Bad allergy season in NoVA this year? (allergies, live)

[Bass101]

I'm a woman in my early 30's and I've never had allergies or asthma in my life. In the past week I've developed what I think are allergy symptoms. Itchy nose, runny nose, sneezing, scratchy throat, irritated eyes. I thought I was developing a cold but it never turned into a cold. It started last Wednesday which I heard had pollen counts near 5000? And it's been the same all week.

I've never had allergies of any sort before so I'm not sure if what I am experiencing is allergies. But is this an unusually bad year for pollen/allergies? If so, has the last week been unusually bad? I don't know what to expect since I've never had allergies before. Will they get better as things stop blooming? I didn't think adults could get adult-onset allergies when they'd never had them before.

[FindingZen]

I don't remember the exact figures but yes, it's bad. That 5000 figures is perhaps 100x or more higher than normal. I recall a news report saying that the entire East Coast had an unusually high amount of rain over the last month. While this may have made for rather stunning cherry blossoms here, unfortunately many of us - myself included - are dealing with the side effects.

[mrrame]

Zyrtec-D helps a lot (atleast for people who never had allergies before).

My symptoms get worse, when I see yellow pollen layer on top of my car.

[Bass101]

Originally Posted by mrrame

My symptoms get worse, when I see yellow pollen layer on top of my car.

Yep, I definitely have been seeing the yellow pollen layer! Even on the front door too!

[cdmurphy]

It's bad everywhere this year. That said, I lived in Georgia, Missouri, and New Mexico before moving to this area, and I never had allergy symptoms until coming here. After several years of suffering, I finally did allergy testing and had reactions to a lot of different things. I never knew I was allergic to cats (and dogs, dust mites, etc.), and in small amounts I didn't have reactions - but the trees/grasses/weeds in this area pushed me over the limit of allergens I could tolerate at any given time. That's why it may seem like "adult-onset" to you. I did 2+ years of shots, and now I'm mostly meds-free although occasionally I do have to take some OTC Zyrtec.

[pcity]

It's definitely worse than usual, although, at least for me, it's been better the past few days than it was early last week. I think the rain helped a little.

[Alicia Bradley]

My SO has been in near-constant misery for the past month or so due to seasonal allergies - it's apparently the worst spring he's experienced in DC in this respect. I'm probably not as sympathetic as I should be, since I'm totally plant-allergy free. Just get me around some moldy cats, though... *shudder*

[mississippimagnolia]

We've lived all over as well. I've only had bad allergies in two places....Hawaii (Volcanic Dust) and Virginia. I think I'm allergic to the entire state.

I heard on the news that this is the worst year in 12 years for allergies in the DC area.

You are definitely not alone! None of the allergy medications help me a whole lot when it gets this bad. Benedryl seems to work the best, but it knocks me out. I take it at night.

Sometimes Zyrtec-D helps. I have allergy induced asthma, so I keep my inhaler near me when I am outdoors for any extended period of time. The only place we've ever lived where I have had an asthma attack is Virginia. I'm not sure what is growing out there....but it's rough on me! I blame the super-mutant bees!

[ACWhite]

Welcome! You may have an allergy to tree pollens, which are released in March and April in this area. Grasses and weeds release pollens later. I hope you aren't allergic to them as well.

My allergist told me that some people have a lot of trouble in this area because there are so many different kinds of trees, brought as gifts by ambassadors and other dignitaries from all over the world. Many of us who had allergy shots when we lived in other cities found that while those shots helped with the local trees, once we moved here, they didn't protect us from the diversity of pollens.

If you continue to have trouble, I hope you'll get help from a good allergist if the OTC meds. don't help. The OTC meds. often either don't work, or they work on my symptoms, but make me drowsy all day.

[need_more_light]

I've moved to NoVA back in 1999. I wasn't allergic to tree pollens at the time. However, I started becoming allergic to tree pollens around 2003-2004. It's been getting worse and worse every single year. At first, I took normal claritin pills. However, after a couple of years, normal claritin didn't work anymore. So I changed to Claritin-D and it worked for another couple of years. I then changed to Zyrtec-D. I've been on Zyrtec-D for the past 3 years now and it's the best on-the-counter medicine for me. It's a totally YMMV though. My friend let me try his prescribed allergy pills last year. His pills didn't work for me but it worked flawlessly for him.

I usually take allergy med only the entire month of April. Last year, I had to take med until early May though. I think it depends on the weather, which affects how quickly the trees bloom.