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Pollen: Texas ongoing thread

miguelito

By miguelito
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wild_turkey
wild_turkey

Ophthalmologist here with a little info about allergy eye drops… Avoid anything with a redness reliever. This includes Opcon-A, Naphcon-A, anything with naphazoline in it, and generally most Visine a

Brisketexan
Brisketexan

I think I saw "Cedar Pollen-Infused Snot" play at Raoul's back in the day.  They were loud.

WithoutAClue
WithoutAClue

Allergy count for Jan. 16, 2024.

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Samson's Wig

Samson's Wig 3167

Posted
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I just ride the daily Claritin D train along with daily Flonase starting mid December through the end of February every year.  Keeps it manageable, although still miserable.  The worst is the lack of sleep from the decongestants raising heart rate.  The Opcon allergy eye drops posted above are a life saver as well. 

I really just want to move away from here (at least during cedar season) but I keep losing the argument. 

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miguelito

miguelito 11168

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I hope the trees are about spent, but I still see lots of yellow in the branches.  We'll see what the front today does as it blows through. 

The total count so far this year is 179,840.  The high total count over the last 5 years is 300,540; the low was 153,220.  Average is about 230,000.  

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MontereyMX

MontereyMX 843

Posted
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On 12/16/2021 at 1:50 PM, High Plains Drifter said:

 

asshole upwind neighbor was cutting/clearing cedar the other day. From the road, I could see a sideways cone shaped cloud of cedar pollen going straight from his chainsaw to completely encompassing my house. 

 

If I killed the guy, y'all think a jury would let me walk?

 

yes

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SA-KC_Horn

SA-KC_Horn 1293

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22 minutes ago, Poe It Up said:

For those of you that live in San Antonio, is the Cedar worse over there? I took the wife and kids to Fiesta Texas last week and it felt like a truck drove over my face, I mean there was a noticeable haze in the air. Cleared right up when I left, really weird stuff. 

I don't about others here in SA, but my face feels like:

arnold schwarzenegger eyes GIF

 

Like Brisket said, same timing and symptoms every year. The wetness and mold on top of this cedar sundae can go fuck itself.

 

 

 

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Hefeweizen

Hefeweizen 5306

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1 hour ago, AlbertGitchell said:

Track Austin's daily cedar measurements from EVERY local source, all in one place. Updated hourly. austinpollen.com/cedarseason.html

Hover or tap on the dots to see more details and exact measurements.

This is a personal project of mine. Comments and suggestions welcome.

spacer.png

Awesome.  More information on my misery than I ever needed!

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atomheartbevo

atomheartbevo 89303

Posted
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On 1/3/2022 at 6:29 PM, ztejas said:

Not sure what eye drops y'all use but these are the heavy duty ones that I prefer. They do burn like a motherfucker but they work. (I can always find the generic equivalent, too, just compare labels)

901519527_download(6).jpeg.e1e7c104e6babe3d7d4dc8803d8f96d2.jpeg

I finally bit the bullet.  Couldn't find those or the generics last night at the HEB I went to, found these on the shelf, grabbed them, and they made a huge difference.  With Flonase, Zyrtec, wearing a mask while out and about, and now eye drops, I'm going to make it through Juniper Hell on Earth Season.

visine-allergy-uoad.jpg

 

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ztejas

ztejas 43186

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On 1/17/2022 at 9:33 AM, atomheartbevo said:

I finally bit the bullet.  Couldn't find those or the generics last night at the HEB I went to, found these on the shelf, grabbed them, and they made a huge difference.  With Flonase, Zyrtec, wearing a mask while out and about, and now eye drops, I'm going to make it through Juniper Hell on Earth Season.

visine-allergy-uoad.jpg

 

Yeah it looks like it's almost the exact same ingredient profile. 

If your eyes are especially dry or irritated they should make you mutter an expletive a few seconds after putting them in. 

They were of great use to me in high school for non allergy-related reasons. 

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wild_turkey

wild_turkey 3146

Posted
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Not sure what eye drops y'all use but these are the heavy duty ones that I prefer. They do burn like a motherfucker but they work. (I can always find the generic equivalent, too, just compare labels)


Ophthalmologist here with a little info about allergy eye drops…

Avoid anything with a redness reliever. This includes Opcon-A, Naphcon-A, anything with naphazoline in it, and generally most Visine and Clear Eyes products. The redness reliever component will help with redness short term but it can cause more long term redness, poor control of symptoms, and generally has lower tolerability. Even if you feel like it helps, there are probably better options for you.

I recommend OTC Pataday Extra Strength 0.7% once daily. It is slightly more expensive but it is a superior medicine that both treats active symptoms and helps prevent future symptoms. You can get a 2-pack on Amazon for $24.

The next best OTC option is probably Zaditor (generic = ketotifen). It works fairly well and is less expensive, but it lasts about 8 hours and requires 2-3 times daily dosing. Honestly, just pay the extra for the Pataday and save yourself the anguish.

If you’re doing Pataday and still having problems, there are other treatments. A simple home remedy is to apply cool compresses or to keep a bottle of artificial tears (Refresh, Systane) in the refrigerator and use the cold eye drops. There are also lid wipes from OCuSoft (get the green allergy ones on Amazon) that may help.

If you’re doing all of that and still suffering, it’s probably time to visit your ophthalmologist or optometrist. They can sometimes prescribe eye drops (antihistamines, steroids, or other immune mediators) that can help more than OTC treatments, although most people do just fine with a combination of the things listed above.

