Hi everyone,
I just wanted to document some of my allergy symptoms and see if any of you had similiar symptoms. I know I react to something, but it is hard to say if it is just one thing or a combination.
This all started about 10 years ago while in college. I would be congested every night and wake up just miserable. I went on like this for almost the whole year until I thought to look under my mattress and discovered a greenish, large stain of what I thought was mold on the particle board.
That seemed to "set the stage" and since then, I have been sensitive to other things, as well.
My symptoms are worse when I wake up in the morning. I might go to bed not too congested, but wake up all blocked up and just miserable. I have dark circles under my eyes all the time and feel old and tired every day. I can feel my sinuses draining (clear or whitish mucous) and sometimes this upsets my digestive tract.
This seems to improve during the course of the day. By the afternoon, I can usually breathe freely through my nose. But the overall fatigue hangs on all day, and I find it hard to function well.
(I should mention that I grew up in a home that had constant water problems, and when my parents took up the carpet in my bedroom a few years ago, they found some big spots of blackish mold in the particle board. Who knows if the walls had mold--probably. I'm wondering if this predisposed me to allergy problems overall).
My symptoms seem to improve in the following conditions: 1. In air conditioning; 2. outside; 3. just by being up and walking upright-things seem to "drain" on their own; 4. In cool, dry air, like in the beginning of fall.
At this point, I haven't had medical intervention, but I largely suspect mold, dust mites and pollen, all to various degrees. Does anyone have any thoughts or insight, or suffer similiar symptoms?

Sounds like dustmites since you have the symptoms at night....beds are full of them. Try a benedryl at bedtime.

I have similar problems. Also whatever lurks in books that are more than a few years old cause major symptoms. Your primary care provider can help you by prescribing a nasal steroid spray. There are various brands. Supposedly these don't give problems like the over the counter ones. Anyway I have used one brand or the other for years. Something like Claritin which used to be prescription only but is now available over the counter is helpful. It is a longlasting pill. You can get a cheap generic version (loratadine tablets) at Aldis Food Store. It would probably be helpful to be checked out by an ENT doctor--you may have polyps or a deviated septum which could be fixed and help alot.

I think that mold exposure can cause the start of allergies (just my opinion, though). I agree with Tichou, it must be dust mites, which BTW, are the easiest allergen to control. Do you have dust mite covers on your mattress and pillow? Get rid of the clutter in your BR and clean/dust it often, especially vacuuming. IMO, if your symptoms improve outside it probably isn't a pollen allergy. Air conditioning decreases dust mites because they need greater than 50% relative humidity to survive. Air conditioners also decrease mold for the same reason.

Hi everyone,
Thanks for your thoughts and suggestions. I do have a dust mite mattress cover and pillow covers (though the mattress cover doesn't seem to fit the entire length of the bed-it's a queen-size pad but I couldn't get the pad zipped around the mattress. So maybe it's not really helping things).
We do have carpeting in our bedroom, which I would rather get rid of (and my husband, who also has allergies, apparently wants to keep the carpet)...but the rest of our house has wood floors, so I don't notice as much of a problem in the living room or dining room, for example.
We also live in an old home (builti in 1928). We have central air conditioning, but haven't had it cleaned (we've lived here for about 1 year). Is it expensive to get your air conditioning filters cleaned?
Also, I did take the generic Claritin-D (the 24-hour kind) last night. For once, I could actually breathe through my nose freely, but the downside was, it made me extremely alert, edgy and I didn't sleep most of the night. In fact, I think it might have even increased my heart rate (when I got up in the middle of the night, I literally felt my heart pounding, just from that small exertion). I felt like I had taken a huge jolt of caffeine, basically, and it was quite annoying. I still feel these physical after-effects today, but I think my heart rate has slowed some (and I can still breathe through my nose).
I'm thinking about Benedryl next time, especially since it makes me sleepy.
Any further thoughts/suggestions?
Thanks!

Oh, and one more thing--someone mentioned books. I do have my own library, but it's located just off the living room, so not near the bedroom. Maybe I should take the dust rag to those bookshelves (there are three of them) soon!

The only thing that we do with our air conditioning is change the furnace filter quite often and use a really good filter. What probably kept you awake all night was the D in the Claritin. Decongestants cause insomnia for many people, 3 out of 4 in my family! Do you wash your dust mite covers periodically? How about your blankets?