And Now for Something Completely Different

And no, it's neither the Spanish Inquisition (bet you weren't expecting that), nor the Ministry of Silly Walks.

Nope, this one is about allergies.

But wait, you might say, you've talked about allergies before, so it's not something completely different. I have, because usually allergies lead to sinus infections. Sinus infections lead to bronchitis. Bronchitis leads to suffering. Thus is the Power of Cottonwood Pollen the Dark Side.

This one is about the science of hay-fever-type (or "seasonal allergic rhinitis") allergies. In easily-accessible English, with lots of pop-culture references and links, because that's how I roll.

I know, as I have been doing this for a long time (since 1994 or 1995, the first time I got pneumonia and ended up with asthma thereby), that it's not what we think of as cottonwood (really one of several types of poplar) "pollen" (really seed pod puffs); they're just the visual sign that this has been brewing for several weeks.

See, the boy trees have been spreading their pollen around (isn't that just like a man?) for about three weeks. And by the time the girl trees release their pretty white puffs, those of us with seasonal allergic rhinitis have started hitting the overload point; our systems just go, "Uh-uh, that's a big nope!" We get all overreact-y to the stuff we've been breathing for weeks (and whatever else we can normally handle when we haven't been breathing boy-pollen for weeks, like whey for me) and the sniffling, sneezing, coughing, stuffy head, (but not usually aching or fever) begin. (As a side note, in tenth grade, my partner and I did that commercial in Spanish. We got an A.)

For those of us with asthma, it's even more exciting, of course, which is why my initial plan for today - to work around the house and yard until I reached my step goal - did not happen. Can't breathe easily, therefore can't walk much. So I did the dishes and some laundry and job-hunting instead. Indoor stuff. And I'm not even talking about food allergies, which as we know around here can be actually deadly, not just make you feel like death.

I did everything right; I've been taking the preventive stuff since March. But still and all, with a warm and dry (for us) spring, the system can still get overwhelmed. And as it's just a miserable allergy, not a serious one, Benadryl does well in a pinch.