Anyone else also feeling crap?

Anyone else ill and feeling downright miserable? I am rarely ill but since the last week my sinuses are stuffed up, my chest tight and coughing my guts up (but nothing comes up)

<bunged-up sniff>

Any suggestions how to treat this at home?

More Helles!

Welcome to Spring. Sounds like non-specific allergic rhinitis. Well, at least that is what the docs call it when you haven't had an allergic skin test and still have the Spring and Fall symptoms of allergies that last about 3-5 weeks as you get accustomed or the crap is gone.

Drink sparkly mineral water, it loosens the phlegm and replaces lost minerals (duh!). Pour a quart of boiling water over six camomile tea bags in a metal (or plastic) bowl, stick your head under a towel covering the bowl, your head and shoulders and inhale. This liquidizes the phlegm and is good for your skin, too. Eat lots of chicken soup, keep your feet warm and the room cool. Get lots of fresh air.
Lucky me, I only had a stomach bug for a week.

I am but it has nothing to do with my health.

Sarabyrd, that works for a few hours only. There is only one way to get through this and that is to get the nasen spray which is addictive. If you have this as bad as I do, then one bottle will last you about a week. All this will do is allow you to breath during the day. Anithistamines and other such drugs will help too, but they too are addictive and over time requires larger doses. All this is because you are only treating the symptoms and not the cause. As long as you only do it once or twice a year for a couple of weeks, you will be ok. Be careful though, all this shit is addictive.

eating locally made honey also helps (I'm told) as it introduces local pollen to your system.

Now I come to think of it, I was ill the same time last year with the same symptoms - am sure that was to do with the excessive yellow pollen... is it Birch?
Is there a preventative vaccine available or do you just have to suffer?

two of us at the office were sneezing all day... seems a nasty pollen in the air setting us off, or maybe it was just the office, doesn't seem as bad since I got home.

Hello All,

Husband very ill last 4 weeks. eventually diagnosed with severe Hay Fever (never had it before)
Was informed by Specalist here in Nurnberg that an especially bad strain has been doing the rounds in Russia and mostly southern Germany.
(He was really bad and i was at home in scotland worrying as he sounded absolutely terrible and there were nights i couldn't stay on phone listening to him suffering)
He also developed a nut & fruit alergy (had a kiwi fruit and ended up looking like Will Smith in Hitch!!!) SO be carefull - luckily he had a tablet to take when his throat closed up!
I am back now and he is better (thank God!) but were given very good info on this. If you need anymore - PM me and i'll fill you in.
Yes "Hydroskater" you were right.
There are different types - his is Birch Tree pollin related which should be dying out now.
Nose spray is best as someone said - good eye drops too and obviously an anti-hystamine.

yep, we are like this too - scratchy throat and snuffles and cough...I thought all the pollen was out already :-( think there's a bit of a cold going about too...

I get hay fever every year, but this year has been cruel. I feel its clearing up now, but April was hell. The rain over the last few days has helped by flushing the pollen out of the air.

Throat is killing me, feel tired and just generally run down. Bloody plants!

I had the same symptoms and this is what a pulmonologist prescribed me:
1xday ACC600- to clear up the chest
3xday Cetirizin- antihistamine
4xday Jurik Spray which has cortisone derivatives which will act locally and prevent the symptoms (simila brands you can buy at your local pharmacy are Beclometason, Budesonid and Dexamethason.
I can proudly say I have no symptoms anymore. You should go to a Pulmonologist asap and let her/him prescibe you such a spray, the other drugs I listed are OTC.

My doctor prescribed last year:

3xday GeloMyrtol forte
1xday Mucosolvan

Dug them out again and they seem to be relieving the symptoms. I think that the rain will really help clear the air now - thank God!

I also find sucking on Dolo-Dobendans really help with sore throats and have an anti-septic effect

Get well soon to those of you who are alst still suffering...

Never suffered from hay fever before in my life but for the last few weeks have been having just the symptoms you describe plus feeling like someone has poured sand into my eyes.

Did someone pour sand into your eyes perhaps? (just a thought )

Sneezing has stopped and the dermatitis is goining down - my eyelid kept splitting open which was lovely - but now the athsma is back.
Feel worse now then when I was puffing on the fags.

I am Flabbergasted!!!

Geees, the kids of today!

I'm having severe allergy problems this year, too. At first I thought it was a cold but I don't think so anymore. I don't usually sneeze so much with colds. My eyes feel puffy too. Woe is me.

the rain should wash all that pollen out of the air and give you sufferers a break for a while.

Maybe it can wash my car, too.

For some reason the rain isn't helping my allergies one bit.


Seems like a lot of people who have never suffered before are suffering this year. Strange.

Damn! I thought it was a scratchy throat from sleeping with the window open the other night and that my contact lenses weren't cleaned properly. I have never had allergy problems, but the sore throat and scratchy eyes and similiarity with everyone elses symptoms is making me wonder

Anyone know a good allergy-doctor? I think my youngest kiddo needs seen to now as well.

yep, we really stuffed up on monday and red runny eyes, but this rain has cleared that up for me. I feel great again.

