Hay fever,  the innocent hiding an ogre! Don’t let it full you!

Until Matthew was 17 he was never really ill. He would get the occasional cold every now and again, a sprained ankle or bruise from exercising too enthusiastically but these were short lived problems which he completely forgot as soon as he would get rid of them. Then one year, it was the month of May, he woke up one morning with a blocked nose and a thumping headache; he remembered that over the past few days he’s been sneezing once, twice, three …. ten times and that his nose and eyes were watery.   ‘Mhhh I’m getting a cold’ he thought. ‘Oh well, it will be gone soon!’ But after a week he wasn’t better, nor after two weeks, nor after three or even four. In fact it took him almost three months to get rid of the cold and he didn’t like it. His blocked nose made breathing very difficult. And not only breathing, everything he did was harder: talking, eating, school work, biking, running, and even sleeping became a sort of a struggle.  Besides, the headache was there almost constantly, his eyes were itchy and swollen and streaming down continuously, his nose was dripping and itchy as well. Going out made things even worse and although he didn’t want to lag behind his friends, he found sometimes difficult to keep the step with them. He never thought to go to the doctor… it was after all just a cold! In the end he got rid of it, but it was almost at the end of the summer, just in time for going back to school! Then the autumn came and he forgot all about it, until … next May when one morning he again woke up breathing hard through his mouth because his nose was blocked; he again had dozens of bouts of sneezes all day and his eyes and nose were itchy and watery. ‘Oh, not that cold once more!’ he thought! It was in the middle of his summer exams and the blocked nose made him sleep badly and wake up tired, making concentration difficult. He felt sleepy and irritable. And reading the papers through streaming, itchy eyes didn’t make things easier either! That year again the cold lasted him weeks and once more he might have put up with it without going to doctor if he wouldn’t have gone out biking with his brother that afternoon.  Half way up the hill, which was not really very step and he used to climb it in a nick of a time he had to stop. He was terribly breathless and felt like there was a heavy weight on his chest which he had to shift up every time he took a breath. He made wheezing sounds when breathing and felt strangely panicked. He laid down in the grass by the road trying to catch up his breath but it seemed to get worse rather then better. In the end, they had to go back home walking slowly besides their bikes. He was still not well when he got home so his parents, alarmed took him to the doctor. And this is how Matt found out that the cold that troubled so much of his last two summers was in fact hay fever and the breathlessness that scared him and his parents that afternoon was an asthma attack which often accompanies hay fever.

Although Matt is a fictional character which I created this morning, his story is neither imaginary nor uncommon. It brings together real stories of patients I saw in my clinic.

If you recognize yourself in this story, then you might find useful to follow the series on hay fever which I’m starting today. You will learn why hay fever is not a cold and also that if you left it untreated not only it will get worse itself but it can open the door for other diseases like asthma, sinusitis or otitis; it can also make you moody and unable to enjoy life as before and it can also affect your intellectual performance and getting the wrong treatment may make this worse. There will also be a few simple tips that might allow you to take control of your disease rather than the opposite.

The continuation will be here in a few days. Come back for it! And remember that you can leave a comment on what you did and did not like; or about what you would like me to write; or ask me questions about your disease.