place of nathan.

This week my allergies have been acting up, and it’s been annoying.

This time of year, allergies make my eustachian tube swell closed, so air pressure cannot escape from my ear.
This creates unequal pressure between my eardrum and atmospheric pressure, and I hear a ‘crackle’ in my ear as my eardrum shifts a bit under the unequal pressure with movement such a chewing, yawning, etc.

It also slightly distorts my hearing out of my one ear. Normally it’s just the left ear, but when it’s really bad, it affects both my ears. Everything is slightly muffled. I don’t think I am hearing any tonal differences, just a bit muffled.

Another symptom of my allergies this time of year is sinus congestion. It gets really bad. At times, I have coughed up rather large pieces of phloem. About the size of a golfball. No, not really. More like a small marble, i would say.
But this phloem also is in my throat as I sleep, which means I snore, or so my wife tells me.

To combat this allergy, Claritin-D works the best–actually, it works perfectly, but it has side effects. It makes me very irritable. It’s like I’m constantly ticked off already, so you better not cross me!
This is not a good side effect, so I am trying to deal with the allergies by taking Benadryl Allergy, which helps a lot, and only slightly increases my irritability. I have to still try to be the happy optimist I normally am. While I’m on these drugs, I turn into a huge pessimist. It’s really odd.

Have you ever had such a side effect? How do you deal with being so irritable? How do you suggest I deal with my irritability?
And, I apologize in advance if I turn on you as a pessimist!

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