So a lot of airlines now don’t have nuts theoretically because too many people are deahly allergic to them.  I think it’s actually the airlines being cheap, but hey, in this case let me give them the benefit of the doubt.

Airlines allow people to bring pets on board though.  Yes, I can mitigate my allergy, but having had an asthma attack while on allergy meds, I’d prefer not to find out if they are working in the recycled air of a plane full of allergens miles above civilization.  The best is that even though regulations usually require a pet to be in a cage, people always take them out and play with them, pass em around, and flight attendants do nothing.

I don’t understand why planes still allow this, especially in these times of cutbacks.  If I can’t even bring luggage, why can people still bring Meowzers?

We went back to 50 degrees and rainy, making me do a happy dance.  However allergens did not leave with summer weather.  Math problem: Q. If today is a .2 in pollen count and I feel bad, and Sat. is an 8.9, how bad will I feel this weekend? A. Really, really bad.

I hate that there is no pollen count broken down anything more specific than “trees=number.”  Perhaps allergists don’t want you to have more specific info than that so you’ll go in?  I have no idea.

I am sure everyone at this point is like, “Shut the fuck up about your allergies.” but I have never been this bad on just a day to day basis.  I thought this was supposed to be getting better, not worse.

Is there a place I can move with less vegetation and fewer trees than NYC?  Because clearly there’s too many here, as I want to poke myself in the eye every 12 seconds.  Stupid trees.

Dear Allergies,

Though I deeply respect your interest in the recreation of Classical Greek drama,  it is really unnecessary to use your powers to make me want to constantly claw out my own eyes.  Pick on some other schmo.  Maybe one who has slept with their mother.

Toodles,

~J

I just listened to an old NPR interview with Jens Lekman which pointed out that his “I’m Leaving You Because I Don’t Love You Anymore” is a love song to a girl with an asthma inhaler!

so pick up your asthma inhaler
and put it against your lips
oh, those lips i’ve loved that i was dreaming of
they’re still red and soft
i’m so sorry i couldn’t love you enough
so sorry i couldn’t love you enough

Lyrics here. Previously.

Today my allergist told me not to “pig out on fruit.” Is that technically possible? Isn’t pig out only available for foods that are BAD for you?

My recent allergic reaction to fruit basically points out that I am quickly becoming more allergic to everything most people consider good for you. Fresh air? Trees? Pretty flowers? Something I am supposed to eat 7-10 servings of a day? Any living non-human companion? Get them away!

Hey at least I’ll be eating steak when they put me in the bubble.

I have frequently lamented that allergies are the one dork thing that will never be cool. But MC Chris is trying, god bless him. He has referred to his inhaler before, and robot dog mentions being allergic to all breeds of dog, but this reference in his new song melted my little dorky heart:

She’s wordy and verbose
Prolific and prone to prose
Always sick and has a cold
Stuffed nose she’s got to blow
I’ve got many cold remedies, many old enemies
I’ve got a girl that kick their ass like River from Serenity

–Nerrrd Grrrl

I know I am a librarian, and thus know far too many people with them, but apparently it’s illegal to write a blog post today if it isn’t about cats.  Did anything happen today for anyone that doesn’t involve cats?  I was allergic all day at work, and now I am wondering if it’s because of Official Cat Day.  Anyone who has a not cat story to share, please blow up the comments.

Regarding my pets, my new Scooba is broken.  We’re getting him a new tank.  iRobot customer service rocked out.  I still haven’t named the new Scooba, but please feel free to offer names for Fido’s brother!  Perhaps Kitty?

finally, asthma is cool.

I had my first allergy attack from my shots today so I had to go back in and get shots of adrenaline to be able to breathe and not have hives again.  Now I just want to punch people and run around in circles.  I should watch “Crank” while like this, though I think I would not have the attention span.
AHHHHHHHHHHHRGH!

For those of you who are allergic, this is a very interesting ranking of the Top 100 worst places for people with seasonal allergies.  When moving to a new place most people don’t think about this aspect, so it’s interesting.  I think it’s a little bunk, since I would assume rural areas would be worse than cities (i.e. if, like me, you are allergic to hay or corn pollen) but none are listed…that makes no sense.  I thought it would be more regionally clustered, but it really isn’t.
I think a lot is made of food allergies and seasonal allergies, but not much for those of us that have constant allergies.  For example, it would be great to know the cities that had the least number of trees, pollution, and animal ownership.  I don’t know how you’d measure it, but I’d like to know the places that least allow animals in public buildings.  I can’t really shop somewhere that does because even if I can take being in the store itself, I don’t want to bring tainted goods back home!

Today I met my new allergist.  He is very hilarious.  Apparently he also does comedy.  And he went to high school with Woody Allen, now making me TWO degrees from Woody!  Woo!

In addition to my usual allergies, he tested me for food allergies.  I had never been tested for those.  Apparently I am minorly allergic to shellfish.  This is so minor he said I can go on eating it, which is good because shellfish is definitely in my top 5 favorite things to eat.  The food I am most allergic to, tho again, not seriously enough to give up, is canteloupe.

