Hay fever

[thebluehen]

I've suffered from hay fever all my life, as has my son.

Symptoms are itchy, watery eyes, itchy nose and throat, frequent sneezing. Eyes have been known to swell up so we can barely see out of them. I suffer during the grass pollination season usually around June for about a month or so. It's definitely an allergic reaction.

I keep hearing other people telling me they have hay fever at other times of the year, but they don't have any of the same symptoms. When I ask how they're suffering, they tell me they're a bit stuffy or sniffy. This is not my experience at all.

I can't help but wonder if they do actually have hay fever or if people do actually have different symptoms?

There are different types of hay fever and people suffer in different ways. How hard is that to understand? If I don't take hay fever tablets all year then I am permanently snuggly and bunged up with no sense of smell. I get it from January to late November, December is bearable.

I'd love to be snuggly but sadly I'm anything but, autocorrect didn't like snuffly. Gah.

I have hay fever, worse in the summer but starting in march and ending around October. I'm on the strongest prescription medication to keep it under control and still have to cover my hair and shower when I get inside from around June to mid August. My throat ulcerates in the summer from the irritation. Currently my meds get it down to a few sneezes and a congested nose at this time of year.

I have really quite severe hay fever, others have a more moderate reaction. They're just different scales of the same issue I think?

Of course people can have different symptoms and strength of symptoms.

I have suffered from hay fever all my life and even then some years are horrific for symptoms and other years are much milder.

My asthma plays up in hay fever season, so not only do I sneeze and my eyes swell, I struggle to breathe. My youngest is also a hay fever sufferer but thankfully much more mildly.

I also have different symptoms at different times of year. In June, I'm usually okay but that's because I've clawed my eyes out by the end of March due to bloody tree pollen.

From March I’m sniffly constantly unless I take a hay fever tablet and that’s unlike about September/October. Different people different pollens and different symptoms

I have hay fever and suffer the same symptoms as you during grass season and also when in contact with other things I’m allergic to. I know quite a few people with hay fever and they all have these symptoms.
People who are a bit sniffy or stuffy just a bit sniffy or stuffy. Hayfever may start as a bit stuffiness but it never stops here, it develops into these symptoms which are listed on the NHS website. It’s pretty serious condition and can be quite life limiting so tbh I resent that for some it’s some sort of fashionable illness.

I get hay fever in March. Every year for about six weeks then it's gone. Mine has been confirmed by an allergy doctor. ⭐️

By your reckoning I should be wondering if you and your son actually have hay fever as your 'hay fever' is not the same as mine. Which is medically diagnosed.

This time of year is tree pollen and I have more of a problem with that, generally blocked sinuses, watery eyes and a scratchy throat.

Rape crop will be out soon and that gives me the above as well as a rash if really exposed. The time the field behind our house was planted with rape was hell.

I don't have so many issues with grass pollen but get a terrible rash if I sit bare legged on grass.......

There are loads of different pollens that can effect people in different ways.

I’m allergic to everything airborne; dust mites, cats, dog, pollen, trees etc.

I would push for a referral to your allergic clinic if it’s bad. It took me 10 years to be taken seriously, I had to have days off work and school as I would need to go to bed with the symptoms.

I have 180mg allergy tablets prescription and a few nasal sprays / eye drops / inhaler.

My dust allergy’s are all year round but worse In the winter. Im sure grass and trees start March / April and pollen slightly after if I remember correctly.

I had autoimmune therapy on the nhs as my dust mite allergy was so severe and omg it was life changing. Still have to cope with mild pollen and grass allergies but they are manageable.

Gah the tree pollen is killing me at the moment. Woke up at 3am sneezing 🤧

Later in the season my symptoms will ease.

@duvetdreaming are you sure you don’t have a dust mites allergy too? Sounds similar to me 😊

Depends what pollen triggers you. Some people are allergic to more than one type. My DSs hayfever is so severe that he was put on immunotherapy last year, which should hopefully cure him. My DH also has chronic hayfever but is too old to be offered the same treatment. He's on antihistamines from now until September.

[quote Sleepisoverrated150]@duvetdreaming are you sure you don’t have a dust mites allergy too? Sounds similar to me 😊[/quote]
I could do, no idea. Tbh I thought it was normal to constantly have a throat full of mucus until I was an adult, it's always been the case.

I think people use the term hay fever for any sort of allergy that results in similar symptoms. I get ‘hay fever’ but I don’t know exactly what causes it. It’s definitely much better in winter, but lasts most of spring and summer. I don’t get itchy eyes, but my nose drips constantly if I don’t take hay fever medication orally and nasally. What else am I supposed to call it?

As a child my hay fever was terrible with itchy eyes, wheezing etc. I regularly came home from school and dunked my face in a basin of cold water to get some relief. As an adult I still seem to get hay fever, but it’s mainly a bunged up nose which is relieved by using piriton spray up the nose.

@NailsNeedDoing

I think people use the term hay fever for any sort of allergy that results in similar symptoms. I get ‘hay fever’ but I don’t know exactly what causes it. It’s definitely much better in winter, but lasts most of spring and summer. I don’t get itchy eyes, but my nose drips constantly if I don’t take hay fever medication orally and nasally. What else am I supposed to call it?

On a different thread a pedant well meaning person told me I was silly to call it hay fever and that I must call it allergic rhinitis. Whatever...I call it hay fever even if it's trees or whatever.

I start with itchy eyes in about February. What I do not understand is why only one eye itches at a time, my DDs and DSs also have hay fever and they say the same, it's never both eyes. I also get sticky eye discharge which is horrible when I wake up in the morning.