If you live in the Richmond area, you have seen the carpet of yellow pollen covering all of the cars and sometimes the street as well. The rain helped settle it out of the air and left beautiful yellow swirls in the parking lot one day after work too!

Some tips to help you combat itchy eyes during this time of year and dry eyes that can be made worse with allergies too: 

1. Wash your hands and face too after coming in from outside. So simple but important to get the allergens off your hands, face and clothes when you come in from outside. 
2. Do not rub your eyes. So simple but important! Rubbing your eyes or even an allergic rash activates your immune system to bring more immune cells/mast cells and release more histamines which can make the allergic reaction worse. 
3. Use a triple therapy approach if needed – eye drops, nasal sprays and oral meds. If the allergies are affecting your ability to breathe, you need to see your doctor and maybe get inhaled medications or steroids.  

Allergy wipes: 

1. Ocusoft Allergy wipes – works great for kids (and adults) who hate eye drops and can just wipe the itch away from the surface of their closed eyelids. 

Over-the-counter allergy eye drops: 

1. Systane Zaditor (ketotifen 0.035%) – anti-histamine
2. B&L Alaway (ketotifen 0.035%) – preservative free anti-histamine
3. Opcon A (naphazoline 0.02675%-pheniramine 0.315%) – decongestant and anti-histamine 
4. Visine Allergy (naphazoline 0.025%-pheniramine 0.3%) – decongestant and anti-histamine 
5. Pataday 2x/day, Pataday 1x/day and Pataday Extra Strength – Olopatadine 0.1%, 0.2% and 0.7% (sometimes the stronger dose burns more and doesn’t help more)
6. Alcaftadine (Lastacaft)

Prescription allergy eye drops: 

1. Cromolyn 
2. Elestat/Epinastine
3. Steroid drops if needed 

Over-the-counter nasal sprays:

1. Saline Nasal spray
2. Astelin or Astepro (azelastine)
3. NasalCrom (cromolyn nasal spray)

Prescription allergy nasal sprays: 

1. Patanase

Over-the-counter oral allergy medications: (generic of all below also available)

1. Loratadine (Claritin) – antihistamine
2. Desloratadine (Clarinex) 
3. Cetirizine (Zyrtec) – antihistamine
4. Levocetirizine (Xyzal) – antihistamine
5. Fexofenadine (Allegra) – antihistamine
6. Diphenhydramine (Benadryl) 
7. Chlorpheniramine
8. Phenylephrine (Sudafed) – decongestant

Remember all of these likely come with a “-D” version like Claritin-D which has pseudoephedrine (a decongestant) which can make your dry eyes worse. 

Prescription oral allergy medications: 

1. Montelukast (previously known as brand-name Singulair) – black box warning as causing worsening anxiety and sometimes nightmares. 

If you’re looking for just redness relief, Lumify is safer than Visine Red Out for long term use.

Hope this post was helpful!

Happy Spring! 

 

Photo by Skyler Ewing: https://www.pexels.com/photo/fly-sitting-on-bright-flowers-4856399/

Links may be Amazon Affliate links which provide us a small commission with no extra charge to you. Thank you for helping support our small business!

Happy Valentine’s Day! 2024!

Please allow me to share my side project. My passion for writing and publishing has turned into helping a friend, Ms. Pam Soddu, publish her legacy of love to her children and grandchildren under my Pradhan Publications LLC company.

This book, The Night of Christmas Miracles, was written in verse and beautifully illustrated with images in the likeness of her children and grandchildren and explores the true meaning of Christmas.

You can learn more about the book on her website www.pamsoddu.com.

Buy ebook on Amazon for $7.49: https://amzn.to/43mxKgn

Buy paperback on Amazon for $14.99: https://amzn.to/3TAdTa9

Buy hardcover on Lulu for $24.99: https://www.lulu.com/shop/pam-soddu-and-pam-soddu/the-night-of-christmas-miracles/hardcover/product-2mm92wk.html?page=1&pageSize=4

The book is live and for sale with links on her website. All proceeds from book sales will be donated to charity by Ms. Pam Soddu. Please make sure to leave a 5-star rating and review on Amazon and Lulu if you love the book!

If you’re inspired by the book and would like to have the author come to your local church or school and do a book reading/signing/sale, please contact her through her website contact form. Thank you for allowing me to share.

