Wisdom from Oma

Sometimes the allergy medicine only manages to bring the sinus headache down to a mild throbbing pain

Why I Hate Spring

Ok... I don't really hate Spring. 

In fact, if questioned I would probably say that I love spring.  The flowers blooming, the trees budding out new leaves, the warmer weather that is not too hot yet.  Love it. 

However, I don't like the affect it has on my body.

The sneezing.  The sniffling.  The sinus pressure.  The red, watery, itchy eyes.  The dark, dark bags under those eyes.   The scratchy throat.  The way the roof of my mouth itches.  The coughing.  The wheezing. If there is any possible seasonal allergy symptom - I have it. 

Ugh...

This year is not looking good.  I'm already showing some strong allergy symptoms and it's only early May.  My symptoms don't usually peak until later in the month.

My usual allergy med cocktail - Claritin(in the am)  and Zyrtec(in the pm), along with a decongestant as needed - doesn't seem to be helping too much.  Which makes me nervous.  What's gonna happen when the pollens I am especially allergic to start flying?

If I could just seal myself off somehow until around the end of June, that would be great!  Maybe a giant ziploc bag or something?  One of those giant plastic bubbles like John Travolta used in the movie, or that kid in the Seinfeld episode!  Where can a person get one of those? Those suits they wear when dealing with hazardous materials? Although just spotting me at the store would probably completely freak a lot of people out.  Of course, the sight of me with my red, runny eyes, red drippy nose and black eyes might all ready be doing that. 

I'm adding the neti pot to the routine today.  And crossing my fingers that this helps immensely. 

But I'm not ruling out those other options.

Don't Let The Yellow Door Hit You On Your Way Out

Dear Pollen;

I could no longer hold my feelings inside.  I had to write to tell you that I deeply, truly, madly, endlessly despise you!  I, for one, have just about enough of your antics!  What makes you think you have the right to take over Spring and ruin it for so many of the rest of us?  I am sick and tired of your little games. 

I can't take any more of the way you make my eyes water and itch.  Completing the image with dark circles underneath that make me appear as if I have done a few rounds with a heavyweight boxer.  Not that I can see it for myself, thanks to the way they swell up.

The way you make my sinuses close up, and yet somehow you still manage to keep my nose drip, drip, dripping between the seemingly endless sneezing:  nice - really nice.  As if that isn't enough misery, you also cause the roof of my mouth to be itchy and irritated, along with a sore throat.  And you top the entire package off with some wheezy breathing. 

It's not even the way you treat me personally.  You have no respect for any of my belongings either.  You turn my car a funky color by leaving a coating of yellow on top of the original paint color.  Also spreading your yellow dust onto my windows, the front door, and all over my porch and driveway.  It's disgusting to have yellow finger tips every time I try to touch something.  Which means washing my hands before I accidentally touch my face and make the above mentioned attacks even worse! 

Oh sure, you think you are so great and special.  I'm sure the pharmaceutical companies are big fans of yours.  And the tissue manufacturers (who I probably single-handedly keep in business this time of year).  And yes, I know all about how you are responsible for the creation of delicious fruits and vegetables.  I don't want to hear it.  Come back and talk to me sometime in late June or July.  When I'm not a sneezing, wheezing, snotty mess.  Maybe I'll be willing to listen as I bite into a nice juicy peach or slice up a ripe tomato. 

Until then, I don't want anything to do with you.  Do me a favor - take your yellow mess and just leave!

Insincerely Yours...

Washed Away

It sits there silently on the bathroom counter.  A simple little blue pot.  Deceptively looking like a tiny teapot for one.  As I begin to mix the solution to fill it, the children's song starts up in the back of my head : "I'm a little teapot, short and stout.  Here is my handle, here is my spout."  But I adjust the words to fit this particular situation.  For this is no cup of tea I am preparing here. 

"I'm a little neti pot, short and stout.
Here is my handle.  Here is my spout.
Pour me in one nostril,
the other one goes out.
Tip me over,  I'll clean you out"

For those not familiar - a neti pot is a small pot or bowl with a long spout.  The pot is filled with a saline solution.  Leaning over a bowl or sink, the user tips their head to one side and the end of the spout is placed in the upper nostril.  The solution is then poured through the spout, into the nostril and into the sinus passages.  Now, if that alone hasn't made you gag - the next step is the kicker. Once the saline solution has flushed through the sinus passages; it then pours out the lower nostril.  Yes... ew....

The idea is that rinsing (or irrigating, or flushing - whatever you want to call it) out the sinus passages helps to thin the mucous secretions, as well as cleaning debris and excess mucous from the cilia - all those tiny hair-like things in your sinuses.  This leaves the cilia clean and fresh to do their job of pushing mucous and other stuff either to the nose to be blown away or to the back of the throat for swallowing. 

Neti pots can be found in most drug stores, or online.  Pre-packaged solutions are also available, but can get expensive over time.  I use a recipe I found online for my solution.  Two cups sterilized water (either bottled, or boiled and cooled) warmed in the microwave for 45 seconds, 1 teaspoon non-iodized salt, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda. Be sure to use distilled or sterile water, or water which has been boiled and cooled. 

The one allergy season I used the neti pot on a daily basis; I did have less frequent and less severe allergy attacks.  So, I personally am a believer.  And this morning when I got up feeling someone less congested from my cold, but feeling the congestion that was there was thicker and settling into certain areas of my sinuses making the pressure there unbearable - I knew it was time to pull out the pot and give it a rinse.

Many people can never get past the "ICK" factor to give the neti a chance.  But for someone who has struggled with allergies and sinus problems for as long as I can remember; I am willing to try almost anything.  Especially if it's not just one more medication to make me feel drowsy or jittery.  And with pollen already filling the air with early spring like weather - I think the little blue pot will be sitting out and getting a lot of use for the next few months

Safety Disclaimer:  I am not a doctor (nor do I play one on TV).  You should probably consult your real physician such as an Allergist or Ear,Nose,and Throat specialist before using a neti pot.

It's (s)Not Possible

It makes no logical sense how one can have so much grossness come out of one's head - what with the constant dripping and all the sneezing - and yet STILL have so much pressure and congestion.  At some point it seems the sinus passages would just run out of yuck.  Or at the very least not be able to keep up with refilling the outflow, causing the pressure and congestion to lessen.

One would think this.  But one would be wrong.

So very, very wrong.

One might also think that taking a medication which states it is made for the relief of sinus congestion and pressure, and headaches would in fact help give some relief to those things.  Again - one would be wrong.  Unless one considers the very slightest lessening of these symptoms "relief".

I do not.

All I ask is for the headache to go away, and to be able to breathe through my nose.  Those two very simple things.  I don't really think that's a lot. 

But maybe I am wrong about that also.