We talk a lot about the different minor problems we encounter after surgery but I have a question about an unexpected improvement. My AVR took place on the 22nd of September, 2009. Normally I have needed antihistamines every day during the spring and autumn and even then, a lot of the time I've lived with itchy eyes and sinus drainage. I guess I was so focused on the routine details of recovery last year that I didn't spend time thinking about my autumn pollen allergies. During the past few weeks, however, it has become very apparent that something has changed. As I think about it, I did not need antihistamine last autumn and this spring I've needed none. In March, I stocked up on them expecting to need my old friends again but the boxes are unopened. Now it is the first week of May and I have had no pollen allergy problems yet.
Has anyone else experienced this kind of change? I'm 60 this year and for the past two decades these allergies have arrived like clockwork and periodically left me miserable. Last autumn I wasn't even troubled by the ragweed and here in Oklahoma we don't just have ragweed we have Oklahoma Giant Ragweed that grows seven or eight feet tall. This spring, the maples blossomed and didn't bother me and always in the past, like the ragweed, maple pollen has been a problem. This year, nothing.
So, I thought I would ask if this has happened to anyone else. The only significant thing that has hap pended to me since last summer is the AVR. Except for the metoprolol, I'm taking the same drugs as in past years but I've had no need of anti-histamine. Perhaps there is no link between the AVR and the allergies. If there is, I don't understand what mechanism could be at work. What do you think?
Larry
Has anyone else experienced this kind of change? I'm 60 this year and for the past two decades these allergies have arrived like clockwork and periodically left me miserable. Last autumn I wasn't even troubled by the ragweed and here in Oklahoma we don't just have ragweed we have Oklahoma Giant Ragweed that grows seven or eight feet tall. This spring, the maples blossomed and didn't bother me and always in the past, like the ragweed, maple pollen has been a problem. This year, nothing.
So, I thought I would ask if this has happened to anyone else. The only significant thing that has hap pended to me since last summer is the AVR. Except for the metoprolol, I'm taking the same drugs as in past years but I've had no need of anti-histamine. Perhaps there is no link between the AVR and the allergies. If there is, I don't understand what mechanism could be at work. What do you think?
Larry
