I've started swimming recently. I swim 3-4 days a week, and I'm enjoying it very much. I am experiencing one problem, however, that I would like to overcome if possible. Typically after swimming, my nose gets very stuffy, and this can last for as long as a day or two. It can be pretty uncomfortable, and others notice it when I speak. It's especially bad if I do a lot of backstroke or otherwise get a few good splashes up my nose.
Any suggestions will be appreciated, especially from fellow sufferers.
I too have bad allergies (actually took shots for them for about 10 years), and it got so bad a year or so ago that I was coming home from the really long practice on Sundays and sneezing to the point that my nose was sore. I would take a couple of a Benadryl (you were close on the spelling, Cynthia!), which of course would render me unconscious the rest of the afternoon (but at least I wasn't sneezing). This only happened on Sundays, when the workouts are about an hour and a half long; during the week, I only get to swim about 45 minutes. I'm sure part of the problem was the chlorine drying out my sinuses, but I think part of it was also the mold in the facility. I don't mean to say that my pool is a moldy old pool. It's actually a nice, new facility. But in the South it's pretty hard to get away from mold. Even if you can't see it or smell it, it's there. And I know from allergy testing that I'm more allergic to it than just about anything else.
All of this is to say that if your problem is mold, about your only choices are avoidance (i.e., find another pool) or antihistamines. Or I guess you could talk to the pool management and find out if there's anything they can do to control the mold growth. UK (where I swim) must have done something since last summer, because it's not happening to me anymore.
Maybe a trip to an allergist would be helpful.
I too have bad allergies (actually took shots for them for about 10 years), and it got so bad a year or so ago that I was coming home from the really long practice on Sundays and sneezing to the point that my nose was sore. I would take a couple of a Benadryl (you were close on the spelling, Cynthia!), which of course would render me unconscious the rest of the afternoon (but at least I wasn't sneezing). This only happened on Sundays, when the workouts are about an hour and a half long; during the week, I only get to swim about 45 minutes. I'm sure part of the problem was the chlorine drying out my sinuses, but I think part of it was also the mold in the facility. I don't mean to say that my pool is a moldy old pool. It's actually a nice, new facility. But in the South it's pretty hard to get away from mold. Even if you can't see it or smell it, it's there. And I know from allergy testing that I'm more allergic to it than just about anything else.
All of this is to say that if your problem is mold, about your only choices are avoidance (i.e., find another pool) or antihistamines. Or I guess you could talk to the pool management and find out if there's anything they can do to control the mold growth. UK (where I swim) must have done something since last summer, because it's not happening to me anymore.
Maybe a trip to an allergist would be helpful.
