The pharmacy technician said it when I bought the "real" Sudafed (not that fake PE crap you can get over the counter that they reformulated so the stupid methamphetamine manufacturers have to work harder to find their main ingredient). The nurse at the doctor's office said it when I went in for a steroid shot.

It's bad around here. Really bad. Allergies, that is.

I'd say roughly six years ago I developed seasonal allergies. I was able to handle it with over the counter antihistamines, usually. But each summer seemed to get progressively worse. And this year has been by far my worst ever. Claritin and Sudafed weren't coming close to touching my itchiness, sneezing and extremely congested head. (I was like three of the Seven Dwarfs: Itchy, Sneezy and Why Won't My Ears Pop?)

I don't really know why I didn't put these two things together sooner, but I didn't. That's just the way it is. Over the past, say, month or so, I'd been eating normally. This isn't to say that I was eating right, just eating normally. But, man was my blood sugar completely out of whack. I mean like premenstrual syndrome kind of wonky.

So I posed the allergies-related-to-wacky-blood-sugar question to my friendly Diabetic Mommies. Sure enough, allergies will do a number on your blood sugar. Who knew? But I suppose it makes sense that if any sickness can throw your sugar out of whack that allergies shouldn't be kept out of that loop.

OK, one part of the mystery solved; now, how do I fix it, I asked. Turns out you just have to deal with it. I was getting pissed: no relief from my medicines and no way to keep my stuffy nose from shooting my blood sugar higher than it has the right to be after a sensible meal.

I called my doctor. The thing that would help fastest is a steroid shot, he told me, but it'll wreck your blood sugar for several weeks. Hmph, I said, it's already wrecked. I'd rather have wrecked blood sugar and be rid of the dwarfs than deal with Snow White's friends and funky blood sugar. Wouldn't you know it? The steroid shot isn't doing much more than Claritin alone was.