Is this hay fever?

chazsucks

How do you know if you have hay fever??

I've never had hayfever or allergies before... but the last couple of days I've felt horrendous... my face and nose feel all blocked and stuffed up, yet at the same time my nose hasn't stopped running. I keep sneezing, and my head is killing me, mainly towards the front. I didn't get any sleep last night, just tossed and turned feeling all stuffed up.

My partner has hayfever and said it sounds like how he feels when he gets it... he just started feeling symptoms yesterday too.

But I don't understand how it can suddenly happen when I've never had it before.

How do I find out what it is, I'd hate to waste a GPs time on something like this

elsien

I suddenly developed hay fever in my twenties when I'd not had it before.
Take an antihistamine tablet for a few days - they have a cumulative effect. If it doesn't clear up, it's a cold. Neither really worth bothering a doctor for.

Nile

chazsucks wrote: »

How do you know if you have hay fever??

I've never had hayfever or allergies before... but the last couple of days I've felt horrendous... my face and nose feel all blocked and stuffed up, yet at the same time my nose hasn't stopped running. I keep sneezing, and my head is killing me, mainly towards the front. I didn't get any sleep last night, just tossed and turned feeling all stuffed up.

My partner has hayfever and said it sounds like how he feels when he gets it... he just started feeling symptoms yesterday too.

But I don't understand how it can suddenly happen when I've never had it before.

How do I find out what it is, I'd hate to waste a GPs time on something like this

Asking for medical advice or giving it is not allowed.;)


You won't be wasting your GP's time and you should see him/her.


I will share my story with you, because it sounds remarkably similar to yours. I suddenly developed the symptoms of hay fever in my thirties. When I saw my GP, I said "How can I suddenly have hay fever at my age?" and he replied "If I had a pound for every patient that's asked me the same question, I'd be very rich".


My GP confirmed that I did have hay fever. I was prescribed antihistamines and...........because I had severe hay fever they didn't stop my life being miserably affected. That doesn't mean that you have hay fever and it doesn't mean that if you do, that taking whatever your GP prescribes won't work for you.;)


I am now an ex-hay fever sufferer, thanks to a very long journey on immunotherapy and clinical trials.............but that's another story.


http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=65690147&postcount=9


I hope you get the help you need from your GP and you can enjoy the summer.


Regards


Nile

chazsucks

Thanks,

I'm in my twenties, and have always been so healthy so this has been seriously frustrating me!

I didn't intend on getting medical advice was more just wondering how you can tell the difference between similar conditions like colds... although I don't usually get this sneezy with colds. But I probably worded it all wrong

Thanks Nile I will check it out, I'm glad you don't suffer any more

marrowgirl

I developed hayfever in my late twenties without any warning and still have it now ten year later. I do have a contact allergy too though so I think I probably always had it but it has just become more pronounced so I notice it now. I believe with hayfever or allergic rhinitis you tend to get a runny clear nasal discharge and sneeze more than once (I tend to do a few in a row, sometimes four or five) whereas with a cold you get the runny discharge first then it gets thicker (and greener!) and tend to sneeze once or twice in a row only. With hayfever you usually get itchy eyes too. A pharmacist would be able to tell you if you have hayfever if you don't want to bother your GP.

cherryblossomzel

I developed hayfever in my twenties, and was also very healthy up to that point. It was frustrating and I spent ages thinking I had a never-ending cold, until I finally went to see a GP. I moved to England and it went away for about 10 years, then started again a few years ago. Sucks that it can come on so unexpectedly.


This is what doctors do. Don't feel like you're wasting their time. I certainly wish I had gone earlier.

no1catman

I've had hay-fever since my early teens. It usually took the form of incessant sneezing, and itching eyes.
At one time I used to get an annual injection for it.
But as time as passed the symptoms have decreased.
What I found helps too is wearing sunglasses - lessens the eye's sensitivities to the sun. Which, has meant any new glasses have to be photo-chromatic ones - it helps.
Curiously enough, I found drinking cider can also set it off!

Errata

I helped with hay making for many seasons. Gave it up when I moved house and ten years later developed hay fever. Go figure!

Poppy9

I developed hayfever in my early thirties. I had horrendous a blocked runny nose for the first year. I found it worse at night when I would wake up unable to breathe. GP prescribed various anti histamines for me which didn't work, plus a nasal spray that the dispensing Pharmacist queried as he said it interacted with the other things I had on same prescription.

The second year my symptoms got even worse and I had eyes that constantly watered, itched and turned bright red. I tried acupuncture which didn't work and then a fellow suffer told me to ask my GP for Rhinocort for my nose. I did and almost 20 years later I still use it. Using this nasal spray along with allergy eye drops and generic clarityn I no longer suffered. Up until this year I had to start to use it in February right through till September but this year I only had to start using it in April as the last couple of years my symptoms have reduced. I no longer have sore eyes or hives so just have 1 squirt of nasal spray before bed and one anti histamine tablet in the morning and I'm okay.

If your GP prescribes medication vary the time of day you take it as I found I could get away with one quirt of nasal spray if I only took at night as opposed to taking just one in the morning. As I previously said I suffer worse at night!

Philis_Burrell

Better check with a doctor just to be sure.