Hope that helps.
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austingirl

austingirl 2180

Posted
Posted (edited)

We were in NYC the week after Christmas, so we missed that week of hell, but the day after we got back I tested positive for Covid. The next day, HornOnTheBayou tested positive, and after that, both our boys. I'm the only one of us allergic to cedar and I was shocked at how similar my covid symptoms were to cedar fever. The only difference, the thing that made me test, was that I got an actual fever. Symptoms flared back up about a week later but I think that was actual cedar, not some kind of covid double jeopardy. This past weekend was rough but today was much better.

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atomheartbevo

atomheartbevo 89303

Posted
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UT professor doing God's work

https://www.kxan.com/weather-traffic-qas/ut-professor-creates-possible-cedar-fever-cure-in-a-martini-glass/

UT professor creates possible cedar fever cure in a martini glass. Unfortunately the juniper we have problems with makes for shitty gin.

Quote

A classic drink is actually made from the plant that causes that dreaded allergic response in Central Texas — gin.

“Gin essentially, is a process where you take a vodka and you make it more interesting,” said University of Texas Biology Professor Molly Cummings. She has an interesting side hustle. “I’m a gin entrepreneur and founder and forger for WildGins Co.,” she said.

Quote

Cummings said that gin is made by taking vodka and then adding a bag of botanicals. The main botanical used is juniper.

“If there’s no juniper in that mix of botanicals, it is not a gin,” Cummings said.

Quote

“I went around the state of Texas and collected a variety of different juniper species. We have eight which is pretty remarkable,” Cummings said.

When Cummings sent a sample of our local juniper to her master distiller, “he told me you are never allowed to send that juniper to me ever again. It makes a horrid gin.”

Quote

Her gin company makes two gins — Wild June and Wild Bark. Each is made from a different juniper tree out in West Texas. The Alligator juniper from the David Mountains and the Red Berry juniper from near Marfa.

Cummings collects juniper berries for her gin. The pollen that causes allergic reactions for many of us isn’t included. Berries can be found on female trees, while the pollen is released by male juniper trees.

It can't be proven that this cures anything - no formal studies or anything, but

Quote

Cummings, who is a biologist and studies fish brains at the University of Texas, notes she is not a botanist or medical doctor, but “when I first moved to Austin, and I’ve been in Austin, 20 years, I suffered from cedar fever horribly. Now, as a scientist, I will tell you, you know, this is not a study, but I don’t suffer from cedar fever anymore. And guess what, I’ve drunk a lot of my gin.”

 

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miguelito

miguelito 11168

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21 Ideas To Get Quiet Teams Talking In Sprint Retrospectives

 

 

The oak leaves are falling, and cars are turning yellow.  But so far the actual oak counts have been low.  Too low.  The first reading (in San Antonio) was March 1.  Since then we've had 1 day over 1,000.  The total so far is under 6,000; the average total for a season is about 198,000.  We're usually out of the 1,000 counts by April 15-20.  So doing some math, we have a shitload of pollen to deal with in the next 3 weeks. 

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Texzilla58

Texzilla58 4704

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I was told for my first forty some odd years I was allergic to cedar and spruce trees, some grasses. Grew up in Memphis which might be the sinus infection Capitol of the world.

Anyway my sinuses got so bad I got grounded from air travel when I was flying 100k a year. Went to an allergist. He did hours of tests. The result: “you’re not allergic to shit”. Chronic vasiomotor rhinitis. Meaning I’m allergic to nothing but everything irritates the shit out of my sinuses. Sent me to a hotshot ENT. “I need to cut up your head!” Chopped a ton of small polyps out of my forehead. Chiseled bone out of the bridge of my nose. Cut out a bunch of my turbinates. Removed polyps the size of walnuts and apricots out of the sinuses over my teeth. Said I suspect you’ve had a single sinus infection twenty years, you just knock it down until it comes back.

Since then in 2000, I’ve had zero issues as long as I irrigate my sinuses a couple times a week. The best defense to allergies I believe is Flonase daily and daily sinus irrigation. The Navage is cool but I’ve reverted back to the squire bottle.

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miguelito

miguelito 11168

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Holy shit, dude.

That's good you got it figured out.  I seem to get minor sinus infections every winter.  I think some day I might need to get some work done. 

But for now, I also do the Flonase/nasal rinse/loritadine routine during cedar and oak seasons. 

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Texzilla58

Texzilla58 4704

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Came in to say this.  Yikes.  Glad it worked though!

The pain wasn’t bad from the surgery, especially after they took out the 4 miles of gauze they packed in my head. I will say it wasn’t near as bad as the searing pain in my upper teeth with a bad flare up.

What pisses me off were the parade of ents who looked up my nose and just said it’s allergies and wrote another script. Never saw my issues or did a ct scan.

That ENT said if folks would do Flonase daily plus daily saline irrigation and occasional mucinex if needed it would prevent 80% of non allergy caused sinus infections and 50% of allergic ones. He said the constant barrage of antihistamines/decongestants/antibiotics just fucked up mucus membranes which then fucked everything up.
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miguelito

miguelito 11168

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There's been yellow shit on everything for a while now, but San Antonio just recorded the first 10,000+ reading of oak today.  This is later than the last 10,000+ day in the last 7 years.  It's peaking late.

We usually get 5 to 8 10K days per season.

Our total for the year is about 43K; the running average is about 198K. 

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