Monday, April 27, 2009

Pollen as bio-weapon

Saturday my allergies were so bad, I sat out that night's performance of Follies. I was in such bad shape (sneezing fits, eyes streaming, nose running, constant coughing) that I knew no one would want me anywhere near, let alone doing their make-up. I was so bad off, I was even getting an upset stomach, headache and sore throat.

Yesterday & today I'm still uncomfortable, but it's nothing like as bad as it was Saturday. According to the weather report on the news just now, that's because today's pollen count is 1730-ish, which is miserably high (the non-sensitive start feeling uncomfortable when it hits 200 or 250; those of us with allergies start feeling it when the count's at around 100 or lower). Saturday's count, however, was at 4539! When I was half-joking on Saturday that the count was in the Lethal range, I had no idea how close I was to the truth!

The news is full of swine flu symptoms - sneezing, coughing, itchy/runny eyes, sometimes diarrhea or vomiting. My first reaction was that it sounds indistinguishable from "pollen poisoning"!

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