After battling with six boughts of debilitating eye-allergy attacks over the past two years and trying “natural methods” of fixing myself, I decided to visit an allergist. The short answer: become bubble girl (do not visit garden, do not go for a walk/bike ride, do not go on vacation, and live in air conditioning) April-November every year for the rest of my life if I want to see and function like a semi-normal person. Is my allergist just a demon from hell? Or, is this really the way 50 million Americans with Seasonal Allergies live?
I know now that my Seasonal Allergies are far worse than most people’s (I literally can’t see and have wave-after-wave of pain through my eyes for 2-3 weeks at a time), but really? There’s no solution? Take meds–maybe they’ll help (which they haven’t). Get shots–but it’s unlikely that will really do anything. Live in a bubble–but you might as well kill your career, social life, hobbies, and workout endeavors.
And, of course, I’ve scoured the Internet for medical, holistic, and dietetic methods to solve my allergies, as doctors (in my experience) want to fix every problem with a pill that well, in this case, doesn’t do a darn thing–other than cost buku bucks. And have truly come up empty, with nothing that is effective.
I know my post today is more of a rant than anything, but I want to enjoy my garden (and life) in person–not just through the window.
Confessions from a Novice Gardener 
You may want to have your Vit D levels checked. Although I never suffered from allergy until after chemo, I had it pretty badly two years running. One thing my doc noticed was that my Vit D levels were in the basement. I’ve been supplementing (3000 IU’s now, more in the beginning) since and viola, no more allergies….just a thought.
*anna
Interesting… of all the advice I’ve gotten, I haven’t heard that. Thanks!
I have an idea! We also garden and one of our little ones gets allergies. So we are in the process of building a bee-house. The bees will help our garden and the honey helps allergies. It only works if the honey is local (and what’s more local than the back yard?), but supposedly it helps the body get used to the pollen and allergens. Might work, might not- but if it doesn’t we’ll still have some tasty honey! I’ll be writing it up as a blog tutorial when we’re done.
I live in too urban an area to have a bee house, but your idea has merit. Perhaps I’ll pick up a bottle of local honey at the next farmer’s market–worth a shot. Thanks!