How invincible does one think she can be? I mean, come on, how can one tiny little plant defeat the strong, mindful (senseless) individual that suffers from allergies only ONE time a year. Having never been diagnosed with exactly which allergen is the culprit, docs and I have narrowed it down to "Common Ragweed," which comes into "bloom" in late summer (aka: usually mid-August thru early October once the first freeze comes). The journey of allergy symptoms started around Monday this week with just a little itchy eye---nothing serious. Having been outside running on and off all week, with very little allergy problems, I figured I was "okay" to mow a little of the lawn yesterday. After an hour, and only a little sneezing while on the mower, I finished up the section I had set out to mow (mainly the front part with the girls' play area, and along the driveway). I then headed back inside to see how supper plans were coming (DH was making meatloaf and mashed potatoes). AND then....
BAM! Onslaught!!!!
Itchy eyes-----and I'm talking "can't-stop-itching-long-enough-to-see-what-food-is-going-into-my-mouth." I'm talking "running-to-the-bathroom-grabbing-a-cold-wash-cloth-inbetween-men's-marathon-commercials-and-peeking-at-the-race-every-few-seconds-because-I-don't-want-to-remove-the-cooling-refreshing-cloth-from-my-eyes." I'm talking "watery-eyes-making-it-look-like-I-was-watching-the-end-of-"Titanic"-when-Jack-disappears-under-the-water-and-Rose-is-repeating-"I'll-never-let-you-go,-Jack" I'm talking "runny-nose-taking-over-control--using-up-an-entire-kleenex-box-within-an-hour."
And the next morning???? I'm talking "matted-eyes-and-caked-nose-from-continued-onslaught-during-a-toss-n-turn-packed-night-of-attempted-sleep!"
Oh, did I fail to say that that one tiny little plant has now completely taken over our entire lawn?!?!?!?---ONLY now knowing this because I've done a google for what it looks like! Seriously, there was a HUGE batch of it along the edge of our driveway----I remember distinctly because I thought..."hmmm....weeds have really taken over here and I don't remember seeing this weed before." DUH!!!!!!!!
Upon googling the weed, I came across another fellow who clearly suffers from the same allergen. Steven's post from last season says it all.....
OK, the rain has finally fallen in Lees Summit, settling enough of the ragweed pollen to allow me to emerge from my Benadryl induced coma to resume writing on my blogs.
And I'm here to say the first presidential candidate that promises me to wipe Ragweed from the face of the earth, and means it, will have my vote. Even if it is Ron Paul or even Hillary Clinton. I'll even volunteer to pay my share of increased taxes to see it happen.
I know it's not PC to advocate the total destruction of a poor defenseless plant, but I say ragweed is far from defenseless, if it was defenseless it would have been wiped out long ago.
No, I'm not alone in my suffering, Millions of people, everywhere suffer from it's form of biological warfare, and I think that it gets worse each and every year. I dare a single environmentalists to do an ecological study and tell me what possible good ragweed does for humans, animals or even other plants.
I say we create a genetically engineered bug that will feed exclusively on ragweed plant, then release it to devastate the earths ragweed population. Once ragweed is wiped out, think of how much money will stop flowing into the coffers of the evil drug companies, doctors and klennex manufactures.
Thats right, destroying ragweed will save trees, far fewer klennex, maybe even help save the world from Global Warming. If we can cure cancer we can wipe out ragweed and end its biological war on us poor semi-defenseless humans.
Sorry everyone---I really only wanted to put in a key paragraph of his post, but I couldn't pick just one little bit. And if anyone else suffers from this ANNOYING, TROUBLESOME, BLASTED plant, then I'm sure you share mine (and Steven's) opinion!!
One final thought
Dare I say that DH warned me before hand????? As if I'm not suffering enough now, but he had to rub it in with "I told you so!."
*sigh* *grin*
I guess he's allowed to be right at least once a year :0)
So sorry to hear about the allergies. My son is a sufferer as well. He once had them so bad that he rubbed his eyes black requiring an emergency trip to the local doc-in-a-box on a Sunday. He called the "allergy shiners" and said they were not at all uncommon. We give him Claritin every day now and it's never been that bad again. I hate medicating kids in general, but we don't have much choice in this case. We tried Zyrtec and it made everyone grumpy. At least you know it's seasonal. And it is a reason to make your husband clear out all the weeds for you.
ReplyDeleteMy son just started using Nasonex because he was so miserable. I have allergies too and take a Claritin D nearly every day to avoid my head feeling like it is going to explode. Darned allergies!
ReplyDeleteOh, poor you, how miserable you must be feeling. I suffer from year round rhinitis, which gets a little worse during hay fever season, but nothing as bad as you describe. I remember my elder son once had a severe reaction to long grass (commando crawling through it didn't help) when he was about 7 and the only thing the doctor was able to do was to medicate him so strongly that he slept for 4 days until the weals had gone down. Is that an option?
ReplyDeleteIf I didn't know any better, I would have thought you were writing about ME!! I haven't had it "officially" diagnosed, but I'm thinking ragweed is my nemesis also. It started a couple weeks ago and goes until there is a freeze. I'm with Steven, let's eradicate these suckers! I'm just thankful I don't have year-round allergies. I take Singulair and Nasonex. Flonase did nothing for me. Hope you feel better!
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