Spring is in the air which means it’s allergy season. Lately I’ve been hit with paroxysms of coughing, and while “paroxysm” is a great Scrabble word it’s not a fun thing to have coming up out of my lungs. For most of my life I was happy I didn’t seem to be allergic to anything. And I really mean anything. I once fell in a patch of poison ivy, not deliberately, and rolled over, because I didn’t realize it was poison ivy and if I had I would have done my best to get vertical without any superfluous motion, but I came out of the experience literally without a scratch. Before I got cancer it was easy to fill out medical forms, at least when I got to the question, “Are you allergic to anything?” I could always dash off a quick “No” and move on. Now I hesitate over the question but there isn’t a check-box for “I don’t know and I’m terrified of finding out!”
I know it’s an allergy to, well, something because other than the coughing and the occasional sneeze I feel fine. Colds, the flu, and other actual diseases would have other symptoms. I’d at least feel tired and achy. In fact I’m lucky that my reaction whatever I’m allergic to that’s in the air right now isn’t that bad. I think of allergies as our bodies overreacting to something that’s basically harmless—that might even be beneficial. Peanuts and shrimp are good for most of us but I also have friends for whom peanuts and shrimp are lethal, which is why when we go out to eat I skip the pad thai.
Then it occurred to me that my wife and I have been doing some spring cleaning. Mostly I’ve been trying to reduce my book collection to a manageable size. Well, more manageable. Well, I’ve stopped trying to pack half the Library of Congress into our house. Librarians call it “weeding”–pulling duplicates and other books that, for whatever reason, are no longer necessary. It’s prompted some hard decisions. Obviously I don’t need two identical translations of Sir Gawain & The Green Knight–but do I need two? Well, one is a verse translation and the other is prose…In addition to the hard questions it’s also brought out some dust and that could be what’s caused the coughing.
I also remembered that I used to have a coworker who coughed all day every day. It wasn’t loud—just a steady drumbeat of low level expectoration. And it wasn’t hard to guess that her cubicle being right under a perpetually dusty air vent might have had something to do with it. Office changes have put me not quite under it but close to it. Which may be why the one thing that seems to stop the coughing is going outside—ironically the one thing that triggers allergies in a lot of other people.
Hey, Chris! I also have a story about poison ivy. Once when I was riding my bike while my first husband was jogging, I waited for him to catch up to me, sitting by the side of the road. When he showed up he said, “Do you know how you were asking me how to identify poison ivy? Well, you’re sitting in it.” Nothing happened. I have lived my whole life thinking I’m not allergic to anything but lately I’ve been considering that I might be allergic to my favorite snack — popcorn. Eating popcorn seems to increase my annoying jaw noises. Anyway, I’m just glad I’m not allergic to your posts because I’m addicted to them, too.
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