Ragweed allergies...HELP!

[Oh Shoot]

superfluous post

Edited October 27, 2014 by Oh Shoot

[Oh Shoot]

.... use Floticison (Flonase)....

 

Last time I had Flonase it was still prescription only, but looks like it will be available in Spring of next year as OTC.

 

It's Fluticasone Propionate. Is that what that Floticison is? Is it OTC or is there another that already is?

 

- OS

[Lumber_Jack]

Last time I had Flonase it was still prescription only, but looks like it will be available in Spring of next year as OTC.

It's Fluticasone Propionate. Is that what that Floticison is? Is it OTC or is there another that already is?

- OS

You're right it's Fluticasone. I just spelled it wrong. It's prescription only for now. I don't know of any daily use maintenance nasal spray that's OTC. just the crack Afrin. Which is a godsend if your stopped up to the point of no breathing. I wish you didn't have to sign over your first born for Sudafed too

[Oh Shoot]

dang, blew it again, meant to edit a previous one.

Edited October 27, 2014 by Oh Shoot

[peejman]

Last time I had Flonase it was still prescription only, but looks like it will be available in Spring of next year as OTC.

 

It's Fluticasone Propionate. Is that what that Floticison is? Is it OTC or is there another that already is?

 

- OS

 

 

Flonase available OTC?  :woohoo:

 

That stuff is awesome.  It's the only thing I've found that will keep my nose open when I get a sinus infection. 

[gregintenn]

Been on a generic version of Sudafed for a few days now. That, along with Claritin, did help some but I still have a nagging drainage problem in the back of my throat.

Mucinex. :up:

 

You aren't allergic to the dog are you?

[LagerHead]

Go see an allergist. Best thing I ever did. They had me feeling about 80% better within about three days and then I took allergy shots for a year and a half and now I don't take anything. I have some very minor congestion pretty regularly and sneeze a few times a month now. They also have allergy drops now, which means you don't have to make the weekly trips to get the shots. Trust me, if they can treat what you have, it beats drugging yourself for the rest of your life, hands down. 

[div]

Could even be something in diet that body chemistry now doesn't like, wheat and other grains are often prime suspects, which plays into the overall low carbing thing I mentioned earlier in post.

This. My sinuses used to lock up tight during allergy season. I could count on weeks of misery every year. In the three years since we went low carb and gluten free I might get a little stuffy for a couple of days, but nothing even worth taking OTC meds for.

[Dolomite`s Breezy]

Well.. he had a severe reaction to the meds they gave him.We spend a good amount of time in the ER this morning.With  throat and tongue swelling to the point where he could not swallow at all. He is usually pretty stoic when it comes to pain and such.This was  bad. To the point that it scared me really bad.He is resting now but  is feeling pretty bad still.Plus just mere hours of  sleep in the last days and 18 hours without food because of all of this sucks. I keep you guys updated ..

[Oh Shoot]

Well.. he had a severe reaction to the meds they gave him.We spend a good amount of time in the ER this morning.With  throat and tongue swelling to the point where he could not swallow at all. He is usually pretty stoic when it comes to pain and such.This was  bad. To the point that it scared me really bad.He is resting now but  is feeling pretty bad still.Plus just mere hours of  sleep in the last days and 18 hours without food because of all of this sucks. I keep you guys updated ..

 

Wow, that is scary. Something going on quite beyond "seasonal allergy" seems. Lemme know if y'all need anything attended to while he's whacked out like this.

 

- OS

[peejman]

Wow, that is scary. Something going on quite beyond "seasonal allergy" seems. Lemme know if y'all need anything attended to while he's whacked out like this.

 

- OS

 

 

Yep.  That's way more than typical seasonal stuff.  Go see these folks...

 

http://www.allergyasc.com/

[klamb5]

If you got good fences and can  hogs love rag weed we use to cut it just as it flowered. Nothing but the squel was left lol

[Oh Shoot]

If you got good fences and can  hogs love rag weed we use to cut it just as it flowered. Nothing but the squel was left lol

 

I still maintain that if ragweed were the prime culprit he would have been in full blown misery by mid Sept if not earlier. Last week of Aug in E. TN is generally target date for the initial onslaught and certainly by Labor Day. It's pretty much abated now.

 

- OS

Edited October 28, 2014 by Oh Shoot

[Dolomite`s Breezy]

Could be anything.. really.. I dont know but I know one thing... its bad enough to warrant an ER visit..:(

[maroonandwhite]

I'm not sure what medicine messed him up but I have pretty bad allergies and take an off brand Claritin EVERY day along with Nasacort daily until I don't need it. I used to get 3-4 prescriptions of Flonase a year but got tired of going to the doc for each refill. Nasacort is OTC and is a corticosteriod. I believe it is just a lighter dose. Being a steroid I wouldn't recommend taking it year around but it's good stuff.

