Allergies

To put it mildly, it can be a little awkward when you develop an allergy to your test material.

Having just spent a couple of hours leaning over barley plants, trying to take photos of the leaves and the various symptoms that different cultivars produce in response to virus infection, I've found that an itch has emerged as my very own symptom to the plants, around the neck and wrists. Do you know the kind - the 'hot' irritated area of skin?

I should have known I would be allergic to barley plants. A few years ago I spent a summer working with flowering barley and barley ears - it gets a lot worse around anthesis time. When I came back with my samples my eyes would be streaming. It didn't help that I then had to patiently dissect out each barley grain by hand, with my eyes straining to see. Of course, I did realise it was the barley that set me off, but I didn't expect to have a reaction to the plants prior to anthesis.

As a lot of my work will be with barley, I can hardly avoid it. I will just have to wear gloves and take anti-histamines if needs be. No wonder they told me to go to the Occupation Health unit at the hospital and take regular lung function tests.

I can't wait until hayfever season.