Itchy and Scratchy

 

 

In my overgrown perennial beds there is something I am fairly allergic to.  My first hunch is that it is purple coneflower because a) I have a ton of it b) it's fuzzy.  Fuzzy plants don't treat me very well.  Knowing this once the plants get a certain height I don my old lady gardening outfit of pants, long sleeves, and gloves, the only thing I lack is a straw hat.  Still not enough today as the four inches of skin exposed on my arms (the shirt was only a 3/4 length sleeve but an x/large) started itching almost immediately upon beginning to work.  I managed to get the worst of the overgrown offenders out, stake a drooping plant, and trim back a walnut tree before I was forced inside my hives and mosquitos. 

 

Last week I was out mowing and when I came in my left eye was itchy and I caught myself rubbing at it.  I took a look and it was quite red so I put some tears in it and then fell asleep on the couch.  When I woke up my eye was twice as red and quite swollen.  I theorized it was allergy and took a couple of Benadryl to hopefully knock it back.  The next day it was still pretty angry so I went to the doc and was told maybe pink eye, maybe allergy, I'm not sure.  So she called in a Rx for eye drops and told me to use them if no improvement by the next day.  That afternoon the swelling  and redness all but disappeared.

 

It's strange, as a kid I wasn't allergic to a thing.  I could run through any plant material, poison ivy and oak included, without a hint of rash.  I did suffer from some hay fever from time to time but it was never anything that slowed me down.  Now though my immune system seems to think everything odd is an alien invader.  In the last ten years I've developed allergy to mystery plants I come in contact with, a couple of different antibiotics, and the minor hay fever occasionally morphs into misery.  One would think with age allergic reactions would diminish but I was never one do things logically.