Maple Tree Allergy

All 13-year-old Billy Blalock wanted to do was rake his neighbor's leaves to earn some spending money. When the sneezing fits began, the boy's plans were threatened unless he could swallow a potent antihistamine prescribed by the family doctor. Thankfully, a California Health Insurance Agent had made the price of the pills a little easier for Billy's parents to swallow.

Billy Blalock was eager to earn extra money. He needed a new skateboard and Playstation 3, but his parents were scrimping just to get by. His "job," raking leaves at the Jones next door in their modest Rancho Bernardo 'hood', seemed like a no-brainer. When Sally Jones, a pert brunette thirty-something whom Billy considered "a second mom," agreed to Billy's raking after school, the teenager was elated.

"I can rake!" he exclaimed to Betty, his first mom, "I can rake!" "Yes you can," she replied deadpan, sort of like a 34-year-old feminine version of a Caucasian Barack Obama.

But a strange thing happened on the way to Billy's raking. Underneath the Jones's imported maple tree, an exotic from New England, Billy sneezed. He returned to raking. He sneezed again. He started raking again, a bit more tentatively this time. Suddenly he sneezed in a burst, once, twice, three times, perhaps a hundred times as he couldn't stop sneezing. Billy was sneezing so hard he was crying. He ran away in tears from the poisonous tree straight to Sally's ample bosom. "Second mom! Second mom!" Billy cried, "I can't." "You can't what?" Sally asked, noticing the tears in the eyes of her neighbor's son.

"Rake," Billy blurted, sobbing.

Billy's real mom Betty decided to seek a medical solution since they'd purchased an individual child's plan from a California Health Insurance agent. Dr. Quag was friendly to Billy at his office and patted his belly several times, which seemed a bit weird to the boy. The prescription, however, gave Billy hope. The doctor prescribed sixty milligrams twice a day of a drug called fexofenadine, also referred to as Allegra, and the funny thing was, Billy had even heard of it, having seen it recently on a TV commercial. "Allegra," Billy said, "I'll be Taking Allegra so I can rake by the maple tree!"

"Yes, you can," said Dr. Quag, "if you remember to take your peach-colored pills!"

Betty was there too. "It's peachy that Billy's Allegra isn't costing me out of pocket," she said.

"Are they peach flavored?" Billy asked.

Allegra Caused Me 30 Days of Misery - Here's Why

Allegra is all over TV and radio these days. "Get relief from your seasonal allergies" - sounds promising right? Sure it does, as long as you don't have the horrible side effects I had. Here's my story...

It was August 2007. I have bad hay fever symptoms and was looking for a safe and effective solution to provide some relief from my symptoms for the next (hopefully not so miserable) season. I eventually came upon an online prescription website with what seemed to be very reasonable prices on medication named Allegra. The benefits sounded great. The side effects, not so much, but like everyone else I figured I'd never experience any of them. So I went ahead and purchased a 60 day supply to give it a whirl. I received the pills about 2 days later in unmarked packaging. Now the fun begins.

I normally try to avoid prescription medications like the plague. But my seasonal allergies made me so miserable, I was willing to try anything. I immediately took my first pill and didn't notice any change for about 2 days. At that time I started experiencing drowsiness and a backache. I didn't think anything of it at first, figured it was just your average every day aches and pains, which usually go away on their own. I was very wrong in that assumption! After 5 days total of taking the medication, those symptoms continued and even worsened to a point where I was having to take pain medication to function normally. Keep in mind I had not been informed about the Allegra side effects, so it didn't cross my mind that this medication might be causing them. So I continued taking the medication.

Into my 14th day on Allegra, I was not only having the original side effects, but now some additional ones as well. My ears were starting to have severe pain and I was beginning to experience symptoms of insomnia, which for me was very strange. At this point I didn't know what was wrong with me. I was becoming very miserable and didn't know why. I was experiencing relentless and severe ear pain, insomnia, drowsiness, backache and headache. It was getting to a point where my quality of life was next to nil. My work suffered severely and so did my social life, not to mention my mental health at the time. I was 100% miserable!

This went on for another 2 weeks, for a total of 1 month of what I like to call "hell on earth". I finally made an appointment with my Dr. to try and figure out what was going on. I know what you're thinking, why wait so long? Well if you knew me, you'd know why. I basically have to be on my death bed before I drag myself into the Dr's office willingly. But that is exactly how it felt, so I finally made the appointment.

My Dr. was perplexed at first as well. But eventually told me that I should try getting off of the Allegra to see if that had any effect on the symptoms. So I immediately stopped taking the medication, and sure enough the symptoms started to recede immediately. About a week later I started sleeping more at night, and my various severe pains had vastly improved. After 2 weeks Free of Allerga, I was feeling about 95% back to my old self again. I was absolutely ecstatic that all I had to do was stop taking Allegra to cure the problem! I had no idea one allergy medication could make me feel so miserable.

My advice: Make SURE you know the possible side effects of any medication you plan on taking. I know this seems like a no brainer, but you need to be 100% informed before taking any prescription medication, so you don't spend 30 days in hell like I did. And don't be an idiot like I was, go to your Dr. to obtain the medication, don't go and order it online without being informed first.

I still have seasonal allergies, but am I going to try another allergy medication to help with the symptoms? No way! On another note, I have a 30 day supply of a great seasonal allergy medication at half the retail price. Any takers? No? I didn't think so.