Sneezing Your Head Off

I like to think that I'm proof that God has a sense of humor. Not because of my looks, although my sister might disagree, but because of my allergies. I'm a guy that loves the outdoors. My favorite things to do involve hunting, fishing, camping, hiking, golf, etc., but there's a problem. I'm basically allergic to air. Why would God make a guy with so much desire to be outside be allergic to almost every tree and grass that an allergist would test for? Obviously it's for laughs. I just haven't decided if he likes to see how many times I'll sneeze if I go outside or if he's more interested in seeing how many different things I'll try in order to be comfortable when I'm outside.

To my knowledge, I've tried nearly everything that conventional medicine has to offer, and I'm still only able to breathe through my mouth. I don't even know what it's like to breathe through my nose when I sleep. I wake up every morning with a sore throat because my mouth has dried out from having it open all night long. I did allergy shots for a few years and it was okay except that my arms always itched and I developed some food allergies (we still don't know what it was, but if you've never had your tongue itch and your lips swell up, then you'll know that it wasn't pleasant). I've taken probably half a dozen different allergy medications over the years. I've tried nose sprays (most of which smell like honeysuckle to me and just make me sneeze more although the stuff I have now if more like snorting napalm; I swear I can feel a draft behind my eyeballs after I take a hit) and eye drops, too. I still suffer.

Not only that but all of these drugs affect my ability to concentrate, stay awake, and my moods. Some of the pills that work fairly well have the tradeoff of turning me into a raging lunatic (like screaming, yelling, thowing things, Bobby Knight wannabe). That's not a very good trade in my opinion, and with my job, I can't afford to not be able to concentrate; I get paid to sit around and think stuff up.

Given all of that, I'm on the verge of a breakthrough. Remember the guy that only ate McDonald's for thirty days just to see what would happen? Well, I'm seriously considering starting a quest to find serious allergy relief. I want to break away from the traditional therapies that so far have not served me well and see if there is any truth at all to the alternative therapies that you read about on the web. To start, I'm going to use bee pollen.

Apparently, from ancient times people have ingested bee pollen to ward of allergies. The idea is very similar to immunotherapy (allergy shots) in that you are introducing some of the allergen into your system to build up a resistance so that when you go outside you won't react so dramatically. The danger, obviously, is that you are intentionally ingesting something to which you know you are allergic. I'm going to start really small on Sunday and test the product for one week. I'll start with one granule and gradually increase each day until I get to the recommended teaspoon dosage. We'll see how things go from there. Maybe it will work and I'll be free from drugs. Maybe it won't, and we'll move on to something else.

What do you think? Am I crazy for even considering this?