 

Hope he feels better soon.

[Oh Shoot]

Could be anything.. really.. I dont know but I know one thing... its bad enough to warrant an ER visit.. :(

 

They seemed sure it was a reaction to whatever medication he took?

 

I'd rule out reaction to wheat/gluten right off the bat since it's easy enough, just zap the major sources for a week or so -- bread/crackers, pasta, cereal, batter fried food, snack chips and he like, read labels on everything else for wheat/gluten,  etc.

 

Along with other symptoms, swelling of throat/tongue serious enough for an ER visit suggests possible onset of anaphylaxis to a degree, and short of insect stings, wheat is a prime culprit. Body chemistry changes, could be anything, but this is one area you can control to test, unlike what the great outdoors throws your way.

 

Also,  that much reduction in overall carb level might actually ease severity of any other allergy response also, even assuming wheat is not the culprit.

 

- OS

Edited October 28, 2014 by Oh Shoot

[kieefer]

Suffered allergies most of my life, had the surgery got the t-shirt. Surgery helped but made my sinus headaches worse. Ragweed, elm, cedar and mold use to put me down with infections.

The surgery was 20 yrs ago. Did the shots too.

THE biggest change and improvement with my allergy symptoms was curing my snoring.
After the routine examinations including sleep studies I ended up at my Dentist. He made me a dental appliance that positions my lower jaw forward opening up my airway when I sleep.
This cure for my snoring also greatly improve my allergic symptoms. For the first time in years my sinuses are clear in the mornings. I seldom have to use medication anymore.

May be worth a try. Good luck.


I might as well add that my diet also changed in the past 20 yrs. my wife is full blown gluten, dairy and sugar free. As a result I'm eating more natural stuff but not like her. Also noticed that eating nuts, unless dry roasted made me allergic.

For a long time Mucinex seemed to help the best along with nasal sprays but after too many nose bleeds and other reactions I gave them up. Not long after that the wife bugged me about my snoring. Edited October 29, 2014 by kieefer

[Dolomite_supafly]

Not sure what caused the initial stopped up nose and such but the recent problems are from the medications that I am getting sensitive to.

 

Right now I am no where near being out of the woods as far as problems. I am home but we are acting, and planning, like another ER visit is going to happen again tonight.

 

I am evidentally hyper sensitive to Sudafed. I have never taken it before in my life and the first day or two it seemed to help but then it took a very distinctive change and I was up all night, several nights. As of right now I have had less than 8 hours sleep in over 96 and most of those were 10 minute cat naps until the symptoms would wake me up. I figured a change was in order so I took some Allegra D and with than came the majority of the really bad symptoms but it was tolerable enough to get to the doctor yesterday. In the car I had a panic attack, never had one before like this, and it really scared me. I went to the doctor and he said to quit the Allegra D and out me on a round of oral steroids. I have taken steroids before but I guess the combination of steroids and Allegra was too much. My tongue was swelling and my mouth was extremely dry, to dry in fact I could not swallow without water so I began drinking water and the doctor even became concerned over the amount of water I was drinking, said it would dilute the electrolytes enough to cause heart problems. Now this only made the sense of panic even worse. Well when I got home I was actually feeling decent, probably because the Allegra D was working out of my system and that is when I started the steroids and a few other things like a medicated mouth wash to deal with the sores in my mount. Everythgng was fine until about 7-8 pm then my mouth was super dry, dry enough I could not swallow and that absolutely freaked me out. I spent the night pacing and trying anything to be able to swallow and go to sleep but nothing helped. Well one thing that I did that seemed to help calm me was I was cooling a spoon in ice water and pressing down on my tongue. But even that was not enough to calm me. By BP was running 150-160 over 80, my normal number are 110/70. My normal heart rate is 55-65 and not once did it drop below 120 all night. I was scared, like really scared, and even told my wife I would rather be in a firefight in Afghanistan than going through this.

 

She went to sleep and I stayed up trying everything and I would dose off until I felt I could not sleep. Then at 4:30 I woke my wife and told her we needed to go. My vitals now were in the 170/100 with a heartrate of 140bpm. And several times on the way down there I freaked out over fears something was going to happen to my water bottle. I get to the ER and tell them I have swelling in my tongue and I feel like I am choking, especially without water. After about 10 minutes a nurse came out to bring me back but wanted my water bottle. I told her no and she said the doctor would not let me have it. At that point I told my wife we are leaving and the lady said to bring the water bottle back. When we got in the back she said she had to have the bottle and knowing I would freak out I told her no. When she got adamant about it I got visibly upset, probably enough to make her realize things would not go well for either of us. At this point a second nurse came in a took over and said I could keep my bottle. At this point my vitals were 193/119 and my heart rate was over 160bpm. The doctor came in and we talked for a bit and said there was nothing they could do because my vitals were fine. We had some serious discussion over what is considered "fine" because if I ever had anyone with a 193/119 bp that would be a HUGE alarm something bad was about to happen. He said I had a reaction to the steroids and it should subside within a few days and when he said that I was extremely upset at the thought of going through this for the next 3 days. He wrote me some Ativan and sent me on my way. I also picked up some pectin drops to moisten my mouth but they seemed like they made it worse.

