Allergy Fun

Driving home from Robert Moses State Park



Ugh. Allergies suck. I've had them since I was a little girl, but lately, they've really been bringing me down. Apparently, going to the beach now causes me to break out in a rash (which is not sunburn) and hives. What?

Last Saturday, my boyfriend and I ventured out to the beach. We spent a nice hour and a half or so laying out on one of my old sheets, talking and enjoying the weather. It was hot out, but there was a nice breeze coming in from the water. On the ride home, I noticed that I was starting to get itchy. I thought maybe I had gotten a little burnt or that my skin was just dry, nothing that was out of the ordinary. Then after we got home, my boyfriend went to take a shower, and I realized that the back of my hand was covered in small hives. By the time he was done in the shower, I felt itchy everywhere, hives were also on my feet, and both of my thighs and my chest had broken out into a warm, red rash.

Looking up at the bridge going over the Great South Bay

  Fun, right? Unfortunately, this is the second time something like this has occured this summer. I broke out in rashes on my arms and legs a few weeks ago, also right after being at the beach. I don't know what's going on. It seems pretty clear that it's some sort of allergic reaction, but what am I allergic to? Is it the sun, the heat, the sand? Considering the hives and rash have been coming and going for the last couple of days, I'm baffled. I've been asking myself a million questions. Have I eaten something I don't normally eat? Have I changed any of the cleaning products I use? Is there anywhere I've gone that I could have come into contact with a substance I need to avoid? Are there any non-allergic conditions or diseases that match my symptoms?

Foot hives

It's crazy. Apparently, my mother and sister both sometimes get hives on their hands and feet after being out in the sun, so maybe we're just a family of vampires or something, I don't know. What I do know is that I'm already on allergy medication for about 75% of the year already; I take Zyrtec-D twice a day just to be able to function on a regular basis throughout the spring, fall, and parts of the early winter and early and late summer. I'm allergic to pollen of all kinds, mold, dust, grass, and about every tree that grows in my neighborhood. The past few years, I've all but baricaded myself indoors during the entirety of the spring and fall in order to avoid allergy and asthma attacks. Though I used to have my mother's olive-toned skin, I've become extremely pale, and my Vitamin D levels are startlingly low. I was on allergy shots when I was younger and they were recommended for me again a couple of years ago, but $90/week for only a possible 30% reduction in symptoms after two years? There was no way I was going to afford that as a college student, nor did it seem worth it.

I am so frustrated. Do any of you have really random/unidentified allergy triggers? How do you deal with them?