Allergens
Every couple of years I might get something that resembles a sort of flu. With aches and exhaustion. Every once in a long while I get some sort of stomach thing (the most spectacular of which was at least seven years ago, and found me ejecting simultaneously from both ends of the alimentary canal). Sometimes I feel kinda run down, or I have menstrual cramps. Whatever. But by and large, I'm an eviably healthy person.
With one exception.
Allergies.
Not food allergies, not skin allergies, not latex or anything like that.
No one is exactly sure what I'm allergic to, except I get violent attacks about 5 - 7 times a year, lasting for a couple of days, of bladder-wracking sneezing, weeping eyes, and rhinorrhea like you wouldn't believe. Clear fluid just falls out of my head if I bend over, as if somneone turned on a tap behind my eyes. I can't predict when it will happen, although odds are good if I've been outside in the wind--or doing vigorous housework--or if I didn't wear socks at night and let my ankles and lower shins get cold--I will have An Attack. I can't take anything that will work against it. Old school Actifed used to do the trick, kind of, but you can't get it anymore. Now if I try to take something, like Benadryl, it just makes me dreadfully sleepy. So then I get to be three of the seven dwarves.
I can't operate heavy machinery. I can't go to the store. Sadly, the spouse will have to do grocery shopping today. I was lucky to be able to unload and load the dishwasher. Complex and critical thought is extremely difficult, as I get frustrated at the indescribable crawling sensation in my sinuses. I'm trying to write a grocery list, and even that is difficult.
What I can do is--drink a lot. And keep a metholated cough drop in my mouth. Over the years I've found--I have no idea why--that some kind of pressure on either the roof of my mouth or right under my nose (remember the old thing about putting your finger under your nose to stop a sneeze? It's not pressure on the nostrils that does it--it's on the maxilla right under the nose.) helps lessen the misery.
I should sum this up with something witty, but I got nothing.
Here's hoping I'm better tomorrow.