Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Pot O' Nose

Here I am. Sick again.

This has been a long winter (now spring) and I am at the end of my rope. I have been eating well (pizza contains all of the food groups. right?). Exercise has been on the schedule regularly. Besides moving to someplace warm and tropical, I don't know what else to do.

I've heard a ton about the Netti pot and all of it's wonders. The Netti pot looks enough like Aladdin's lamp that it must be magical.




Basically you buy one of these simply-designed Netti pots. Add a saline solution packet and warm tap water. Then it gets weird....

Put the tip of the pot up to one nostril. Tip your head. Breathe through your mouth and pour.

The sensation is a bit like jumping in the water without plugging your nose.

The even weirder part is that there are a few seconds between when you pour the saline water in one nostril and when it streams out of the other nostril. Where does it go? My squeamish self doesn't really want to know.

Lots of people swear by the Netti pot, but it didn't do anything for my stuffy head and throbbing sinuses....Although I haven't given up on the pot yet. When the next cold rolls around, I'll give it another whirl.

6 comments:

JessTrev said...

Whoa nelly. I hope you feel better. I haven't used one of those but have accomplished the same thing with some homemade salt water irrigation (nasal aspirator). Let me just say I was feeling pretty badly at the time to be considering it. Hope it helps ease up your sinuses. It did help me work things through (but my poor baby, oh, he hated it).

Annette said...

I really do want to try one of these, but they scare me.

Anonymous said...

These things are great. Don't bother with expensive packets - just use sea salt with minimal/no additives (1/4 teaspoon). I use them at the first sign of a cold - and you can do it several times a day. I tend to use very warm water - seems to work better.

Susan

Akkire said...

i was sick for the last 5 days too, Gruppie. no matter how much i stay fit, eat right, at the slightest cold virus/bacteria, I'm a goner.

i'm better now and all I did was sleep a lot, drink TONS of tea and fluids, and had a bowl of garlic soup every day. the soup is the magic i think.

Anonymous said...

I love this post, Kerry. I've heard about these things but they do sound kinda gross. A squirt of saline seems more agreeable, but I've heard they are great. My doctor actually recommended it.

BTW: There's a post about your blog on mine. A tip of the hat to you in the hopes of drawing more bloggers in.

Gruppie Girl said...

Susan ~ Thanks for the tip! I will try sea salt next time.

Loretta ~ Thanks for posting a story about my blog. I really appreciate it!
So glad that you are covering local news. You are bound to have a huge aundience soon.

Mama ~ I might have to try a nasal aspirator next winter (Wishful thinking...it may be next week)