Get ready for the Solar Eclipse on April 8th, 2024! There is not another one in North America until August 2044!!

As you may know, we are going to experience a beautiful solar eclipse on Monday, April 8th, 2024 between the hours of 2 pm and 4:30 pm EST.

You can learn more about this wonderful natural event and how much of it we will see here (quite a bit!) in and around Richmond, Virginia on the NASA website.

Keep your kids safe too!

https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/future-eclipses/eclipse-2024/

Did you know the temperature drops 10 degrees during the solar eclipse? 

Learn more fun facts here: https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/future-eclipses/eclipse-2024/faq/

We want you to know that you cannot look directly at the solar eclipse as it can damage your eyes (except during the few minutes during totality). We have ordered NASA-approved solar eclipse glasses for you to buy for yourself and your loved ones.

Solar eclipse glasses:

If you’d like to buy your own online, please buy safe ones as recommended by NASA as linked on their website. https://eclipse.aas.org/eye-safety/eyewear-viewers and do not buy ones not approved on other websites.

Here’s my referral link:

1) solar eclipse glasses and commemorative brochure

2) St. Jude’s solar eclipse glasses

3) Regular bulk solar eclipse glasses

We have solar eclipse glasses for sale in the office. Regular ones for $7 each and special St. Jude’s benefit ones with their logo for $10 each and we will donate the difference to St. Jude in April.

 

Did you know there are phases of the solar eclipse and different cool sites you can see during the two phases?

According to the NASA website, there are a few phases.

1) Partial Eclipse

– First contact – when the moon first “touches” the sun

– The sun appears as a crescent

– Shadow bands – remember physics? These are rapidly moving dark and white bands sometimes visible on the sides of buildings

– Bailey’s beads – light rays from the moon edge through valleys of the moon’s horizon

– Diamond ring – when a single bright spot remains at the edge of the moon before totality

2) Totality – moon completely covering the sun (1-4 minutes only!)

– also known as second contact

– no direct sunlight so it is the only time when safe to look at the sun without solar eclipse glasses but don’t look if you are not sure and not in an area where totality will exist (we will not get totality in Virginia, only 83%)

– can see a pink circle around the moon (chromosphere of sun)

– you may see 360-degree sunset

– the temperature may drop up to 10 degrees

3) Partial eclipse again with same events as prior partial eclipse

– Brightening – aka third contact when the moon starts moving off the sun again and you start to see the sun peeking out again

– make sure to get your glasses back on if you’re in an area of totality.

4) Fourth contact – none of the sun is covered by the moon’s shadow and the eclipse is over!

 

Other reminders:

1) Remember your sunscreen and protective clothes

2) you cannot use the solar eclipse glasses over your camera. That requires a specialized solar filter

 

Remember, if you don’t have solar eclipse glasses, you can use the indirect viewing method to look at the effects of the eclipse and it’s pretty easy to make! Check it out on the NASA website.

You can probably get some solar eclipse glasses or guidance on making an indirect viewer tomorrow at your public library! Contact your local resources!

During a solar eclipse in high school (when I didn’t have eclipse glasses), I still got to experience it by being under a tree and seeing all the shadows of the leaves as crescent shadows. It is such a cool memory to this day.

 

Stay safe and keep your eyes and your family’s eyes protected!

Sincerely,

Shilpi Pradhan, MD

EYE DOCTOR MD PC

I’m super proud mom announcing that my oldest daughter wrote and illustrated a children’s book, called “Tara The Dolphin”. We self-published on Amazon. It was a really fun project for us to do together as well. She also has a book of poems and art from her Covid year in school called “Summer Fun Unmasked”.

We would love your support. Buy the paperback or e-book on Amazon! If you love it, please leave a review. If you have Kindle unlimited, you can read it free on your Kindle device or Kindle app on your tablet. We also have a few copies for sale in the office.

• Tara The Dolphin: https://amzn.to/3w5P0aN

• Summer Fun Unmasked: https://amzn.to/3KYpSqF

We’re also having an Author Showcase Event at the Twin Hickory Library where you can hear her read the book and buy a book and get it signed. The event is on June 13th, 2022 at 7 pm. Learn more here: https://henricolibrary-va.libcal.com/event/9177759

Thank you for indulging me and letting me share about my daughter, Shreya.