Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Coffeecup]

I've never been officially diagnosed as having them, but acquaintances have sworn I do. Amazing thing is last week I just got over my SECOND horrible cold here in Korea so far, but now this week I am literally going through hunderds of tissues a day -- funny thing is as soon as a blow my nose hard and clear it out, literally within seconds I have to do it all over again. Not only that, but it is accompanied by a small amount of pain in upper region, i.e. eyes and above nose. Eyes get a bit watery. Furthermore I shouldn't really have to be doing this because my immune system just cleared a bad cold last week, which means my immunity to a regular cold should be stronger. Only theory is some kind of allerg(ies)?


---> Anyone else know about what kinds of pollen's etc could be in season right now, where I might track that stuff (besides weatherchannel.com) and MORE IMPORTANTLY, how and WHERE could I get some kind of medicine for this stuff? I wonder is good old basic CONTACT would work on keeping my nose dry.

Anyways this will be my first time in my life looking into allergies so I don't know about medications, etc... If anyone else here has this problem would appreciate hearing about it. Thanks.

[The evil penguin]

I can certainly understand about the getting sick part.
I was one of those people back home who NEVER got sick. When everybody else was getting the flu, I was ok.

But since coming here, I seem to be coming down with something nearly every few weeks. Not sure if its the same cold or what but its been fairly regular for the past year.

On the upside, although I never used to get the colds and flu very often back home I did succumb to very bad hayfever around spring time.
Probably all the Aussie wattle trees where I lived. Here, I don't have the same problem.

I wonder why kimchi (which of course prevented us all from catching SARS) doesn't stop me from getting colds....???

Maybe what you are suffering isn't so much natural allergies but some kind of adverse effect from the air quality or something.

[anae]

I developed quite bad allergies in Korea from mold. A co-worker developed allergies to c o c k roach droppings, so we were both miserable for a while. I went to an allergy clinic in Seocho Dong and got tested. The doctor recommended Zyrtec which is easy to get at most pharmacies. It was effective, but it didn't have a non-drowsy formula at that time and I was sleepy most of the day. She also gave me a nose spray to help with the congestion and suggested a flu shot to enable my body to deal with only one thing at a time.

I hope this helps. I don't remember the exact name of the clinic but it was near the Nambu bus terminal line down the street from the electronics centre.