Driving, allergies, and the teacups

I've been pretty lucky. While Brad has always suffered from seasonal allergies, I have managed to skate around them. Last year, my eyes were a little itchy, and I took some drops for a few days. This year, though, I thought I'd get away completely free and clear. But, I've been having this on-and-off vertigo/spinning feeling for the past couple of weeks, and today my doctor thinks that it's because of fluid in my ears caused by allergies!

I would never have guessed. I'm not sneezing or having watery eyes or a runny nose, or any of that other unpleasant stuff I see Brad going through. Apparently, my body reacts to allergens like I'm always on the teacups at Disneyland. (And it's not that fun anymore.)

I could probably even deal with it for the most part, except the small matter of driving myself places. Like work. If I could teleport to work, I probably wouldn't think of taking the prescriptions. But, my sick days are already dwindling, and I think spring is going to outlast them. (Which is good--I love spring. But probably not good, allergy-wise.)

The problem with the prescriptions I got is that they're "class C" pregnancy drugs--which means that they've had bad reactions in the animal research studies, but since pregnant women don't get experimented on, nobody really knows how they affect fetuses. They could be totally fine, or they could not be fine.

I asked my doctor if I could try Claritin first, which is a "class B" drug, meaning it doesn't seem to cause birth defects. He said sure. I'm also going to my first acupuncture appointment next week since becoming pregnant, so I hope that might have a good effect, too. It would be great if I could try acupuncture before Claritin, but then again, I do need to drive myself over to acupuncture in the first place. And to work in the week in between now and my appointment.

I wouldn't have guessed that needing to drive would create such a drug dilemma for me! But it's yet another fascinating example of how closely I depend on my Beetle (and how disturbing it is not to be able to drive myself around)...and how unsettling it is to not know what the "right thing" is when matters of the baby are involved.

Wish me luck! I'm definitely ready to get off the teacups.

If you're interested in allergies and pregnancy, or medications in pregnancy in general: Dr. Spock's website has some good articles here and here.