Spring is here! Where's my cortizone?

I'm looking out my study window at the glorious spring day and my guts are twisting with dread. The old olive tree which dominates the backyard is covered in flower buds.

I get seasonal allergies, but didn't realise how much the olive pollen contributed to it until one year I went out under the heavily-flowering tree for 20 minutes, and then spent the rest of the day in a full-blown allergic reaction. My eyes swell and itch and water. My sinuses run, then swell and block. Everything itches - skin, inner ears, teeth. I can have trouble breathing if my throat chooses to close up. And this goes on for six weeks every second year, when the olive flowers fully.

I went to get my allergies tested. I'm highly allergic to olive pollen and dust mites, and am slightly allergic to dogs. Grasses and the local trees don't bother me at all. Now, I've done myself no favours by not going to get my desensitisation shots. But, I have an aversion to needles and terrible troubles with routines, so the "weekly injections" thing was going to be difficult for me from the start.

A single shot of cortizone will rid me of all symptoms for a good 6 weeks, but doctors don't like giving it to me. I don't think they have good reasons for it. I don't need a lot, and I just need it once a year. So, I suffer, because no over-the-counter remedies are effective enough to help.

It seems that olive pollen is highly allergenic:
http://www.allergyfree-gardening.com/opals.php
http://www.abc.net.au/stateline/sa/content/2002/s738014.htm
I think I've also read that it can heighten sensitivity to other allergens.

So why don't I get rid of the tree? Well, I really should go for my shots. And a lovely Jordanian family come around every second year to strip the tree. They filled the boot of their Falcon one year. They perform a massive olive-pickling every year, and while we're not big olive eaters in this house, we get a jar pickled with chillies and lemon, which is nice.

Plus it's such a darn good tree. I halve its size after fruiting, and it just keeps coming back. It's excellent for shade, and doesn't starve all the plants and grass beneath it. I'd have to replace it with something, but it would be years before we'd have a proper shade tree back.

This is going to be a nasty spring.