Who nose? Not eye!

[pne]

Since last Thursday, I've been going to sleep without doping my nose at all. No nose spray, not even peppermint oil applied beneath the nostrils.

I can't say my nasal passages have been free, but usually at least one nostril is at least partially open, which is a whole lot of an improvement over the status quo ante.

I suppose the anti-mite bed covers (together with the spring cleaning Stella gave to the bedroom while I was away) are doing their job. (Good job, too, since they cost enough.)

Comments

[nassus.livejournal.com]

You can also go to a specialist and get tested for a range of allergens. I did this when I went to get desensitised to dogs. They basically prick your arms up and down with a whole range of things and you get large red spots according to how allergic you are to them. I had 2.5 years of immunotherapy to fix my dog-allergy. (it's one that is still not concrete but I had really good results). Dust-mite is one thing they do have definite success with. It's a long process and possibly could be expensive but doesn't hurt and if you have a lot of problems with any allergy is a long term solution.

[pne.livejournal.com]

Yes, I was tested for allergies recently (which was what led to the bed covers being prescribed, so my health insurance paid for most of it).

However, I'm a bit skeptical about desensitisation... I had a round of that when I was younger (don't remember what specifically for; perhaps also dog/cat since that's also something I'm allergic to, or maybe grass/pollen of some kind), but it didn't seem to have helped much. I seem to recall that they said back then the treatment had a 50% success rate so I figured I was simply in the 50% failure bracket.

On the other hand, they might have something better these days. Perhaps I should ask my ENT doctor about it.

(One memory from the treatment series is that when I went to be vaccinated, I wondered why some other kids made such a big fuss about a little injection, since I was used to receiving about five times the amount of fluid regularly.)

[nassus.livejournal.com]

Oh I believe the success rate is a *lot* more than 50% now. And the injections dont hurt cause its just a little prick under the skin not a normal one. I'm terrified of needles and I coped okay... <-:
It's good the covers are working okay though. The other thing I had a few years ago was a nosespray called rhinocourt aqueous. I'd been getting hayfever so badly in spring I couldn't function. It was on the trial list at the time so I had to have a special script. However after a couple of years of using it in spring I seem to have kicked hayfever almost entirely and only need the occassional antihistamine.