There is increasing suspicion that this country doesn’t appreciate the coolness which is natural to almost any Australian. Since I arrived at San Jose in February 2007, I’ve been feeling under the weather almost constantly and just assumed it was merely adjusting from the opposite seasons. Fall (or Autumn for the rest of the world) is Spring, Winter is Summer, Summer is Winter and Spring is Autumn. Assumed it would take a year or two to adapt, but apparently we were wrong.
My wife found a reliable medical doctor who explained that when you move to a new locale, your body is highly resistant to the new allergens in that area for around a year. This almost ties in beautifully after an incident when arriving back to California from a week-long trip to Maui in Hawaii. Timeline runs as such:
- Arrive in California 2007…sick almost straight away.
- Increasingly regular doctors trips for exacerbated asthmatic attacks, especially closer towards Winter.
- Going from 12-24 months on a Ventolin canister to needing a new one every month.
- Having a holiday in Maui was interesting. Almost none of my problems occurred for those 7-10 days.
- Arrive back in California and get smashed with the sledgehammer of Allergicity instantly.
As of the time of writing, we’ve seen an allergy specialist. The initial outlook isn’t good, being labelled ‘chronic’ within the first interview, and a ‘peak flow’ meter reading of 270L/m. I remember when I was just a teenager I was able to hit 450L/m but I suspect part of the decrease is just due to age and getting unfit.
The dreaded scratch-test is performed in another week or so. Yay me.