Walking; watering my nose

[mdlbear]

Cross-posted to healthy_fen and mdlbear.)

Took a slightly shorter-than-usual walk today: down to the little shopping center at Sand Hill and Sharon Park, and back by the same route. The main goal was to get a NeilMed Sinus Rinse kit at Longs, but they were on sale and out of stock. Picked one up at Walgreen's on the way home.

I have this neti pot kit on order, but my nose was hurting now, and I got a pointer to the NeilMed Sinus Rinse kit in comments to this downwhen post. If nothing else, it will give me an additional data point for comparison, and looks to be a bit smaller as well. I'll also get to compare salt packets.

Squirting salt water into one nostril and having it come out the other is an odd experience, but neither painful nor particularly disgusting.

Unlike the neti pot, which works by gravity and pours in from the side, the Sinus Rinse has a vertical fountain action. It remains to be seen which is more effective; all I can say is that it does work. Even after a single session, my nose is a lot less congested than it's been in months. It also got rid of the congealed gunk in my nostrils, and soothed the irritation caused by the combination of decongestants and the facehugger.

The kids were, predictably, disgusted (I suspect it would appeal to 5-year-olds). The flower_cat is intrigued in spite of a painful experience with it a couple of years ago, possibly due to a too-concentrated saline solution. I'm sold on it.

My pedometer currently reads 10552 for the day.

Comments

[johno.livejournal.com]

Due to my extreme congestion, I just did a double dose of salt.

Yea-ouch. Stinging and very yuck tasting. I'd not recomend it, unless as the packet actually says: "...only at direction of your doctor."


C hates the sound of my rinsing out and tried watching once and only once.

[sweetmusic-27.livejournal.com]

I turned to NeilMed just after college when I got a horrible cold and discovered, to my dismay, that I had abused the wonder of Sudafed 12-Hour and it no longer worked on my sinuses.

I called up my sister, who's had asthma since she was a kid and multiple sinus infections, and said, "Help be, I cand breathed" and she directed me to... salt water up my nose? No way, thought I, that'll be icky, I've gotten water up my nose before and it sucked. She said the NeilMed packets were great and never stung and were perfectly isotonic and all that. So I picked 'em up, along with some Shower Soothers and NyQuil, and that evening, I got to sleep.

So now that's what I do when I have a cold, typically with the tablets during a hot shower so my sinuses are more likely to cooperate and so I don't have to worry about getting salt water on my shirt.

It's still sort of a weird process, and I think people who use a neti pot three times a day when there's nothing wrong with them because they think it'll restore their chi or something are nuts, but it works.

[joecoustic.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm....

One of those ideas that sort of horrifies and intrigues me at the same time. I probably should consider it for myself.

Glad it worked so well for you!

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

I've heard about this, but never tried it. But at some point I may.

I think I would feel a bit weird about buying a neti pot (not to mention that here in the wilds of eastern Tennessee they might be hard to find) but something a little more, um, mainstream might be just the ticket.

Thanks for mentioning it.

[mdlbear]

I mail-ordered mine (see link in the post), but it turns out that NeilMed makes (a smaller) one, too. $12 in Walgreen's or Longs, right next to the Sinus Rinse kit and the refill packets.

[mdlbear]

I suppose I should say "web-ordered", shouldn't I?