Several years ago, I was having problems with my nose being constantly clogged. No particular reason, I was just having trouble breathing. In '99, I finally went to see a doctor, who prescribed Flonase, a steroidal inhaler. Over the next several years, I saw a few more doctors (mostly to refil the prescription and tweak it so I didn't get as many nosebleeds, etc), and one of them told me I should supplement the Nasonex (same drug, different dose) with Benedril at night and Claritin in the morning. I took those for a long time, and eventually dropped the Benedril 'cause I didn't notice a difference.

Recently, I decided that the cost of the Nasocort (my current stuff) combined with the fact that I'm taking a daily dose of bone-density-decreasing drugs make it worth reconsidering what I'm doing to my body. So I stopped taking the Nasocort, and as an experiment, I stopped with the Allerclear (Costco's cheaper Claritin equivelant) as well. This is when I made the interesting discovery.

I think I'm allergic to cats.

Without my antihistimines, my nose gets runny and I sneeze a lot, and my eyes get puffy and itchy - and the symptoms increase when I'm around my cats. So needless to say, I'm putting myself back on the Allerclear. We'll see how I do without the Nasocort - so far, my nose is getting a little more clogged, but not to the Apnea-inducing levels it was at before. We'll see...