PHOENIX — Like many people in the valley, Stephanie Rusden suffers from allergies.

“[I’m] always stuffed up, eyes are always red and so I have to worry about that,” Rusden said.

To get by, she has to do a couple of different things.

“I try Claritin, but it doesn’t really help, and then I take Benadryl for night and red eyes,” she said.

With the recent storms dumping an enormous amount of rain, Rusden’s allergies might spike as new plants start to sprout, grow and bloom.

“The rain will bring out more pollen,” Dr. Darrell Wong with Arizona Allergy Associates said. “There are some people where the rain will actually improve their allergies because the rain knocks the pollen out of the air, but certainly any time you have more rain, the level of allergens or pollen in the air is higher.”

While over-the-counter drugs are easy for everybody to get, making a doctor’s appointment could be a better overall solution to feeling good longer.

“To treat them you, can do one of two things, is to block the symptoms with oral medications and nasal sprays or the other option would be to get an allergy injection as a way to remove the allergy and partially curing the allergies,” Wong said.

While allergies are a pain to deal with, Rusden said for her, it’s just a part of life.

“I love the rain,” she said.

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By Ryan O’Donnell
August 26, 2014
azfamily.com