I forget how cruel spring is usually to me in the beginning.
Being allergic to tree pollen, and living within this blooming lush colourful ‘jungle’ of pollen-producing trees is a little like paradise turning hellish – but just a little.
Thankfully I don’t have to endure this forever, just a few more weeks.
The trees coming back to life… priceless

Spring is officially here and I’m elated, although you can’t really tell the change in season from the grey rainy day we’re having today.
In my haste to shoo away dreary winter and welcome cheery spring, I forgot one unfortunate occurrence that comes with spring: Seasonal Allergies!
How could I have forgotten about the sneezing, scratchy throat, itchy eyes and runny nose?
I don’t know… it’s probably worth it.

My allergies are killing me.
I’m not just being dramatic; I could very well be dying from my allergies, I just don’t have any obvious proof yet.
They said it was going to be bad this year; they weren’t lying – I’ve never been so miserable in my life!
It’s gotten to the point where I’ve given up and resigned myself to feeling this lousy for the rest of my time here on earth.
I have the sniffles, I’m sneezing, my throat is so scratchy I’ve developed a raspy smoker’s voice.
And the latest icing on this miserable cake… I keep breaking out in hives – it’s a very humbling experience.

The first thing to go when the allergies hit were my contacts.
Seriously, my eyes are itchy, swollen and bloodshot; I look like I have some serious substance abuse issues, the kind that makes your eyes look weird.
I got an air purifier over the weekend and it looks it’s helping some.
My final resort is probably going have to be an ELISA test (I know you’re thinking it too… how cute, the test and I have similar names!).
I’m going to find out all those things that make my insides turn on me and then, I’m going to find a tower far and high away from all those things and live blissfully there.

But it hasn’t been all dreadful.
One of my dad’s favourite saying was “There’s good in every negative experience”
It was probably his excuse for being a lousy parent.
I try to look for good things in my bad experiences and I must say my bout with seasonal allergies have had some positive effects.
First off, the glasses make me look smart and it’s a pleasant change from poking my eye mornings and evenings to change my contact lens.
Benadryl is my antihistamine of choice and I’ve been having the most bizarre vivid dreams when I’m on it. In a way it’s awesome!
One night I dreamt I was a yellow Power Ranger!
Last night I was a drummer in a girl band; ‘Miss Arabella of Summertime and Bloom’ – that was our name.
We only did covers of Space Oddity, Oasis’ Don’t Look Back In Anger (which is an inspiration of sorts for our name) and a song my grandma used to sing.

Outfit Details: Stripe shirt & boots – Espirit, Grey blouse – Forth & Towne, Gap Jeans

I try to stretch my Benadryl doses because I can barely function when I take it, I wake up feeling drowsy.
But I’m inspired to start a band, perhaps take drum lessons, then something good would have come from allergy woes.

I wish I’d hear voices in my head. Not voices urging me to harm myself or others; but voices of wisdom, caution and humour.

I’ve become an unwilling participant in a rather annoying night time ritual.

In the past couple of days, I’ve been waking up at around 4:45AM – this isn’t planned but I could probably set my clock to it.

It starts with a sudden and delirious urge to sneeze, then comes the itchy throat, itchy watery red eyes – soon the sneezing takes over in multiple successions.

My allergies have been waking me up at dawn and it’s relentless!

I don’t know why this is happening; I’ve blamed everything from my incredible magical tea to my pillow cases. On some days I’m convinced I’m allergic to my co-workers.

Yesterday I tried OTC allergy medication (that may or may not cause renal and or hepatic impairment – oh goody!), Last night I tried my Saje Allergy release, this is comforting enough – but the effects are not lasting.

It normally takes me about an hour to get back to sleep again.

I’ve had a lot of time to think though… I swear I’d be a genius if it weren’t for the day and night thing.

I came up with a very plausible theory. I sleep with my windows open and just outside my window is a garden – I suspect it’s about to bloom – you know, with it being spring and all. That must be it, because I can’t for the life of me come up with another reason why I keep waking up at 4:45AM everyday in allergy hell.

Here’s a picture of the beautiful garden outside my bedroom; this was taken back in May 2003 – it’s not looking like this now so I’d say it wakes up at 4:45 every morning to work at being pretty again.