 

Once home I took the Ativan and within 45 minutes I was out. When I woke up I was way worst than when I went to sleep. This time I knew it was going to be way worse and I was extremely scared, Even had the doctor say to call 911 if it felt like I was having and problem getting air and it felt like it.  I still had the extremely dry mouth, with a clogged up nose and now having a reaction to the Ativan. But as long as I was able to gulp water I was doing well enough to drive to the ER. So as we were heading back to the ER I began to feel a bit better so I told my wife to turn around. I figured the steroids, that I had the reaction too, was starting to work out of my system. Same thing with the Allegra D which has 120 mg of Ephedrine. I got home and went to sleep almost immediately but when I woke up shortly later I was not me. I had become extremely aggressive, saying and doing things that made my wife consider calling the cops. Then after a few minutes I was again asleep. But shortly after that I again woke up ready to fight. I was as made as I think I have ever been ever. Mad because I could not breath, mad because I was in a ton of pain but most importantly made because I had no relief in sight. After calming down I was able to drink a few things but still felt extremely stressed over the choking feeling I had sp I decided to take another Ativan. Again I was out within 30 minutes and again when I woke up I was MAD I cannot remember a lot of what I said and did but my wife later told me she was extremely scared and considered running out of the house. I ranted for a while then passed out on the bed again then woke up again. This episode was almost as bad but I was starting to come around some. I almost passed out while walking a few times and my wife was concerned I was going to her myself so she convinced me to stay in bed. After a few more naps and some food things started to feel a bit better.

 

But not so fast, since then I have been panic stricken a few more times because I am still having issues swallowing. But because I have some stuff I did not know existed it is tolerable. I am not sure if I am going to sleep tonight, I hope so, so I can get on to healing but I am also extremely afraid what happened last night will happen tonight.

 

So it may not be allergies completely. During this whole process parts of my tongue have sloughed off chunks of meat. Doctor said it was some sort of infection and that is why he put me on steroids to fight the swelling. And he seems to think I overdosed on the ephedrine because I was taking 30 MG doses and the Allegra D has 120 mg doses. They are supposed to be time release but in some people they release it all at once causing my symptoms. So between the OD of ephedrine and the reaction to the steroids it caused all these problems. I am not even close to being good to go and I in a constant state of worry that all this might come crashing back.

 

And the worst part of this whole thing is the thought of how bad I must have treated or scared my wife. That hurts worse than anything because she has ALWAYS been there for me.

[peejman]

Wow.  Hang in there.  I'm no doctor, but it sure sounds like some sort of reaction to the various meds.  Add to that the stress of the whole mess and I'd say you've been pretty miserable.  Hope you get it sorted out, and fast. 

[Oh Shoot]

Jeez, sorry to hear it's turned into such a convoluted nightmare. Pretty sure at this point I myself would quit taking anything and see if I could just get back to the original allergy-type symptoms.

 

- OS

[Dolomite_supafly]

I have quit taking EVERYTHING except a few throat lozenges now. I think I will just use the neti pot only from now on until I get this figured out. My uvula is extremely swollen still which gives the sensation that I am choking constantly, takes a set of steady nerves to deal with that. But at this point I think I am going to see if I can get it removed. Should help out with this as well as snoring which will make Petra happy.

 

What scares me now after the fact is how I reacted on the Ativan. I have taken valium before and was a non event but not with the Ativan. And I have never had a reaction to prednisone before either. Maybe the combination of Sudafed, that might have still been in my system, and the prednisone created the situation where I could not swallow. Either way I will NEVER take Prednisone, Ativan or ANYTHING with pseudoephedrine in it or at least in the dosing that was in the Allegra D.

 

Because of how I felt when laying down I now get a bit stressed laying down in bed.

 

Not sure what set the initial congestion off but right now my nose is pretty much clear as is my throat but I still can feel some swelling. Still don't know what cause my tongue to slough off the outside layer. That was extremely painful and my tongue was FAT up until last night.

[peejman]

Sudafed elevates my heart rate by 20-30 bpm and raises my blood pressure 10-20 pts.  I don't know which is the cause and which is the effect, but that's what happens.  I've taken it for congestion when I had a cold or sinus infection since I was a kid and either never noticed those side effects before or they've just gotten worse as I've gotten older.  That's one reason why I was so happy to discover flonase.  If anything it does a better job with the congestion and doesn't have the side effects. 

 

Have you still got your tonsils/adenoids?

[Dolomite_supafly]

Yeah, never had a problem with my tonsils.