Hay Fever Fever

Two and a half years ago we moved house.  We left a housing estate and moved back to mine and Mister Husbands home town, and out to the countryside. 

Two and a half years ago Oldest Boy came woke up with what I thought was a bad chest infection.

Walking across the GP’s car park that morning, he struggled to chat and had to ask me to slow down as he was finding it difficult to keep up.

An hour later saw Conor about to embark on round two of the surgery’s nebuliser.  His chest was “very tight and not loosening” so it was thought best to get him to A&E for a chest x-ray.

Holy shit.  That was scary stuff.  But I refused to panic until I knew what the story was.

The story was, Conor had asthma so we were discharged with a script for an inhaler, some steroids and a mask to help him use his puffer.

As relieved as I was that it was just asthma, a part of me was dismayed.  I hated the idea of him being reliant on an inhaler.  Was this going to be for the rest of his life even though we had been told he would probably grow out of it?  

Two and a half years later Conor is smack bang in the middle of his third summer of asthma brought on by hay fever.

We have tried everything from showering at the end of the day to remove pollen and smearing Vaseline under and onto his eyelids.

I was told a dog can help.  The thinking being, pollen and traces of flora and fauna will be trekked in and around the house thus helping to build up resistance.

Local honey was also suggested to me.  But this is something you are supposed to take all year round and not just when symptoms appear.

Earlier on this year, when I was putting out hay fever cure feelers, a product was mentioned in passing by a friend.  And then by another. Great stuff with great potential by all accounts.

I was filled with hope.  So I bought several bottles. 

It was also advised that I try a homeopathic remedy called Pollenna.  These are little white pills and can be either sucked or chewed. 

It was almost the end of June.  We are surrounded by those glorious beautiful yellow Linseed fields.  The air is heavy with the scent of pollen when it is released.

The garden needs to be mowed every week.  Conor is outside every day, as often as possible.  Coming in to rest and have a break from the heat when he needs it.

His hay fever hadn’t abated at all.

In school he needed to be excused to wash his face several times to cool his streaming eyes. 

He took his homeopathic remedies regularly.

Nothing was working.  He tends to get worse before he gets better but the inhaler wasn’t bringing him any relief and his chest was starting to rattle.  He began to complain it hurt. 

I took him to the GP.  Almost a year to the day since he had been last and for the same complaint. 

He was moved onto Beclazone, a preventer inhaler.

The middle of the night coughing and wheezing fits all but stopped nearly immediately. 

I have grudgingly accepted the inhaler is the only thing that works for him.

It is now early July and he has been inhaler free for several days.  His eyes have stopped bothering him and he is back to sleeping normally as a result.

I don’t like the inhaler.  I don’t like it at all.  But it is a necessary evil.