Chlorine allergy and the end of my swimming days.....
Former Member
Well I'm grateful every day to be healthy enough to swim and not chronically ill or something, but am at my wits end to have come to the conclusion I may very well have to give up swimming. That past year I have been dealing with horrible sneezing bouts post swim that leave me sounding like I have a cold for days. I tried a nose plug for 3 weeks after reading somewhere that might be it even though I don't feel like water gets in there. No effect. Took a week off swimming and my symptoms abated. Got back in Monday and have been a mess.
Makes me quite bummed to think I may have to ditch my swimming...it's hard to stop something you love doing 5x a week that you have been doing for over 30 years. Would love to know if anyone has successfully combated this issue and how. The Googles has been a joke for solutions....all lead to 'stop exposing the person to chlorine'. We have zero salt water pools and I'm 45 minutes from the nearest lake.
Feel free to suggest anything....thanks!
Sorry about your reaction to the pools, it's certainly not fun! I have had issues before - not sneezing - but coughing fits in pools that are not ventilated well enough. It was so bad in high school, that my allergy doctor put me on a inhaler (cannot remember the medicine, but it came in a pill form, I had to put it in the inhaler, spun it to break up the pill and I then had to breathe that in). The dr said it was exercise induced asthma but who knows. Anyways, I later moved to another state and the issue slowly went away. BUT, as an adult, if I am in a pool that does not have good ventilation I will have the same fits and sometimes have to go outside to get my lungs clear. Then, my throat and lungs feel "gunky" for a couple days after that. Luckily I am in an awesome facility now (very tall ceilings and salt water system). So is there another pool that you can go to that may offer better air quality? Full snorkel mask maybe? Good luck to you and I hope you find a solution!
Sorry about your reaction to the pools, it's certainly not fun! I have had issues before - not sneezing - but coughing fits in pools that are not ventilated well enough. It was so bad in high school, that my allergy doctor put me on a inhaler (cannot remember the medicine, but it came in a pill form, I had to put it in the inhaler, spun it to break up the pill and I then had to breathe that in). The dr said it was exercise induced asthma but who knows. Anyways, I later moved to another state and the issue slowly went away. BUT, as an adult, if I am in a pool that does not have good ventilation I will have the same fits and sometimes have to go outside to get my lungs clear. Then, my throat and lungs feel "gunky" for a couple days after that. Luckily I am in an awesome facility now (very tall ceilings and salt water system). So is there another pool that you can go to that may offer better air quality? Full snorkel mask maybe? Good luck to you and I hope you find a solution!
