it’s allergy season. that means a lot of sneezing, watery eyes and every mucous membrane above my neck is on fire – itchy. as. hell. my eyes, my nose, the roof of my mouth, the back of my throat, my eustacian tubes, the corners of my mouth.
in the past, only benadryl has soothed my seasonal torment. unfortunately, benadryl also makes you – say it with me – PASS OUT. i can remember many days in high school when i would come home from school, my head one big itchy mess, and i would pop a couple benadryl, sit to watch animaniacs or oprah or whatever and the next thing i know i’m waking up curled on the couch in the dark at 8:30 with a blanket my parents threw on top of me.
allergy season has always meant a choice: do i grit my teeth and try not to scratch my face off or do i take the soothing benadryl, stop being itchy and oozy, but risk passing out in the middle of the day? usually i’ve chosen the former, but last week i could tell that things were going to bad this fall.
eric game me some walgreen’s knock-off alavert and that actually worked really well. i would take one when i woke up in the morning and completely forget about allergies all day. but at about 7-8pm it would start to wear off. i wanted to take another, but it’s supposed to be a 24 hour pill. and anyway, if i take another in the evening, i run the risk of it wearing off in the middle of the day. in retrospect, i probably should have just brought the wal-avert to work and dealt with it. instead, last night i decided to take a couple of benadryl before bed.
big mistake.
benadryl makes me pass out, but it must also messes with my brain so that i’m not actually getting any real rest. i remember lying down in bed and…a heartbeat later eric is asking me if i plan to get up since it’s already 7:45 in the morning. today i feel exhausted, like i’ve been awake for days. everything is fuzzy and i can’t really think about anything for very long before i want to shut down and nap on the floor. you know that feeling when you’re just on the edge of sleep when you are no longer aware of your body? that’s how i’ve felt all morning.
i’ve taken benadryl at night before without any ill effects the next day, but i guess mixing benadryl with the trace amounts of wal-avert in my system weren’t a good idea. also, i guess i’ve been feeling pretty stressed out lately, and i haven’t been running much. i’m looking forward to a quiet weekend with my parents away from the noise and pollution and bustle of the city.
“My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk…”
-John Keats, “Ode to a Nightingale” (from “The Hangover” chapter, in How to be Idle)
I felt this way yesterday after the beer’n’meat-a-thon of the night before. I mean, I normally zone out a lot at work, but yesterday I took it to a whole new level. Hope allergy season doesn’t last too long! =)
yeah – zoning out is a whole separate art unto itself. this is like…it’s not daydreaming or staring into space or anything it’s actually being continuously on the verge of sleep. i’m not really thinking about anything. i can’t think about anything. it just took me 5 times longer than usual to type out those bolding tags, and i misspelled ‘strong’ 3 times in a row. i’m eating a bagel to hopefully get an energy boost.