Saturday, April 7, 2018

Allergies to the cats?

As far as I knew, I wasn't allergic to cats but at the same time, I've had very limited interaction with cats prior to adopting Leo and #2. So one thing I was concerned about before I pulled the trigger was the thought of discovering that I was in fact allergic after adoption.

Over the last few months, starting around January, I've noticed that I've been sneezing throughout the day even when I'm not in the apartment. This is something that's very uncommon to me and for it to happen daily was slightly alarming. But what made it worse was around mid-February I started getting really itchy eyes and runny nose, similar to the symptoms I get from pollen. It stuck to me as odd because it was way too early in the year for pollen. It's a possibility, but my symptoms usually don't come about until April, so February was quite a stretch. So I guess I'll have the next few months to figure out if it's the cats that are the cause of this... but also which one? I did notice the symptoms after #2...

I also don't know what I'll do if I am in fact allergic to the cats just because as idealistic it is to just put up with it because I made the commitment, it's also affecting my day to day life. My eyes are constantly in pain from itchiness and I'm constantly throwing out my contact lens because they get dirty easily. But I'm also constantly blowing my nose every few minutes and causing nosebleeds, etc. This is with taking medicine/eye drops and that already alleviates the symptoms quite a bit. I can't imagine what it's like having to tolerate this every single day, I'm already miserable during the spring.

As for updates for the two, Leo is turning one in a few days! He's still very attached to me and does cry a bit when he's hungry. He's been chewing on cardboard a lot lately but I think he should be done with teething by now, so I hope he does grow out of it. As for #2, I think he's adjusted quite a bit but he's still very timid most of the time. He occasionally hops onto the bed and sleeps by my legs and lets me pet him when he's laying down, but he still runs away otherwise. I haven't been able to hold him yet either. In terms of their interactions with each other, nothing has changed since the beginning. They chase each other after meal time for maybe 5 minutes every day and ignore each other otherwise.