Cedar!!!

I absolutely hate it. I first found out the I was allergic to cedar during my first winter here in San Antonio. I used to live here when I was very young but who can remember that far. So it was roughly around January when I started getting extremely congested and itchy eyed. I really didn't know what to think of it because I've never really had to deal with allergies before. So I let time go by and just dealt with it, till I could wait no more. I called Dr. mom and asked her what medicine I should take. She told me that my dad would get really bad allergies around this time when we lived in S.A. and now where he comes to visit. I asked her what this obnoxious allergen was, and she told me it was the cedar trees. She passed the phone to my dad so I could ask him what he recommends to take to help ease the symptoms. He told me to use some nasal spray and some over the counter allergy medicine. So I do this and everything seems to get better. Well not for long. We had gone up to Kerrville to visit with Natalie's family and I felt like I was going to suffocate. I had no idea when the s*** hit the fan, but it did. So remembering what my mom had said about cedar trees I asked Kevin (Nat's dad) what trees were in the area. He told me that we were SURROUNDED by cedar trees. So as you can imagine I was in shock, not anaphylactic  shock… yet. But I knew it was going to be a long week. Some how I managed to survive without epi pens and just a health dose of nasal spray.

So now we are in 2010… January… My symptoms are back. As I knew they would be. I was ready for them this time. I had my nasal spray and some Ny-quil ready on my night stand for the first sign of symptoms. Well I had the wrong nasal spray. It had menthol in it. So instead of helping to calm my sneezing it drastically increased it. I would have about 3 sneeze attacks every minutes or so consisting of about 6-7 sneezes. My handkerchief didn't stand a chance, nor did the other 5. haha. So finally I deduced that my spray was the cause of my misery and I got a new plain bottle. So for the most part I am doing relatively well. Till this weekend.

Natalie and I went out of town to celebrate our engagement. There is a little bed and breakfast owned by a fellow puppy raiser from GDTx. We heard great things about them from staff member and we thought we would try it out. So we head over there and I had already looked at the street name so I could put it into my gps… Well the street was called…CEDAR HillS… The name didn't really click and we were on our way. I knew I was still going to be suffering my allergies so we packed medicine and other supplies to help keep them at bay.  Well I wish I would have had my own E.R. team on call for me. We got to the place, but right before we turned on the street, the gps called out "turn left on cedar hills." The nightmare began. I realized this wasn't a name they picked out of a hat and stuck it on a street it was actually hills with nothing but cedar on them. So We get into the room and I'm already getting congested so I take some medicine and just try to live with it. So night time comes and I'm doing decently, and I go ahead and take a tylenol pm. It might as well have been a placebo. I woke up the next morning with a nose that felt like it had been sealed up with wax, and an eye that felt like it had just been introduce to Muhammed Ali's fist. It was horrible. This is kind of mean, but I thought it was funny when I found out Natalie was allergic to cedar too. It was another thing we had in common. Her symptoms were nothing compared to mine though. So I take some more of the placebo, and some nasal spray and prepare myself for a lousy day. So after I had done that it was time to feed Egypt and take her out to do her business. She took her time finding the perfect place to go, and while she was I was wondering if they put colostomy bags on dogs, haha. So after she is done and I'm starting to seize up, the inn-keeper comes to give us the best breakfast I've ever had. So I stay out to talk to her a little bit and I told her I was allergic to cedar, and she delivered the same dreadful words Kevin told me a year back. We were surrounded by cedar, and most of the furniture in the place were were staying in was made of cedar. Feeling thoroughly depressed I asked her what she recommends for a remedy. She had mentioned to me that she was allergic to cedar too, and that she practically lived off of Benedryl. I had heard good things about Benedryl, like it was a good goodnight juice and it helps when you babysit, but I never knew there was one for allergies. Since I had already taken some medicine I didn't want to o.d. on over the counter medication so I decided to wait till later to go buy and take some of this miracle medicine. Later on after all of our shopping Nat and I went to wal-mart to get some medicine, and some movies. We got back to the room and I took a Benedryl, and before i knew it the sandman had thrown a mud rock at me. I was out cold, I felt pretty bad because I was in the middle of watching a movie with Nat. Morning came and the first thing I said to Natalie was… "I love…. Benedryl" hahaha. I always tell her good Morning for the record. But I haven't been able to breath at all this month till this morning. It was great. So now I'm not going to take Ny-quil allergy or that lousy Tylenol allergy… maybe Day-quil, but when its night time I'm going for Benedryl. If it wasn't considered arson, I would go and douse some cedar trees in gasoline and light a match. Of course I would plant some kind of tree, but it would probably die. I'm terrible at keeping plants and fish alive. huh. If there is ever a fire in a cedar forest, it wasn't me.