With the fall season and harvest now underway, allergy season has returned.

Greene County High School Nurse Deb Wolterman says typically a fever is the determining factor if someone has something more than allergies and when it is time to see a medical provider.

“When I take that allergy medication, ‘Oh it helps my runny nose, or the watery eyes,’ or does it not? And then it’s like, ‘Okay so now are we looking at, is this the flu, is this covid?’ Or you know RSV is out there as well, just the different things that your common, over the counter medications aren’t taking care of, then that’s when you’re like, ‘Oh, that’s when we need to be seen.’” 

Wolterman points out allergies have also affected individuals who have chronic respiratory issues.

“I think of my own kiddo that’s got asthma that you can always tell, ‘Oh, it’s that time,’ because she’s always coughing and hacking because of the pollen and everything. But then, ‘Oh, now we’re going to have to start using our inhalers, our nebulizers more. So yeah, it kind of goes hand and hand that once one (happens) it’s going to trigger the other a lot of times.”  

Wolterman notes that people who have allergies and have symptoms of a runny nose, watery eyes, occasional coughing may not need to take over the counter medication if the symptoms do not obstruct an individual’s normal life. However, she suggests if allergy symptoms make it harder for you to do normal activities to take allergy medicine to give you relief.