If I filled my entire nose with Flonase, it wouldn't be enough

Somewhere, something in Kirksville has thrown my nose out of whack.

For the past few days, I've been sneezing, blowing my nose, and feeling somewhat miserable. I have a small supply of allergy medicing in my room, but I'd hoped they'd be like my spare glasses: never actually used, yet reassuring to keep around just in case. I did the same thing last year, yet never felt stuffed up like today.

I don't want to call this "allergies." My junior year, I spent a fair amount of the spring stuffed up and generally miserable, though I didn't do anything about it until I lost my voice a few days before music contest (and two weeks before the spring play). My friendly doctor diagnosed me with allergies, though he never said exactly what they might be. It didn't matter to him. I apparently had the classic allergy nose: you could "cut it off and stick it in a textbook for people to memorize." (He seriously said that.) Truthfully, the cough medicing I received in addition to my allergy perscriptions (a combination of once daily Clariting and "stick it up your nose and squeeze" Flonase) helped more than the other two combined. So, once the giant cough cleared up, I stopped taking the allergy medicine.

I haven't taken it on a regular basis ever since.

Sure, I've had times when I'd take pills for a week if I felt something coming on (like all of March for contest the next year), or I'd occassionally use a squirt of Flonase to help clear up a cold. Yet, I haven't felt all allergy-ish like this since I was first told I had them (though I still maintain I had a cold and my doc was delusional).

I don't want my theory proven wrong. One of my biggest accomplishments in life was that I escaped my genetics without allergies of any kind. I'd really love it if I didn't suddenly lose that to a pile of gross Kleenex.