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Pollen, Allergies


miguelito

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On 4/1/2018 at 1:23 PM, Grade of D as in David said:

Any recommendations for eye drops?

Ophthalmologist weighing in here. There are lots of different treatment options for eye allergies (allergic conjunctivitis). Starting with things that don’t require a prescription:

1. Cold compresses - let a cold wash cloth or a cold back rest over your eyes. Can help with itching but the drawback is inconvenience.

2. OTC antihistamine drops - my favorite is Zaditor (generic = ketotifen). Another option is Alaway. They can be used twice daily. Costs $10-15 for a bottle at most pharmacies.

3. Artificial tears - these can help with dry eyes and allergies. Good brands would be Systane, Refresh, Theratears, Blink, Genteal. They lubricate the eyes and can dilute histamine on the ocular surface, but don’t otherwise have any medication effects.

 

Moving onto eye drops that do require a prescription:

4. Prescription antihistamine eye drops - Pazeo, Bepreve, Pataday. These are excellent drops that work better than Zaditor or other OTC drops. They are an antihistamine but they also stabilize mast cells (which produce histamine), so they are both therapeutic and preventative. Their biggest drawback is cost. Cash price is ballpark $200 for a bottle. Insurance coverage is hit or miss and copays obviously vary a lot. For people with bad allergic conjunctivitis, if their finances allow it, they are the best option.

5. Steroid eye drops - Lotemax, Pred forte (generic = prednisolone). They will help significantly in the short term but benefit has to be weighed against side effect risk, so definitely reserved for the worst cases.

 

Finally, a couple other treatments you may wonder about:

OTC redness reliever eye drops - I do NOT recommend these. Examples would be Visine-A, Naphcon-A, and Clear Eyes. In general, I don’t like most of the Visine or Clear Eyes products. Most drops with a redness reliever have a decongestant as an active ingredient. This constricts blood vessels on the ocular surface to relieve redness, which works temporarily but your eyes will quickly develop dependence and tolerance and you will get rebound redness and irritation. It’s the eye equivalent of Afrin. Avoid these things entirely. If you are already hooked on Visine, then try throwing it away and switch yourself to something else listed above. You will feel worse for a while but you will eventually get past it.

Oral antihistamines - Benadryl, Zyrtec, etc. These are obviously very helpful for treating systemic allergies but surprisingly don’t do a lot for many people with allergic conjunctivitis. Also, they will dry you out, which means any underlying dry eye can get worse. Not the end of the world in many cases, but just be cognizant that if your eyes are already having dryness, your Zyrtec is increasing that and you will have to be more aggressive with dry eye treatment.

Edited by wild_turkey
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Damn, I had no idea about eye-drop addictions.  Pretty crazy.

 

Meanwhile, oak is just about done here in San Antonio.  But molds are pretty high now, and everyone's been mowing their lawns, so grasses are also high.  I've got a nice little tickle in my throat.  Doc, are cough drops addictive?

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rain? what scattered rain. had one evening last week where it actually rained. every other rain event is a misting at best, a cloudy day at worst, and i think is just generally creating an environment where the pollen gets to be buoyed up by all the bitch ass humidity that can't figure out out to become rain. 

i see 60% today and 100% friday. so maybe it will finally rain if i crunch the numbers right

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On 5/3/2018 at 10:50 AM, staboner said:

rain? what scattered rain. had one evening last week where it actually rained. every other rain event is a misting at best, a cloudy day at worst, and i think is just generally creating an environment where the pollen gets to be buoyed up by all the bitch ass humidity that can't figure out out to become rain. 

i see 60% today and 100% friday. so maybe it will finally rain if i crunch the numbers right

100% friday. i thank you rain overlords. i thank you

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Only thing that you can buy OTC that I've found that works for me is Allegra-D.  You have to get it from behind the counter and it has to be the D version.  It's like a dollar a pill, but at least it dries me up.  The other version of Allegra they well without the decongestant is worthless for me.

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On 4/30/2018 at 5:12 PM, bluto said:

Me and coworker destroyed in FW

No sheeeit!!  Our office is like a frigg.in' petrie dish of diseases this past two weeks.  I dodged the bullet until today-headed for a benadryl cocktail and nose spray

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On 3/27/2018 at 9:40 AM, sdm said:

Morning - Zyrtec and Benedryl to start kick the protection

Lunch - Flonase

Night - Azelastine

That's been my routine since xmas. So far it's held my allergies at bay and hopefully I'll start paring the list sometime in April.

I started doing Azelastine spray a few years ago, and it makes all the difference for me. Azelastine morning and Flonase night (and sometimes day).

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  • 1 month later...
6 hours ago, Nonbryan said:

My eyes have been on fire the last couple of days.  I think it might be the Saharan Desert sand or whatever the shit blew over. 

You now have ebolaids.

The local weather guy said that the dust wouldn't affect anyone's breathing or allergies.  But if it's thick enough that you can see the haze, I don't see how it would have zero effect. 

We're gonna need a wall to keep this dust out.  Keep African desert dust in the African desert!

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