PICTURES ABOVE: It’s allergy season! Get out a box of tissues and bunker down. Photo courtesy of Flickr.

It’s that time of year again, when you start to check the weather report for the pollen count. The sneezing, itchy eyes and runny nose. The multiple visits to the nurse’s office, because you can’t see out of your swollen eyes. It’s allergy season!

With the start of spring on March 20, many people such as myself start to experience seasonal allergies. To combat these allergies, I break out the Claritin and the Allegra. As somebody who has experienced allergies throughout my entire life, I have learned to live my everyday life with them. Every morning I take my daily dose of Claritin, and it has become part of my morning routine, like brushing my teeth.

Living with allergies is no walk in the park. I have to check the pollen count in the weather report in order to make sure that it is safe enough to go outside. If I do risk it and decide to go outside, I risk my eyes swelling shut and my nose can start leaking. This then requires me to go to the nurse’s office, where she washes out my eyes and gives me a tissue box. The allergies have won this round.

Often times for people that are affected by allergies, the biggest struggle is to fight the urge to go outside. Even if you take medicine every day, if the pollen count is anything above “moderate,” it’s probably not the best idea to go outside. Recently, I have taken to getting allergy shots. I go in once a week and get a shot in my arm that contains everything that I am allergic to. For me, its weeds, grass, dust and pollen, which is common in a lot of people who experience seasonal allergies.  

While this may seem like a perfect alternative, I am here to tell you it is not. Your arm swells up and it’s itchy for up to two days not to mention the fact that you have to sit in the office for thirty minutes to make sure that you don’t go into anaphylactic shock, but if it prevents allergies for the rest of your life, you put up with it. This allows me to play sports without having to think about my allergies, or suffer through them. However going in once a month can be tiresome.

Ultimately, there is no way to completely prevent allergies. You either suffer through them or try to numb them with the multiple different medications that are offered. As springtime rolls around next year, instead of thinking about your seasonal allergies, think about all the enjoyable springtime activities such as spring showers, which washes away the pollen and makes it safe for people who suffer from allergies such as myself to go outside.

Story by Sahasra Chigurupati, Staff Writer