I've been 'sniffly' my entire life. I have clear animal allergies and hayfever. But I'm sneezy all year round. So sure, that probably includes dust as well.
In recent years, my allergies have got a lot worse. I have good days, days where I'm allergic but there's an obvious trigger (like high pollen or visiting a cat), and days where all of a sudden I get 'allergic' and cannot pinpoint why. Often but not always it's evening time and my nose will just start uncontrollably running. Sometimes my face and roof of my mouth are itchy too. There may or may not be loads of sneezing. Absolutely nothing makes it better until I go to bed, where I sometimes feel better the next day, sometimes need another day to recover.
I can't explain to normal people how debilitating this is. I make jokes about 'nose tampons' but in reality if the allergy thing hits and say I want to stay awake for an hour because I have something to do, I have to sit there with tissue up my nose, the running is so constant. I can never predict when I'm going to have an episode - it's ruined so many weekends.
Yesterday we had a chinese takeaway to celebrate a wedding anniversary - no reaction during the meal - but in the ten mins after I knew I was going to have a bad night. Constant snot. Brain fog from all the sneezing and snot so couldn't enjoy TV or read or write. Basically had to go to bed .
Could it be high histamines in the food? A specific reaction? There's been times when it's happened nowhere near around a meal.
I have never seriously seen a doctor about my allergies - when I've enquired over the years they've just said to take antihistamines. But when one of these episodes hits me nothing touches the side - citirizine, loratadine, allevia, etc. Chlorphenamine seems to help when I'm mildly sniffly but not when I get hit like last night.
I'd like to get an advice on a regime and the max medication I can take. What else could I be taking? I've heard you can get 180g of the drug that's in Allevia. I have tried clarinaze but it made my nose go red so I stopped taking it. Is there an alternative?
I could access a private GP through some work health insurance but it doesn't cover existing illnesses. I reckon I could get a prescription through them but no referrals. So wondering if I actually should try to speak to a regular GP in case I persuade someone about a proper investigation.
At the same time, I don't know how to say to my doctor I want to have a proper chat about it? As it's not seen as 'serious' I've never had an appt just about my hayfever. Will they think I'm wasting their time?
Wonder if I should fill out an econsult form and ask - is there a GP who specialises in allergies and could I speak to them? The receptionists usually aren't very helpful in person/on phone sadly.
Sorry this is long. At end of my tether and fed up of my whole family seeing me with tissues up my nose.