Allergies and Nasal Decongestant

I believe there is a plant of some sort here that has just started releasing pollen in the past week or so and it is seriously messing my sinuses up. I'm curious what that plant might be. blueskies, I'm almost certain that whatever this plant is it is living in your garden/yard. I would like to be able to identify it so that I can avoid touching it or allowing it inside/near the house.....or napalming it if it is anywhere on the property here. (When I lived in El Paso there was some evil desert thorn bush that made my allergies go crazy if it was just in the generally area, getting close enough to accidentally touch/disturb it made me wish I was dead.)

I've also been looking for something to treat the nasal congestion. I've been using and antihistamine, cetirizine (Zyrtec in the US), for the allergy itself but this hasn't really been helping out much. Going to the pharmacies here and telling them I need a decongestant only gets me blank stares (I guess you don't need to have even a basic understand/training on drugs to work in a pharmacy here). Since most of the pharmacy employees here don't even know what a a decongestant is I usually don't even bother with this next question:

Since pseudoephedrine/ephadrine is used in the manufacture of methamphetamine and is hard to find in the Philippines, what would be a clinically proven drug that helps with nasal decongestant that is available in the Philippines?

I emphasize "clinically proven" because the last "pharmacist" that I took the time explain what a decongestant was gave me some crap that did absolutely nothing to help (can't recall the name of it right now)....and when I looked the drug up it specifically said that was no evidence that it helped with nasal congestion (even though it was widely prescribed for that). I've also had pharmacists give me a plethora of different diuretics and then go on to tell me to drink lots of liquids with the pills.....which would completely defeat the purpose wouldn't it? I've even had one idiot tried selling me caffeine pills (I'll drink some d*mn Coke and eat some chocolate if I need that.) I'm not even going to say how I feel about the ones that try to give me ibuprofen and paracetamol.

I'm really not looking for home remedies here (I know most all of from when I used to "party" a lot at the clubs because they are a pain in the ***, hard to do outside the home and don't offer very long relief). I need something that I can take and then be good for a couple hours, at the very least......but I guess if there is a home remedy that works for most of the day (without making me look like an idiot walking around town) then I'd be interested in hearing about that.

 

FYI: the active ingredient in that brand name has been banned in the UK and US.

Phenylpropanolamine Advisory
It's only available in the US and UK for treatment in animals......for urinary incontinence.

This one doesn't help me out any.

But it works great for treating hemorrhoids....just buy the syrup and rub some on your bunghole....and it's much cheaper than that P950 tiny bottle of cream you can get at pharmacies. lol

Not sure if ethanol helps with nasal congestion or not but it sure will make you not give a crap about it (I think that is how NyQuil works lol). I'm currently trying this as a treatment.....obviously there are problems with this treatment during the day though. :D

I'd really like to get my hands on some Sudafed (pseudoephedrine). Unfortunately, it looks like the last brand name in the Philippines that used it as an ingredient (Clarinase) was banned back in 2000. I guess I'm SOL here. We can thank the "War on Drugs" for making the most effective nasal decongestant impossible to get.

 

I have the same problem with it (even though it claims not to make you drowsy). Loratadine (Claritin in the US) is another option, I used to take it in the US and don't recall it making me sleepy. Haven't checked the pharmacies here for that yet.