9.28.2009

 

Nose things

Fall Allergy Week really snuck up on me this time. Last night, I started to get a little nasal congestion and was feeling it a bit in my throat, and this morning, WHAM! I woke up with a full-blown seasonal allergy attack. It happens every spring and fall, but I still hate it and never know exactly how to cope. Claritin and Zyrtec help sometimes, but not always.

My friend Alice has sometimes mentioned using a Neti Pot when she's been sick, so I decided in the midst of my puffy-eyed-and-sick-of-tissues misery today that it was time for me to try squeezing stuff up my nose to see what happened. I googled some combination of weird nasal words and found this video about nasal irrigation from the Mayo Clinic, and I was inspired to try it. You use a saline solution that's roughly the same salinity as your own bodily fluids (1/4 tsp salt to 2 cups warm water), squirt it into each nostril with a bulb syringe a few times while you lean over a sink, and that's it. The first time, when I did it around lunchtime, I felt better for about 2 minutes and then my nose went crazy again, and I felt like I was basically back where I had started. I tried again around 4, and this time it seemed to clear out a lot more of the junk up in there. I was kind of amazed, actually. I still have a ton of sinus pressure, but at least the snot situation is under control. This is definitely going into my toolbox for the future.

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Comments:

okay- yuck. but glad you are feeling a little better. but yuck.
 
Yeah, it's gross but it works. I've never been able to bring myself to use a bulb or a Neti pot. However, I just fill a glass with warm salty water all the way to the top, close one nostril (or "one nose," as Nicole would say, LOL!) with your finger, and snort the warm salty water with the other nostril. Inhale it in and out several times as the salt water does its job. Repeat with the other nostril.

OK - this is kind of a gross comment. But I feel for you! Hope you feel better soon!
 
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