I dunno exactly in what order to start so bear with me:
I have been working at machine shop for 5 years now. The pay is great, the hours are super flexible, the boss is my second cousin and a lot of family works there. Its a small family owned shop and they treat me well.
However, in the last 5 years, it seems as though my allergies went from non existent to crazy hyper. At first i thought i was just growing up and my body was adjusting weird to things, but things never went away. I thought this was odd. I was the person who never had hay fever or seasonal allergies, never had allergies to ANY animal, never had problems with dust or household allergens and all of a sudden, seemingly coinciding with me working at the machine shop im getting all sorts of problems. In this shop you have coolant fog, dust, and cutting oils lingering in the air and im breathing that in.
So i started by going to my doctor. He thought that maybe the allergy season was strong and i was having a rough time with it so i got some medicine and went on my way. It did not really help me at all. I have taken Loredadine, Clariton,Zytrec, as well as knock offs of all of these. I have taken Benadryl and a hand full of others. None seem to work.
Now during these past 5 years i have been miserable with allergies. I have a relentless runny nose, watering eyes--sometimes itchy, more runny nose, congestion, lots of coughing but not really with flem or anything coming up. Its frustrating, makes me a pain to be around and really makes me feel horrible and helpless. Not only that but everything around me triggers allegries. You name it and my body starts acting up. I used to not have ANY problems with ANY thing. now i pet a cat for a minute and the day is shot due to symptoms and the next day is shot for recovery. it sucks.
[my theory is that work messes up my sinuses and weakens/ messes it up so bad that allergins that used to not effect me now do because my immune system has been weakened. since i always work, it never heals or gets better so im always sick, while im away from the shop i begin to heal and i get better b/c my immune system is working...this is my theory]
SOOOO, every year in the summer our company has two weeks shut down. Over shut down, my allergies have almost totally disapperared. I was in good health and good spirits and stopped taking any and all allergy medicine because i was feeling that well.
Then this past week i went back to work. Within a few hours of working my allergies slowly crept back. As im typing this full symptoms have returned and i feel like crap.
This leaves me thinking two things:
A) When i was on vacation (one week out of state, the other week mostly away from home) my allgeries cleared making me believe that my job is causeing my allergy problem
OR
B) Work has nothing to do with it and there is something in my home thats making me sick (and/or work is not helping)
First of all whats your guys/gals input on this?
I am thinkin of taking 2 more weeks off from work. If i remain sickly then its something in my house. if i get better like i was on vacation then its something at work.
IDEAS?
THanks