Thank God! I’ve found the combination that works for my hayfever.

The key is this new medicine, Levoceterizine. My itchy eyes are not so bad. Some days, I don’t get itchy eyes at all!

However, I was still Darth Vader, breathing through the mouth the whole time. A church member recommended this OTC nasal spray. I said I tried it before as well as most OTC & prescription nasal spray with no joy. But I bought one anyway.

What have I got lose anyway?

One scratch of a miracle… I managed to sleep through the night with clear airways on my first try. The following morning was the first summer morning in many years that I woke up with a clear throat.

Today is only my second day but I am happy and confident now. I need not worry anymore about looking sick during job interviews or being lightheaded at work.

My arsenal is complete with Optrex Eye Spray. It helps soothe my itchy eyes or what threatens to be one. And for shortness of breath or tightening of the chest which instigates coughing I still have Bricanyl from my cancelled hay fever desensitation treatment.

You wouldn’t understand my joy and relief if you haven’t suffered as much as I did or don’t know anyone who did. But oh! The release!! Ahh finally I can live normally.

Are you a Pinoy/Pinay from the 80’s? If you’re a telly-addict like myself, then you would be familiar with this old show called “Joey and Son” starring Joey de Leon and a very young Ian Veneracion.

My kababata is a spitting image of Ian especially when we were kids. We’re talking 4-6 year olds here. He still looks like Ian now only rougher but not in a good way.

Marlon and I were friends with his cousin, She. The three of us would play all sorts of games like taguang pung, bahay-bahayan, langit-lupa-impyerno, etc etc. We’d spend hours in our silong looking for dropped coins or catching spiders.

We even went to the barangay Day Care together but Marlon and I didn’t last long. He didn’t like it period. I didn’t like the lugaw they made us eat & the kids smelt bad.

He would often be the Tatay in our games but will also do the cooking, because I sucked at the traditional Nanay role. He can actually light the fire and cook boiled rice & veg in my palayok-palayukan.

Though we were friends, we’d often fight for silly reasons. We’d call each other names like bruha, bayawak and he’ll always end up crying. When any of his family hears him fighting with me, they’d be sure to give him a knock on the head or a generous twisting of his ear.

But he was a gentleman. I learnt to count really late and knew even less about money so he’d go with me to the store and count my change for me. He’d never look at me when Nanay insists on giving me a bath at our artesian well. He’d pump with his head looking the other way, while I stare at him making sure his head stayed that way.

We played  less and less as we grew older. By the time I entered a private primary school, we barely talked. Then my family moved to a different street and  we saw each other less. (more…