AUSTIN — AUSTIN -- It's in the air. It's everywhere. From the hoods of our cars, to the curbs of our streets, oak pollen season is here in Central Texas -- at least for a few more weeks.
"It's disgusting. It's covering my car right now, and I just feel like I want to drive to a car wash and never leave because it's literally all over everything," Austin resident Jardin Telling told KVUE.
Like many people in the Austin area, she's fed up with that yellow pollen getting on our cars and into our noses.
"It's been awful this year. I feel like I wake up and I can't breathe. I feel like it just lives in my lungs and gets in all of my clothes and everything," she said.
She's not alone. Dr. Hetu Parekh of Austin Family Allergy & Asthma in North Austin said his office has seen an increase in patients over the past few weeks.
"Last week, it started as well with the oak counts going up. It starts mid-March and goes through April and comes down by the end of May," he said.
Trying to avoid the pollen by staying indoors doesn't work.
"Pollen will come into your house from open windows, open doors, by wind dispersion," Parekh said.
But there are a number of ways you can treat your allergies.
"I take ZYRTEC. I have a couple of other allergy medicines that I take," Telling said.
"I like to try to have [my patients] clean out their nose using a saline rinse first, just to kind of get everything out, and then use an over-the-counter nasal steroid spray," Parekh added.
If that doesn't work, Parekh said doctors can prescribe steroids for immediately relief, but it's not something you want to do for very long, he said.
But if you're new to Austin and having a hard time dealing with your allergies, don't worry.
"It does go away after a month and a half, so if you suffer through this for a little bit," Telling said, "you'll be fine year-round."