Cant see the forest for the pollen

Tis the season to be sneezing falalala la la la la...
My allergies have been exceptionally bad this year. Its no wonder with pollen counts over 3000 almost everyday. The only break I get seems to come when it rains. But lately even that comes at a price. The last few times is rained here, its been torrential. With lots of lightning, damaging hail and even a few tornados!

I have tried several allergy medicines to abate my situation. All of them over the counter. So far at least. Here are the results of the different medicines.

 Zyrtec: Slogan is "Lots of allergies, just one Zyrtec!" I took one and still had lots of allergies. So I guess the slogan was right!

Benadryl: I took the recommended dose of 2 pills every 4hrs. Did it stop me from sneezing? I don't know I was asleep. :/ But when I woke up I was stuffy again.

Claritin 24hr: A single dose a day! Sounded promising. But thats all it was.

Claritin D 12hr: Now we are getting somewhere. It kept me from sneezing and stopped my nose from running. I was still stuffy, but, not runny. It didn't last 12hrs though. I was scared to take more for fear of an overdose.

Since I found success (somewhat) with the Claritin D, I wondered if I could add another medicine to it to help it out and maybe get it to last a bit longer. So I took the Claritin D and when I felt a bit sniffly I took a single, half dose of Benadryl. That was ok and helped to keep me from sneezing buy my nose was still a bit runny.

Then my dad and a few other people suggested a nose spray. So I got something called Nasal Four which is a Kroger brand knockoff of a more expensive brand. It says its a FAST ACTING decongestant. So the next day I took my Claritin D 12hr tablet when I got up. I was also stuffy, so I squirted that Nasal Four up into my nose. **side note**I have been told my whole life that cocaine is bad, very addictive and its taken up the nose. So on some subconscious level, when I use this product, I feel guilty!** Within a minute of inhaling the Nasal Four, my sinuses both opened up allowing me to breathe through both nostrils at the same time! SUCCESS!!

So I finally found a Magical Medicinal Cocktail that works to clear my allergies up. Though admittedly I have used the Nasal Four, a bit more than recommended. But if you have ever seen how bad my allergy attacks are, you wouldn't blame me.

I hope that my trial and error of these products will help some other poor sufferer to find relief so that we can stop hiding inside on these beautiful spring days and finally step outside and walk confidently into the forest!