One of my summer jobs was as a flagman for the repaving of U.S. Highway 160 from the Kansas State line, to Lamar.

I walked ahead of the paving crews as we laid down asphalt for 5-6 miles each day. I held a stop and go sign and also gave the last car sent through from my end of the roadblock a red flag to give to the flagman at the other end of the line. It was not glamorous employment, but it paid well for a college summer job.

The pollen along the roadway was intense that year and once again I was so affected that I ended up back in the hospital under the care of Dr. Wray. He referred me to a specialist in Pittsburg, Kan., where I was attending college.

This doctor had his nurse complete an allergy screen on my back. During this procedure they make tiny scratches on your back that have about 80 different items to discover exactly which things your body experiences allergic reaction “welts.”

The treatments to combat these allergies began the following April. Each week for six months leading up to allergy season, they mailed you a syringe filled with a medication that increased your resistance to the specific allergies they had discovered.

The treatments worked reasonably well and for the many decades since I have not had to suffer as much as back then. Unfortunately, my reactions to pollen and dust appear to have intensified of late. I am not sure as to the reasons for this but there is no doubt that my allergies are becoming worse.

I had one more dangerous allergic reaction about four years ago. I was in Kansas City recovering from an open-heart surgery to repair my damaged heart valve (modern medicine has been a salvation for me and many others in such procedures). After six days in the hospital I was moved to a rehab center for another week. At that center the doctor put me on a medication that was a member of the beta-blocker class. This is quite normal for heart surgery patients.

Shortly after being discharged I was back in ICU and could barely breathe. My surgeon soon discovered that the culprit was my significant allergic reaction to beta-blockers. I now make sure that every medical facility and physician has that type of medication listed on my intake forms.

I looked on the Internet for some guidance on allergies. It is a complicated medical condition but basically it is caused by our own bodies protection systems. The most common type of allergic reaction is when our body encounters something that our immune system recognizes as dangerous or possibly harmful.

The body then reacts to protect itself. The most common protection is the release of inflammatory chemicals known as “histamines.” These chemicals are the ones that cause us to experience those dreadful conditions such as: runny nose, sneezing, red itchy eyes, and skin rashes. Most of these conditions are non-life threatening but many allergies can be dangerous to the point of fatality.

One area that most of us never stop to consider are scents (fragrances). In your home you have countless of these additives in soaps, shampoos, deodorants and multiple cleaning products. Most of the scents are listed on the product labels but we rarely stop to look at them. It should come as no surprise that those of us who regularly suffer from allergies can and do have reactions to these additives.

Many people are allergic to different food products. The most common of these are allergic reactions to dairy, bread (gluten) and peanut family foods. I remember that doctor from many years ago telling me that a significant number of people are allergic at some level to chocolate.

Back in the day, many of you fellow “baby boomers” might remember the television commercial that asked the question “is it a cold or hay fever?” I think it might have been advertising a product called Dristan (an antihistamine). Even in those days, people were suffering from allergies, and sought treatment.

I titled this column “Anticipating the First Frost,” because that is when most of the trees and plants will go dormant for the winter after the first “killing frost.”

I always hope that time brings me some relief but generally those warm weather allergies are replaced by new ones. These include the dust that our furnaces push through the ducts to keep us warm.

Allergies are like life I guess. They are with us all the time. Luckily for you readers I have those towels handy. If not for them my keypad and screen on the computer would need cleaning from my explosive sneezing!