Allergies or Fiber?

My allergies are absolutely terrible this year. Even with allergy medication 2x a day, plus nasal spray, plus wearing a surgical mask, plus showering once I am indoors, I feel terrible. It has been raining the last few days so at least there was some respite, and I felt OK during the weekend. However yesterday things seemed to hit the fan. 

We had all had a shitty night of sleep with the girls waking up at various intervals, and so I already began the day -20 HP. Then I discovered E seemed warm, after she complained that her head hurt. I gave her tylenol and kept her home just in case, bracing myself for a challenging day ahead (it always is when both kids are home). When we got home after M's gym and a quick grocery run with E, I started boiling wintermelon soup. For that, because of the open flame, I had to have the kitchen windows open for aeration. At the same time, I also had the fan blowing in that direction, hoping to blow the carbon fumes/allergens outwards. 

While that was cooking slowly (window open for hours!), I was at the same time working on the sleeves of a cardigan I was knitting. This was my first time working with a pretty loosely spun single (thanks Sirdar Jewelspun), and because I had made mistakes and had to frog the same sections twice, the fibers were sticking out and flying about. I don't know if it was the result of everything together, but my nose constantly felt itchy when I was knitting. I had felt that before, but not to this extent. But I wanted to finish the damned sleeve, and I was too mentally tired to do anything else or focus on KCD2. So I knit, through all the nose itching.

Around 5pm however, I really started to feel miserable. I started sneezing up a storm (maybe the antihistamines wore off), the type of sneeze that opens up the back of your throat and comes out full force. Then my nose started running. I sneezed so much after that, for the remainder of the day, that I went to bed with a full fledged sore throat from all that explosive action. I felt miserable. Then I woke up around 4am for a bit and my throat felt quite sore, so I ended taking some tylenol and managing to go back to bed. My nose was stuffed and full of gunk, so evidently I was also snoring too, compounding my throat problems. 

This morning I woke up feeling pretty shit, with a looming bad headache to boot. But after the medicine I took kicked in, I felt much better and managed to go for another rowing class. I had especially wanted to make this class because I had mentioned it to Ashley, a mom of one of E's classmates, and she was going to go for a trial class today, and I wanted to be there for her. We had a good and exhausting time, and now I am home, enjoying the peace and quiet since both kids are at school. I am content and happy for now... until my nose inevitably acts up again.