Korean Job Discussion Forums

[4 months left]

Terrible itchy eyes almost swollen shut in the morning. Anyone had allergies the last few weeks? Any medicine suggestions?

[Milwaukiedave]

I recently had some kind of an allergy flare up. When I was a kid, I suffered from run of the mill hay fever. You might see if you can get an anti-histamine over the counter. If not, you may have to go to a skin doctor and get them to prescribe it.

It sucks that you can't get most things over the counter here. I recently had to beg my doctor to get her to prescribe me Tylenol since you can only buy the small packages here and they are expensive. Next trip back home I'm bringing a ton of it back with me.

[steamed.rice]

You can get some allergy meds (antihistamine) over the counter. Claritin (Loratadine) is prescription drug here, so you'll need to see a doc, but Zyrtec (Cetirizine) is OTC. Allegra (Fexofenadine) may also be OTC here, but I haven't checked.

Just go to a pharmacy and ask for allergy meds. Many don't seem to know the American brand names, so e.g., ask for Cetrizine, 세티리진. Ten pills cost me only 2000 and the they work pretty well for me.

(You can also get Advil equivalent OTC by asking for Ibuprofen... but beware, use the Korean pronunciation: 이부프로펜. Just check for dosage. I've seen anywhere from 100mg to 400mg per pill.)

[Dazed and Confused]

With the rain and heat the mold and pollen have grown. Many people may find they didn't have allergies at home yet they encounter something new and different in Korea that bothers them.
I second the recommendation of going to the doctor. Alot of time if you just go to the pharmacy you'll end up with Actifed which will put you to sleep.

[MalFSU1]

I'm glad to hear I am not the only one suffering more lately! Been really drowsy and had bad allergy headaches over the past week. I do feel better the mornings after I took Benadryl before going to bed, but still not 100% better.

[Horangi Munshin]

Yep my allergies have started to act up again recently.

[uklathemock]

Allegra is prescription only, but it's cheap here.

[lorenchristopher]

I had really bad allergies about a month ago. I went to my local hospital and easily got a script for Claritin. It's a 24-hour allergy pill, you're probably familiar with it. Anyway it works really well and was cheap!

[4 months left]

Sneezing recently to mix with the dry eyes. Anyone medicine rec's? I got a prescription for Talian (sp?) but it was useless. When's this going to end?

[atwood]

Nasal wash helps a lot. Also the nasal sprays such as abamist are more effective than pills. Tell the doctor you want a spray and he'll prescribe whichever one the nearby pharmacies carry. There are three sprays that I'm aware of, all work OK, but abamist is the newest and worked the best for me.