Living with severe allergies means everybody has an opinion about your nose. Here are some actual greatest hits — things people have said to me, word for word.
“Oh, she’s just putting on.”
Putting on what, exactly? A performance? If I could turn this off, don’t you think I would? Nobody chooses the trumpet-nose-blowing, eyes-swollen-shut lifestyle for attention.
“I don’t care, you’re just going to have to get over it.”
Oh! Why didn’t I think of that? Decades of allergies, countless doctors, a pharmacy in my purse, and the cure was “get over it” all along. Groundbreaking.
“I shouldn’t have picked on you, now my baby has allergies.”
This one came from somebody who used to tease me right up until their own baby started sneezing. Funny how empathy shows up once it moves into your house. (No hard feelings. Mostly.)
“Why are you crying?”
I’m not crying, Brenda. My eyes are watering because your plug-in air freshener is staging a chemical attack in your living room. These are allergy tears. There’s a difference. (But when I am crying, no one asks because they think that it’s allergies)
If you’ve heard your own version of these, welcome. You’re among people who get it: tissue in every room, every purse, every car, and probably the shower.
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