I got all the sandy eyeballs and actually blisters in my mouth too. And the eyelid-splitting problem in the last week. Is that all connected to the plants etc etc ? Are is it that we are just generally run down and not getting enough Helles to help ignore it all. Maybe the lack of beergarden this week...

That sounds pretty bad...maybe if you're getting mouth lesions you should check you haven't developed a wheat/nut/beer allergy...just a thought...

I'm suffering from allergies too. Ran out of my Fluconase prescription that really helped, so took some Sudafed a few minutes ago as that's all I had in my medicine cabinet. Have you heard about the neti pot? Never tried it, but I've heard this is what a lot of doctors in the states recommend to help with allergies. Here's a link with more info.

http://www.healingdaily.com/exercise/neti-pot.htm

Well they sell these at the local DM Markt or Rossmarkt, I mean not this brand but it functions the same way as neti pot.

Happens in reverse too. Germans that go to the States suddenly have allergies and think it is a cold and then blame the air conditioners for it.

On the rarer occasion that it actually is a cold, it was most likely contracted during the flight over and still has nothing to do with the damn AC!

Here you go:

Hay-fever is an allergic reaction, not a virus or a bug.

I assumed when i read it they were talking about an especially bad species pollen-wise...

Now that I read it again though...

BTW, that local honey thing has worked wonders for me...at least until it started raining...bizarre.

Yeah, I've been worse since it started raining - not the actual hay fever symptoms, but more of a chesty cough and swollen sinuses ie. generally feeling pretty crap, worse than the hay fever!

Been feeling like shit since lunch time...suddenly started sneezing non stop, runny nose (now look like rudolph!), sore itchy throat, mega itchy eyes...looks like I've been balling solid for 2 days I too thought the rain would help...seems to be worse. Stopped taking the antihistamine a couple of days ago...big mistake. Eye drops and tablets have made a reappearance...

Everyone at work today was giving me a wide berth despite my explanations that my symptoms were allergy based and I didn't have a cold!

I had the worst hay fever this year I have ever add. Gave up using the nasal spray as it made me worse and after doing some research it seems that this can cause your nose to run even more. I found once I stopped using the nasal spray and just stuck with the antihistamine it was better, only took one pill per night Cetirizin- but after 2 weeks trying to get off them. The first week was the worse but now week 3 although I still have it after being forced to take a train on a business trip to Milan instead of the plane as my sinuses were so bad - it seems to be getting better. This year definitely though the worst in years.

mine's definitely a coughing cold now

must be lots of it going about

OMG! Today is a killer...I think my lungs aren't hapy with the prolonged allergy either...got tight raspy breathers...lovely, reminds me of when I used to smoke...

Aye, suffering today too.

Me too...

I might just have an allergy to the taxi I caught last night

Will a glass of wine make me feel better? (noting that I have to get some work done tonight). I have now got sinus medication and allergy tablets and have taken aleve and extra magnesium etc etc etc. and I still feel like my head is going to blow up while my body is shivering. Never had allergies before, oh what fun I have been missing out on

I have a cold.

I do not like having a cold.

Having a cold makes me bitter and twisted.

Somebody ate all the lemons. The shops are shut. I have had three quadruple Pusser's Navy Rums with honey in hot water in the last three hours.

Somebody must be responsible for my cold.

Can I kill something now?

_{NOTE: If I appear cranky and irritable tonight it is because I have a cold. So fuck you.}

I have marmite.

I have a cold or an allergy or a weird bacteria attack released by Carm's assult on my teeth this afternoon.

But I have Marmite.

God knows what to do with it. I certainly don't.

Oh, and I have red wine - don't know if it's helping or not... feeling rather goofy now.

I cannot say the "M" word in this forum. I cannot say the "S" word either. I have been warned.

Excuse me while I go and beat the shit out of something.

What's the "S" word?

I was just pm'd to drown marmite in bovril -- since I don't know exactly what bovril is, I am assuming this is not good??

Right. Now there is a dead weeping fig on the balcony in a zillion pieces. I feel better already.

Can you please stop mentioning "M"? I will deal with the problem in my own way.

M? MMMMM hhmmmmmm, yummmmmmmm, MMMMM.

Shame though, it seems to be collecting dust here. Does it cure allergies?

It is advised not to use the usual nasal sprays - they work in the short term but they dry out the lining of the nose and sinuses and so doesn't really help... I find that the salt water nasal sprays help...

Actually, I have a nasal wash thingy here - looks like an enima for the nose - which has always freaked me out but looks very tempting tonight ...

DDBug, I need my "M". Do you have any interesting CDs arrived yet? Mme Sin is out on a mother's (girl's) weekend, so it remains a pissabolity that I might saunter into town with Sin Jnr on the weekend, although Saturday I will be either at the zoo or the seaworld (on a freebie) depending on the weather.