The Po Show

Pollen Hell

We have peak levels of tree pollen around here. Also known as The Time of the Suffering, and the reason for hating the season. It's such a shame, because spring is SO beautiful here, with all the flowers on the trees and bushes and, um, flowers.

Yesterday Matthew had to stay home from school, because he was up coughing and rubbing his eyes from 4:00AM on. He looked HORRIBLE in he morning (his whole face puffy and swollen) and he couldn't even walk down the hall in anything resembling a straight line. He went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror and said, "Now I know why you said I look terrible. I look like an old man!"

Generic claritin and Singulair were not cutting it. I started him on Zyrtec, and it seems to be working better. I also found these great eye drops called Zaditor, which just went OTC.

I was standing in Target yesterday, holding various boxes of eye drops, trying to figure out what to buy. This lovely woman with really raw, red eyes walked up and picked up a box. She looked at me and said, "Allergy eyes?"

"Yes," I said, "my son is miserable."

She held up her box of Zaditor. "THIS is what you want. It used to be prescription, and I used to pay $75 for it, even with insurance, and it's the only thing that works. I ran out yesterday and I've been dying."

I'm embarrassed to say that I hadn't even considered it, since it was the most expensive type of drops there, but $12.59 is a small price to pay for relief. Which Matthew finally got, and he actually slept last night for the first time in 4 nights. So I did too, rather than staying up all night listening to him moan and rub his eyes.

It's really pretty, but man do I hate spring.