Okay, so about 2 weeks ago I came down with a sore throat whjich gradually got worse and worse. It seemed isolated to one side of my throat. Two Sundays past my eyes then became inflammed and I had a wealth of mucosal discharge from my eyes. In the morning they were sticky/shut and had to slowly be flushed with water. I visited my campus health center and saw a PA who seemed convinced my symptoms were linked to allergies. She wasn't convinced there was anything related to a bacterial infection. I picked up eye drops and began the 2 drops 4x daily regime. After a day the itchiness and much of the discharge was gone. After 3 days I was able to return to work and after 5 days most of the redness was gone. By Saturday the sore throat I had disappeared. I thought I was free and clear, but not so fast...
My application of the eye drops had become a little infrequent, although still occurring. By the following Thursday (a week after I had returned to work) there was red inflammation again, and then the regionalized sore throat (right side) re-occurred! As I had taken Claritin-D to quell my histaminergic response I was now convinced allergies were contributing to my symptoms. I had to take yesterday off (Friday) and today I'm okay. (Still a little sore throat).
I'm fairly convinced there is something in my cityscape that is highly allergic. I know that there has been some work with my building so I'll have to check on that. However, I believe there may also be a virus going around that is able to reinfect the eyes. There is an adenovirus associated with pink eye, but usually once you have antibodies to these things, that's it, you don't get it again.
However, without jumping to a conclusion of some type of chronic irritating retrovirus that cannot be stopped -I would lean on looking further into your allergies. It may be that we have a allergy that makes us highly susceptible to a virus (even one we are immune to) that causes us to get sick again. (Like a temporary differentiated T-cell deactivator). What I mean is (and this may be totally bugs thinking), maybe your basophils get increased to the point (during an allergic onset) that a co-occurring virus, (like one left on your bedsheets or something you come in contact with) is able to take hold even through you have the antibodies to fight it. Maybe the allergic reaction fights your body's ability to fight it off!
I'm drinking green tea and looking to get an air purifier to place by my bed. I really like the effects of Claritin-D for the short haul, but it caused some insomnia with me last night so I'm going to be watching that. I'm from Fresno, and even with our ag-pollution and asthma rates, I have never experienced anything like this; I'm normally a very healthy guy. Contact me directly if you want,
Spud
.
