Steroid based treatments

Most every time I have visited a doctor in the USA, may be for a poison ivy rash or cedar pollen allergy or any form of cold/cough/etc, apart from the antibiotics (which I have been very rarely prescribed), the doctor has prescribed some form of steroid based treatment. It could be in the form of inhalers or tablets or cream, most every time it is steroid based. With almost 100% accuracy the treatments have worked and I have felt better each time. 

In the Initial days I used to be worried of these steroid based treatments, for my experience has always been with traditional medicine. But over the years I have come to understand that the medicine rarely cures (unless we are talking about cancer) but we are cured by the body’s innate ability to heal itself. Which we in the spiritual domain call the life force or Prana.

So, instead of taking the traditional medicines which mask the symptoms and hope that the body will feel better soon, isn’t it better to take the steroid based treatments and help the body accelerate the process of healing?   

Flonase or Nasonex

Both are steroid based nasal sprays, both are administered only through prescription and both are prescribed for cedar pollen related allergies, but for me Nasonex seems to work but Flonase does not.  

Austin is sometimes called the allergy capital, one of the main reason for this title is the obscene amount of cedar pollen in the air during months of December and January. It is fairly common here for people to live here for a few years and then start developing allergies towards the pollen. Cedar pollen bug caught me some time in January 2009. When it started I thought I was catching cold but there was no congestion that accompanies common cold, all I had was sneezing and in a few hours the nose got blocked so bad that I could hardly breath. I went to the doctor in 2009, he formally declared that I am a victim of cedar allergy. My condition was so bad that I had to take a corticosteroid shot. The good doctor also prescribed me Nasonex and even gave me a free sample that he had. The free sample and the prescription helped me survive the 2009 and 2010 cedar season.

Come 2011, I was out of nasal sprays and the ones I had were expired. I had to make a trip to the hospital. This time around the good doctor asked if I will be interested in generic Flonase nasal spray, I just wanted something to get relief and I said yes. After a week of spraying twice into each nostril once a day I didn’t get the relief I was looking for. I ran back to the good doctor again and this time he asked me “Are you ready for a steroid shot” and I replied “Not yet, but I want to change to Nasonex”. He gave me a prescription for Nasonex and told me to come back if the allergy symptoms gets worse.

After I switched to Nasonex, the allergy symptoms are gone and I have rarely sneezed. I do not want to be a spokesperson for Nasonex but figured there may be others like me who are struggling with cedar related allergies and can benefit from the switch. One can argue that the cedar pollen levels were the highest in the beginning of January and the levels have subsided since then.  

One thing to note is that my allergy symptoms were mostly itchy eyes, sneezing, blocked nose and tiredness (there is no way you cannot be tired when you are sneezing 10-15 times a minute). Others have more complicated symptoms and a steroid/allergy shot may be a better working option. Also, insurance covered both the drugs but out of pocket expense for Nasonex was higher than Flonase.