Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
- Riverton Hospital's new pollen counter can help allergy patients learn what they are allergic to and manage symptoms by providing local pollen counts.
- Dr. Scott Taylor said the counter will help him develop treatments for his patients.
- He helps look at the pollen and count it a few times a week.
RIVERTON — Blossoms on trees can be an exciting sign of warmer weather and springtime, but that comes with fear of months of sickness, sneezing and itching for many people.
"You hear the sounds of spring, the birds coming back ... you see the blossoms on the trees, and then it's like you're classically conditioned to just associate those things with the symptoms," Julia Jones said.
There's congestion, sneezing, sometimes a sore throat, itchiness and fatigue either from the allergies or the allergy medication, she said.
"It was just like nonstop," Jones said, although some days are worse than others.
She developed allergies in her 20s, but over the last two and a half years, she has been doing immunotherapy and said her symptoms have "improved drastically."
The Burkard Pollen and Spore collector, newly installed at Riverton Hospital, will also help her and others by providing updated pollen counts for the Riverton area three days a week. Knowing the pollen count for specific plants, Jones said, helps make decisions like whether to wear contacts or glasses, take an additional antihistamine or just stay inside.
"It's pretty neat that he can look under a microscope and tell us what's in the air," she said.
She said checking what plants have high pollen numbers on days she experiences the most symptoms could also help her doctor make the serum for her immunotherapy better match her allergies, thus increasing its effectiveness.
Dr. Scott Taylor, an allergist with Intermountain Health, said the pollen collector is "pretty exciting" for them. The machine collects pollen onto a tape that rotates slowly until it fills up. He and a certified nurse then take the tape inside at least three times a week to look at it under a microscope and evaluate how much of each pollen is in the air.
Taylor said once they know what people are allergic to, they can recommend medication or allergy shots that can desensitize them to those substances. He said knowing what the pollen counts are like on days when patients have the most symptoms can help confirm or suggest what patients are allergic to.
Jones and her 18-year-old daughter are both allergy patients, but she said her daughter is more severely allergic and needs to stay off grass, or even have the windows shut and stay inside if grass pollen counts are high to prevent swelling.
She said the information about pollen counts can help them make decisions, but can also help people who haven't been tested and who may be learning for the first time what they are allergic to by watching the pollen counts.
"When you have allergies like this, it's irritating, but you're not helpless against it, because there are steps you can take to not only alleviate your immediate symptoms but long term," she said, referencing immunotherapy.
Taylor said he became an allergist because his wife's family has a lot of allergies. He said by the time people meet with him, they have already tried antihistamines and nasal sprays.
"They're just miserable, the medicines aren't working," he said.
The allergy shots he gives can take up to six months to cause improvement so patients typically need to wait for a benefit until the next season, but he said the immunotherapy can "be a big game changer."
He said getting the machine set up was a "labor of love," requiring approval from the hospital and certification, and he is grateful Intermountain Health supported the Southridge Allergy Clinic at the Riverton Hospital in the process. He said the information from the machine can also be helpful for asthma and immunology patients.
The National Allergy Bureau shows reports from two pollen counters in Utah, one at the Riverton Hospital and another at an urgent care center in Draper.
Taylor said pollen can travel hundreds of miles, so the information they provide could be helpful to doctors or providers in other nearby areas in Utah.
