Prescription Strength Antihistamines

I wrote a post recently on antihistamines and the restless legs syndrome trigger. It can be extremely difficult for me to balance the medications I need and the fact some of them can aggravate RLS.

My allergies have worsened over time

For some reason, I can’t fathom that the older I get the worse my allergies get. I was under the impression for some reason that they were supposed to get better as you got older. But, yeah — mine got so much worse.

After I got COVID, my asthma went a bit nutbars, and I saw a respiratory specialist. The main benefit of that was the fact that she helped with my allergies. Apparently, it is pretty common for people with asthma to have chronic congestion. She helped treat that with a nasal spray I have to take daily with my daily inhaler.

She also said I have to take daily antihistamines, as well as other ways to manage my allergies.

My respiratory therapist recommended prescription-strength antihistamines

I recently had my checkup with the repository therapist to make sure my lungs are still all in order and still breathing and whatnot. She recommended as we talked that I go on prescription strength antihistamines. "What now?" I thought. "Such a things exists? And no one told me until now?!"

I am all for it. I was quite excited by the idea. I never knew prescription strength existed and it seemed like a darn fine solution to me.

Well, I thought so at the time, anyway.

Questions I still have about antihistamines and RLS

I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow where I'm supposed to be asking for this medication, and I'm second-guessing the whole venture.

First of all, I question if I really need another prescription-strength medication. Just seems like a whole new list of potential side effects and interactions, really.

I also really wonder what it will do to my restless legs syndrome if regular strength is such an aggravating factor, especially since my sleep issues have been really out of whack lately. I wonder about the new medication's longevity in the body, because if I continue to space out my medication so that my antihistamines do not bother my RLS as much, will that strategy even work anymore with a stronger medication?

I definitely do not want to treat one condition and then have to end up taking more medication for the other, especially when taking certain RLS medications means you end up with augmentation.

Asking my doctor for advice

However, my allergies are pretty crazy. I agree that if I can’t seem to quite manage them it does bother my asthma situation — not to mention it is extremely frustrating.

And, also, in this day and age, a sneeze or a cough in public makes me feel like I need to explain, "It’s just allergies. I’m not sick. Really. I mean it. I will take a lie detector test." Ever try to hold in a sneeze or cough in a doctor’s office? I have. It is very hard. It is like holding down a volcano in your mouth.

I’m going to have to ask my doctor for advice on this one. She knows the prescription pile of meds I am on and whether we should add to that stack or not. Whether it makes sense or not. And if it does make sense, I’ll give it a go, but not at the price of making my RLS scream. I have to have some sort of balance.