Back on the Loratadine. what works for you?
Not hayfever, but Loratadine does nothing for me.
Cetirizine FTW!
Flixonase Allergy Nasal Spray - £6.99 from boots, two blasts up each nostril a maximum of twice a day - takes a while to kick in, but once it does, it works wonders!!
It's the ONLY thing that i can recommend because everything else i used is & was sh1t!!
After over twenty years of snot-head I have finally found a cure (for symptoms): not drinking milk.
I know that my allergy is still there as I can feel a much, much smaller amount of thicker mucus in my sinuses, and my eyes still itch terribly and swell if I touch anywhere near them; but the constant (24 hours a day) running of snot from my face has ceased. These symptoms have previously been a blight from May to August. It'll be interesting to see if how I get on when the peak season hits, but so far the signs are very positive.
By now, I would usually have been taking Cetrizine for about three weeks. It's the only thing that ever worked, but the lethergy it induces, combined with the head full of snot, virtually incapacitates me for at least two months per year (in terms of any mildly physical activities).
Benadryl works best for me but I've not taken any for the last 6 weeks as not been suffering. I had a really bad 2 week period around the beginning of April but not had any symptons since, guessing it depends on the pollen?
Allegra (fexofenadine) has always been the heavy artillery of antihistamines for me. Can be difficult to get a prescription from your GP IME - I think it's quite expensive.
Find hay fever is less of an issue as I get older - first week or so of the season is bad but it seems i adjust to it nowadays.
beconase for me - probably a different brand, but same stuff, as Flixonase
desloratadine from the dr worked best for me and this is speaking as someone who did a PhD working on haymeadows and worked as a botanist for a number of years. Dont use anything now I dont spend all day sat in meadows.
I've no idea why, but suffering as a kid with really bad hayfever it's got progressively better over the years. Any signs of a sniffle I just use the cheap tablets from wilkos. So far this year I've not had to have a single tablet?
By now, I would usually have been taking Cetrizine for about three weeks. It's the only thing that ever worked, but the lethergy it induces, combined with the head full of snot, virtually incapacitates me for at least two months per year (in terms of any mildly physical activities)
I have to take them year round! 😐
I USED to be laid low every year by hayfever - drugged up with Piriton, cold damp flannel over eyes, unable to go outdoors, etc
Luckily, I found an NHS consultant who sorted me out:
1) Flixonase nasal spray for a couple of months BEFORE symptoms start (it reduces your sensitivity to pollen, rather than dealing with the symptoms)
2) Neoclarityn/Desloratidine - excellent for controlling the symptoms, but still only available on prescription (I think)
3) Prednisolone (corticosteroid) very occasionally, when you're absolutely desperate. A single tablet works wonders for me
Plus lots of showers to wash off the pollen
I don't know why so few GPs seem to understand how to control hayfever, or how debilitating it can be
like most people, if they don't suffer, they don't understand. I had a miserable childhood with it, started improving when I had some skin allergy tests to determine exactly [i]what[/i] I'm allergic to, followed up by a series of desensitisation jabs, tailored to my particular problems.
It should have been 3x jabs over a 6 week period, 3 years running, but we (I was 15-16 at the time) moved house after year 2 and I never got the final year's jabs. That would've been 1981ish, then I went to uni; if i remember correctly, '87 was a really bad year.
Since I discovered Beconase about 5 years ago, I've been a happy spring bunny - apart from the heat. Oh well, you win some, you lose some...
FWIW for me it's grass & nettle pollen, plus house dust and house dust mite. cleaning house is not a good job...
I use Neoclarityn Desloratidine but can only get them on perscription and Opticrom Eye Drops are really good and you can get them over the counter. I've suffered with this for 30+ years and have tried the lot but have to say that Desloratidine take the edge off but If the pollen count is high I still suffer 😥
I have bad hayfever for years and found that these are the only ones that work for me....Cetirizine Hydrochloride @ tesco, 30 tabs for £2.
Loratadine have never worked for me...I guess its different things for different people, trial and error.
Had my first sniffle and worst day so far on Saturday... 🙁