My Allergy Journey: 12 Milligrams And My Happy Place
If you’re just joining us, welcome to my blog, which recently morphed from a blog about street photography and other issues related to the world of photography and observing into a journal of my treatment as an adult, which will hopefully eliminate severe allergic reactions that have been a stressor for my entire life. If you’re just here for the photographs, scroll down. If you’re dealing with allergies for yourself or a loved one, I hope you find this series interesting!
Challenges Facing a Suburban Street Photographer
As a street photographer living in the New Jersey suburbs, I’m always down for a trip to New York City. Many years ago, I lived in Chelsea, and loved every minute. I could leave my apartment on West 21st St and start taking pictures immediately. Bliss. On the other hand, the train ride into The City from where I live takes around an hour and a half. Walking around Manhattan for an hour or two is at least a half-day commitment.
Getting treated for allergies has given me an excuse to do street photography every couple of weeks, and that puts me in my Happy Place. Some days, such as today, the trains are not delayed and I have an extra half hour or so to take pictures. Most of my photos these days are shot between Penn Station and the 6th Ave. and 34th Street subway station, where I hop on the Q train, AKA the sleek 2nd Ave. line, which opened up just a few years ago and made it possible to get to 75th Street in about 15 minutes.
I try to build in plenty of extra time for (a) photography and (b) a pre-treatment bagel at Bagel & Co. I am supposed to eat a carb-heavy meal before dosing, and what better way than with a toasted Garlic Bagel with a shmear of green olive cream cheese?
My New Dose
This week, I graduated to a dose of 12 milligrams of allergens—and a larger dosing spoon! In six weeks, I’ve gone from a barely visible amount to an amount of ground cashew nuts and sunflower seeds that I can easily see and almost taste in the spoonful of applesauce that is my dose delivery system.
Let’s take a look at the spoons, which I use to measure my doses. Every two weeks, my dose is doubled at the office, and then I continue to self-dose at the new amount at home until the next session.
I started with this teeny tiny spoon, taking one each of ground sunflower and cashew.
A couple of doses later, I graduated to an intermediate spoon and doubled the amounts over two weeks.
Now, this week, I’ve graduated to the “white spoon,” which holds a couple of milligrams. I’m told that pretty soon, I’ll be using a scale to measure my doses.
This Week’s Street Photos
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