Miriam Collée has been fighting birch pollen since she was a child. The weapons: drops, pills, injections, needles, even electric shocks. Because the allergy always wins in the end, she is now trying peace negotiations.
The first thing I noticed about the house we were going to buy was the neighboring garden. Where other people have a lawn, a few flowers and a hedge around it, our neighbor has a birch forest. Or better said: a random and willless collection of 30 thin birch trees. Maybe back then, 15 years ago, I should have listened to my gut, which was already quietly sounding the alarm. But it was winter, and as always at this time, people with pollen allergies experience a kind of general amnesia. Red rabbit eyes, runny nose, coughing fits? Was there something? Oh, I survived it, and next time it won’t be so bad.
From an early age, I’ve had a cold through spring
I’ve had hay fever for as long as I can remember. Even in elementary school, my mother wrote me apologies on Mondays throughout March and April because I couldn’t open my sore, festering eyes after the weekends. My mother gave me eye drops, nasal sprays and pills that made me so tired that I regularly fell asleep at school. Nothing really helped. What followed: three years of hyposensitization, allergen-specific immunotherapy, during which a load of birch allergen extract was injected into my arm every few weeks. My defense system, which senselessly overreacts to completely harmless, natural substances such as pollen, should receive tolerance training. Unfortunately, the result was not what was hoped for: minimal improvement and maximum injection trauma.
Between the ages of 15 and 20, the usual symptoms included asthma attacks. And I learned to deal with the suffering that the little sausages hanging from the trees caused me. I stayed indoors whenever I could in the spring. But with the confinement came frustration: How could it be that the time of year when everything is blossoming, when my girlfriends were smooching guys who were also blossoming in the park, tied me to the sofa at home?
Looking for a solution
So I decided to take alternative paths. I collected nettle leaves, dried them in the living room and brewed them with hot water. I tried globules and Bach flowers. I rinsed my mouth with cumin oil. I practiced acupressure, which a traditional Chinese medicine guru advised me to do (for example, pressing the “granary” between my nose and upper lip with my index and middle fingers for five minutes).
I had blood taken from a vein in my arm in order to have it prepared homeopathically and injected intramuscularly back into my butt. And I watched helplessly as a friendly TCM professor from Shanghai pushed electrically connected needles into my nose and forehead, arms and legs, giving me small electric shocks. The same professor also turned my back into a dotted crater landscape by heating glasses with a Bunsen burner, which were first sucked into my skin and later removed again with a loud popping sound.
Most of these attempts ended in disappointment– with the exception of electroacupuncture, which at least provided relief in the short term, but unfortunately was not affordable in the long term. You can perhaps imagine the state my GP and I were in when he muttered: “Well… if all the antihistamines and asthma sprays don’t help… nighttime shortness of breath… I hate to do this… but I could also give you a cortisone… Give a depot injection.” – “I’ll take anything,” I said. And then a miracle happened: one day after the injection, the symptoms didn’t get any better – they were gone. Complete. For six weeks. I was human, no longer a spring zombie.
Acceptance & making the best of it
Unfortunately, the list of side effects of such injections is so long and frightening that my doctor shook his head the following year. “Please,” I whimpered, “just one more time.” I felt like a junkie. After that season, which was one of the worst, I surrendered. Without resistance. Since then, I have simply converted March and April into indoor months or try to schedule vacations to pollen-free areas during this time. Only sometimes, at night, does it come, this dream. In it I walk through Hamburg with a chainsaw and clear all the birch trees.
Allergy consultation
The most important questions about the right treatment
What does desensitization do?
According to a survey, 70 percent are satisfied with their results: on average, the need for medication and symptoms are halved, the risk of asthma decreases and existing asthma is alleviated. Desensitization – also called hyposensitization or specific immunotherapy (SIT) – is recommended for moderate to severe symptoms; there is no age limit; repetitions are also possible.
And autologous blood therapy?
Their benefits have not been scientifically proven. That’s why almost all statutory health insurance companies don’t pay.
Are these depot injections really that bad?
They are injected into the buttock muscle and continuously release cortisone there: the quick fix for a few weeks of freedom from symptoms. But over time – with repeated injections – side effects can occur, including muscle weakness, osteoporosis, increased intraocular pressure and blood sugar levels, and lens clouding. In addition, if the active ingredient ends up in the fat tissue instead of the muscle, it can break down. Such injections are really only an emergency solution.
Does acupuncture help?
There are studies that support its benefits, but most health insurance companies don’t pay. The German Allergy and Asthma Association recommends trying acupuncture as an accompanying therapy for allergic rhinitis.
What remedies are available without a prescription?
A whole lot. Last year, “Stiftung Warentest” evaluated non-prescription hay fever remedies. It is recommended to treat symptoms locally first: with eye drops (preferably without preservatives) with cromoglicic acid (to be taken one to two weeks before the pollen count) or acutely effective substances such as azelastine. Both active ingredients are also available as a nasal spray. If the nose runs more severely, there are sprays with cortisone such as beclometasone or mometasone. If local treatment is not sufficient, antihistamines can be taken as tablets (with cetirizine, loratadine, levocetirizine or desloratidine). Also helpful: nasal showers.
Miriam Collée She sometimes ate kilos of apples to combat her symptoms, according to the advice of a naturopath. With a noticeable effect: she felt sick; the allergy remained.