Allergy season in full bloom around Sonoma County

It's like an invasion out of a sci-fi horror movie.

Only it's horribly true.

And an estimated 100,000 allergy sufferers -- nearly a quarter of Sonoma County's population -- are going down hard.

In the eyes. The nose. The back of the throat. The lungs.

Allergens -- mostly pollen from native grasses -- are on the move, attaching themselves to pets, hair, clothes, contact lenses, anywhere they can.

"I've had the most allergic day I've probably ever had," said Erin Miller, 37, of Cloverdale, who looked a bit, well, red and runny.

"Sneezing, runny nose, itchy, burning eyes and the most unbelievable amount of mucus," Miller said as she set up a jewelry booth at the Wednesday Night Market in Santa Rosa.

Doctors' waiting rooms are full with such ailments and complaints.

"We're probably getting daily about three times the normal number of patients calling in," said Michael Martin, a Santa Rosa allergist. "It's definitely here."

For some reason, he said, allergies affecting people's eyes seem particularly pestilent this year.

"It just drives people nuts. It's almost intolerable," Martin said.

Long infamous for the misery it inflicts on sufferers, the county's allergy season is either at its height or far from over.

"We're definitely at the upper end of the bell curve, if not beginning the downswing," said Rebecca Porrino, a naturopathic physician in Sonoma.

But for many the season runs longer, to around July 4, said Denise Cooluris, a naturopathic primary care doctor in Sebastopol who specializes in allergies.

This year, she said, patients are coming in with "some of the worst allergies that I've ever seen in Sonoma County."

One contributing factor, Cooluris believes, is that the allergy season followed closely on the cold and flu season, which may have rendered sufferers even more vulnerable.

"Folks already had their immune systems reacting to these viruses," she said. "That really amplified their allergic response."

In Santa Rosa's Juilliard Park on Wednesday, Marcel Martinez demonstrated either courage or foolhardiness, picnicking with his wife on the grass -- without a mask to shield him from pollen.

So what if allergies mean that for months of the year the 19-year-old "bleeds from the nose," gets migraines and wakes up in the middle of most nights with breathing so restricted that he has to take a hot shower.

"To be honest," he said, "It's a beautiful day. I don't usually let my allergies hold me down. I kind of fight through it."

For others, severe health risks can accompany the misery.

"One out of five kids under age 17 will end up in the ER due to an asthmatic event," Cooluris said. "The precursor to those events more times than not is allergies. It can be a life-threatening event."

And the range of sufferers is broad.

In her Sonoma clinic, Porrino said, she has this week seen a 9-year-old, a 40-year-old and two senior citizens experiencing allergies for the first time.

At the Wednesday Night Market, Miller pointed to her son, Zeke Storm, 8. "Check out his little nose," she said.

It was red and looked sore.

"Bad," Zeke said. "Bad."

You can reach Staff Writer Jeremy Hay at 521-5212 or jeremy.hay@pressdemocrat.com.