Tere!

I was 10 years old when I remarkably saw the symptoms of a pollen allergy. I used all the tissues that I had so I was trying to stop the runny nose with a thin hand towel. It happened during a test or something and my teacher was so worried about me. Since then, I had a box of tissues in my desk drawer to spend spring.

Then every spring I got the best friend: a mask. No matter how many times I blew my nose, I had a runny nose, so I put tissues in my nose and wore a mask to hide it. (I did this sometimes because no one could see the inside of the mask and it was better to have a runny nose.)

I think I started taking medication for pollen allergy since I became a university student. I believe if I had started taking medication earlier, I would have comfortably spent spring. However, it doesn’t mean that I have a bad memory. It’s just a past moment.

As a university student, my work colleague recommended a medicine that we could buy without prescription at a pharmacy, but it wasn’t effective for me at all. So I went to see an ENT doctor in my hometown, and he said that type of medicine is not necessarily effective for everyone.

I don’t remember when exactly, but I was running out of the pollen allergy medicines that I got in my hometown, so I went to the ENT hospital near my flat in Kyoto. The doctor said we couldn’t see the effect unless I started taking the medication before the pollen allergy started (like from January as the pollen allergy starts in March or something in Japan). I also got medication for when the symptoms are more awful, which is instantly effective, but in terms of the daily pollen allergy medication, it requires time.

Then, I went to Ireland as an exchange student. Before going there I didn’t think of the pollen allergy at all, but when it was getting warmer in Dublin, I felt I slightly had a runny nose. In the beginning I wondered about regular sickness, but I didn’t see other symptoms like a sore throat, so I realised that I had the pollen allergy in Ireland too.

However, I didn’t take any medication in Ireland because it wasn’t that awful, and a small pack of tissues helped me enough.

But it was different in Northern Europe.

In Estonia (and Finland too), there are lots of birch trees. Since there was not so much information about Estonia before going there, I referred to information about Finland, and found the fact that the Finnish have the pollen allergy owing to birch.

But it was information on Finland, not Estonia, so I contacted someone in Estonia, and he said

I’ve never heard of pollen allergy in Estonia. I don’t think there is.

I thought “That’s probably because you don’t have the pollen allergy”.  (I was pretty sure that Estonia had a pollen allergy, but I needed someone’s real voice.)

Then I contacted another person, and he said if I asked for the pollen allergy medication at a pharmacy, they would give me the medicine.

Glad to know!!!

I tried two types of pollen allergy medicines in Estonia, and found Claritin in a blue box seemed effective for me. Since then, I start taking it every January. It costs 10 to 13 euro per package which contains 30 tablets, so if I keep taking it until June, around 60 euro is gone in total, but it’s  a good investment for my health and comfortable life. 

However, it was different in 2021.

I think I started taking the pollen allergy medication a bit later than usual this year, and Claritin doesn’t work well (occasionally)!

I brought medicines for an awful case from Japan, and I was forced to take it too. Otherwise, even if I take Claritin, I have a huge runny nose.

Every year, it was fine as long as I took the pollen allergy medicines, but this year (in 2021) I had itchy eyes too!

My eyes are awfully itchy!

I couldn’t bear it, so after wondering if I should buy an eye drop at a pharmacy or book an appointment at the ENT hospital, I eventually decided to try the eye drop from the pharmacy. I asked two of my Estonian friends, and they told how to say the eye drop in Estonian:

õietolmuallergia silmatilgad.

One of them told me “Allergodiil” usually works well, so I went to the pharmacy near my place, and found only one left! It cost around 6 euro.

On purchasing the eye drop, I applied it, and it seemed it was instantly effective. After that, I didn’t have itchy eyes.

I still don’t know why this year the pollen allergy is so awful, but anyways for the future reference, I decided to write it down as maybe I will need the eye drops again next year (although I’m not sure if I’ll still be here).

Aitäh! 🙂

P.S.

The other friend sent me this message. You’re not wrong, mate.