If you live in the southeastern part of the United States you know that this is the time for pollen. Not just a little pollen like they used to have in my home state of Pennsylvania but major pollen so bad that the cars turn yellow with the stuff. And of course with the pollen comes a reaction to my meniere’s disease.
When I first moved to Atlanta in 1983 I didn’t realize that pollen was such a problem down here. That first April pollen that I saw really freaked me out! It looked like someone had painted my car yellow. Some one calmly told me that was normal for this time of the year. Atlanta like other Southern locations has a lot of pine trees and pine trees have a lot of pollen. The pollen season in the spring usually lasts for a couple of weeks.
The pollen really seems to have an effect on my eyes which in turn, I believe affects my vision. For me my visual stimulus is an important factor with my balance. An unsteady balance is a cause for concern with meniere’s sufferers. In the past week I have had some close encounters of the meniere’s kind where I thought that an attack was imminent, luckily it wasn’t.
I’m still taking my usual meds and supplements for meniere’s and I have been taking a benadryl at night. I have to be careful with the benadryl because it almost acts like a sleeping pill for me which is bad news if you have sleep apnea like I do. But the benadryl does seem to help and hopefully it will get me through this pollen season.
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Sunday, April 11, 2010
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4 comments:
It made me feel good to read this post. My doctor thinks I am nuts because I told her pollen makes my menieres symptoms worse. I currently take Zyrtec, Astelin and Flonaise and I'm still miserable from March to June. It also affects my eyes and vision. It isn't so bad in the morning, but by 1-2 in the afternoon I can hardly keep my eyes open. They water and burn and swell. It's good to know I'm not alone or crazy!
You are definitely not crazy I have heard from others who find the pollen season a difficult time to deal with their meniere's.
Thanks for the comment and stay in touch
David
I'm not sure what the connection between Meniere's and pollen is, but for me there have been some correlations. In 2007, the year after I was hit with the illness, I found that it subsided around the end of April. This was about the time I started taking my hayfever meds and I thought maybe that was helping. I was hopeful I could self-medicate, but the problems returned in the autumn.
Last year I felt my condition worsening from the beginning of April, but proper attacks started when I was visiting Hungary at the beginning of May and there was loads of pollen flying around in the air (as you describe David, and different from what we get in the UK).
This year I find I have hayfever hardly at all and I'm not taking the tablets. This is the first time in quite a few years (I didn't have it when I was younger, only contracting it as an adult). I thought maybe the positive changes I had made in my diet were helping, but in any case my Meniere's is pretty good these last few weeks. I hope it continues and doesn't switch back come the autumn!
Jeff,
There really does seem to be a connection between pollen and meniere's, I am not sure why though.
I am glad to hear that your meniere's is doing better hopefully mine will get better after the gent injections
take care and thanks for the comment
David
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