Whoa, Neti
Labels: Shannon, sick 4 commentsOn Sunday, I had to drive home 4.5 hours with the kids and started feeling terrible earlier in the day. Porcupines in my throat, left ear hurt, fatigued. Made it home, only to have the symptoms get worse. Missed work Monday and Tuesday as my nose ran uncontrollably and got rubbed raw.
I asked Andy to pick me up a few things at the store, including a Neti Pot. I've read about them for a long time and would like to avoid going to the doctor yet again if possible. I HATE that place. All the doctor knows how to do is write prescriptions and half the time they are the wrong ones.
This is how the Neti Pot is supposed to work.
So I got the Neti Pot out of the box, prepared the solution and started pouring in one side of my nose. I'm pretty sure someone could drown this way. Water flowed down the back of my throat as I tried to breathe normally per the instructions.
The system in the video works just fine if your nasal passages are clear and free. Mine aren't.
Blew my nose to try to clear the passageways and actually had some success and a flow going. Tried the other side and no luck. That side is too clogged and can't be fixed.
I went through as much of the solution as I could and decided to stop and let the remaining solution drip out and get everything cleaned up.
So I'm waiting now to see how it works. My nose did stop running for at least 5 minutes afterward. Considering my nose is raw from going through 3 rolls of toilet paper (Andy got me boxes of soft, lotiony tissues to use now!), 5 minutes of no rubbing sounds good to me.
If things don't improve tonight, I'll be headed to the awful, awful doctor on Wednesday. Crossing fingers the Neti will help me avoid that.
9:08 PM
I like the title of your post. I am sorry you are feeling bad. The neti pot is great when you are not 100% stuffy. Frank and I have used them for years and love it. I used to get sinus infections all the time, and this really helped. I heard about neti pots for the first time on Oprah, of course. :)
11:06 PM
I heard about it on Oprah, too! Thought it looked like a total freak show. Interesting to hear Amanda uses it! I think I would drowned, though. I'm not that coordinated.
11:30 PM
Lots of people apparently use them as evidenced by my FB status replies. I've been curious about them for years but never had the nerve to try it until now because I'm desperate.
Did it a second time tonight and just felt like I was drowning. Have to wait for some congestion to clear up and use them earlier in the stages of feeling sick I think.
6:09 PM
Only breathe out of your mouth (I open my mouth wide...looks rediculous) while you are doing the neti pot and make sure your head is tilted down as far as it will go and to the side as far as it will go. That should help.