Canteloupe is, to my mind, one of the worst foods ever.  I cannot imagine why people like this fruit.  I have always found it repulsive.  In fact, recently, I tried some in an effort to see if I still find it disgusting.  Oh, and I do.  That whole canteloupe and proscuttio thing?  What a good way to ruin ham.

So I would think it was this allergy that has made me hate canteloupe my whole life, but I love the shellfish so much.  It’s interesting that it happened on foods I have such diametrically opposed feelings about.

Other than that, my trip was mainly (though not wholly) painless.  And I was rightly chastised for going without asthma meds for so long.  And for being a librarian.  Although the allergist did salute my choice to be a digital librarian and not deal with dusty books.  Finally, he thought I was mainly allergic to Illinois and applauded my move. And then he said he’d be my dope pusher.  No, literally, that’s what’s he said.
So I am back on the shots!

I have had allergies for about 16 years now.  There are some great medicines OTC now, but when I was in high school, pseudoephedrine and Benadryl was pretty much all there was.  Both of these can be deadly when drinking, so they kept me off the sauce through high school.  However, I bought about a pack a week of pseudoephedrine which made my face not run uncotrollably, made day to day living bearable, and allowed me to spend a little time at houses with animals without falling asleep.  Benadryl would allow me to do all these things, but usually it would also result in me falling asleep on the closest couch.

Now though there are great non-drowsy antihistamines, and, as such I have not bought pseudoephedrine in years.  Due to not being able to take antihistamines though for the next couple of days (at the request of my allergist), I ran to the pseudoephedrine.  And buying it was like I was trying to get a gun or something.  I was looked at shadily, asked for ID, and I had to give my address.  While I understand meth is bad and all, this is a pretty ridiculous procedure for buying ONE pack of pseudoephedrine.

And it made me realize that the OTC allergy meds that kept me a non-drinker in high school would now be ILLEGAL for me to buy underage.  What a pain that would have been, to not be able to buy allergy medicine when my parents weren’t around.  I honestly would have had to get older kids to buy it for me, or suffer in snotty misery.  Funny that by making a useful, non-recreational drug illegal for underage kids, you could drive them to illegal recreational drugs.  Go war on drugs, go!

So I needed to get my allergist records transferred to my new allergist.  Simple, right?  No.  My previous doctor’s office doesn’t FAX records.  I have never heard of this.  Not even to other doctors.  In addition, if they mail it to you, it is a 20-30 dollar charge.  I could understand a nominal fee for mailing, but THIRTY dollars?  That is in addition to the 84 cents per page of copying.  What kind of random number is that?

So I had friend pick them up and fax them to me.  They didn’t ask him for a release form, or for any ID to ascertain he was the person there to pick them up.  So much for thinking the whole no FAX thing was for record safety.  And in addition, they gave him all of my records, including pap smears and physical therapy.  And most of the pages were duplicates.  So basically, they padded the price.

So in case you know anyone who goes to the Christie Clinic in Champaign, if you know their birthdate and are willing to cough up cash, you can get their hospital records!  That makes me feel safe!

Have you even walked by a building knowing that if you went inside, you would be killed?

That’s been my situation to and from work yesterday and today as the Westminster Kennel Club has taken over the Madison Square Garden right by my workplace. The best part today was seeing people carry VERY large dogs so they wouldn’t get their feet sullied.  What might they get their feet sullied on?  Dogshit.  It’s everywhere.  Way to go, show dogs/owners.

Today I saw the largest cockroach I have seen outside of the zoo….at work. On the 15th floor. I wonder if other cockroaches are jealous of high rise cockroaches. Do New York’s cockroaches have the same sense of cachet assigned to real estate?

The rodeo is in town. And by in town, I mean two blocks away from my workplace. So today I gleefully checked out all the PBR trucks. I so want to go to the rodeo but I am off my allergy meds so it seems like a disasterous idea.

I think having chronic/life threatening allergies and asthma is, in some ways, like being bi-polar. I don’t say this to make BPD seem less bad, but because they require the same sort of maintence and dilligence. You do a lot of drugs religiously. It’s a pain. You always want to go off the drugs because much of the time they don’t seem worth it. After a while, you start to think they have no effect. You have to see doctors ALL THE TIME and it’s fairly time consuming as well as expensive. It limits where you can go and how long you can be in a place. And, theoretically, it only works for good after many, many years of treatment. I am off my meds (most of them), and it’s pretty miserable. In addition to general allergy suffering, my asthma is omnipresent. I feel out of breath irrationally a lot, and it’s not an “oh i just rantoo much” out of breath, it’s a “oh i can’t expand my lungs” out of breath. I super hate it. But it isn’t until hitting allergy bottom with little to no meds that I realized how much the meds WERE doing for me. A lot of times it doesn’t seem worth the rigamarole, but now it does!

I have decided pretty much to go to SxSW. It will be contingent on maybe one thing, but a friend offered his couch and I would really REALLY love a vacation outside of family. If you will be there, let me know! yay for real mexican food. I mean after this sort of experience last year:

how can I resist?