I’ve never had severe allergies. Several people in my family always have, and I’ve been smug about my general good health in the past.
It was thus an ugly shock this winter when I came down with a severe allergy attack over several days. I would begin sneezing, and my eyes would start waering suddenly and uncontrollably. At first I attributed it to riding in the car of a friend who smokes, but two days later that excuse was wearing thin.
Fortunately, the source has become apparent. I sat down in my mother’s office, rubbed my nose, and had an attack. Bad enough that Mom commented on it. She suggested it might be something environmental, we chatted, we moved on to other things. We walked around for a while, then returned to her office. I sat down again, rubbed my nose again, and had another attack. The light went on in my head — rub nose, start sneezing. Mom immediately suggested something in my pocket or jacket. Sure enough, repeated testing showed that if I put my left hand in my jacket pocket, then touched my nose, WHAM! Right hand pocket was less severe. Not touching the jacket first made it less severe.
More tellingly, we had just experienced a coldsnap here, and it’s the first time I’ve worn that jacket in months. Breaking it out, on reflection, exactly coincided with allergies cranking up. Put the jacket back away today, and I’ve been fine.
So, now I need to figure out what is in that packet that wants to kill me. But the problem is contained.
Mothers are very handy sometimes.