bobafred

I’ve pretty much always had fairly horrible seasonal allergies. When I moved from Connecticut to Georgia in 1990 my allergies actually got better, at least for a few years. Then there was the year I had a nosebleed everyday for 2 months. That’s not an exaggeration. I didn’t start taking prescription allergy medicines until I got to college after a trip to the allergy clinic revealed that I was a perfect case study for their nurses in training and that I was getting a “nose crease” from rubbing my nose so much.

First, I started with Allegra. It worked well, but having to go to the doctor to get the prescription refilled is annoying. So, when Claritin went over the counter, I made the switch. It never worked as well as Allegra, but the convenience of it made it the winner (at the time). It seemed that from season to season Claritin had varying levels of success, though. I don’t remember last year being that bad, but the first few weeks of this season where nearly unbearable. I was a snot infested sneeze-fest. One day I sneezed so much, I actually pulled a muscle, which made subsequent sneezes and coughs not awesome.

So, I switched again. This time to the newly over the counter Zyrtec. Initially I bought a five pack to see how it worked and from day one it was great. My head feels way less full, I’m sneezing less, my eyes are less burny, and nosebleeds are at a minimum. An excellent test of its powers occured on Friday after work when I metup with the lady and some friends at Sweet Water for the beer tasting (I did not taste any) thing they do during the week. We were outside for about an hour and a half with only two sneezes. Success! So, this past weekend we headed back to the pharmacy to pick up a 60 pack of the store brand Zyrtec.

For now, Zyrtec is the winner. I’m not sure if I would switch back to Allegra if it ever goes over the counter, guess we’ll have to see how Zyrtec does over time.

Tags: allegra, allergies, claritin, connecticut, georgia, pollen, sneeze, sweetwater, zyrtec