more fun with my nostrils

My neti pot has been very patiently waiting for me since last I posted. The other day something transpired that made me take it up again. Actually, “transpire” is a pretty good word choice (if not entirely accurate in its dual meaning.)

You see, once in a while when I’m eating I’ll swallow slightly funny and some food will get stuck at the back of my throat, and it feels like it’s trying to make its way up my nose from the back. It’s not a pleasant feeling by any means, but the food usually dislodges by itself and I think nothing more of it. This past week, however, I was eating some peanut butter and bread and some bread got stuck. It was quite irritating, so I decided to blow my nose. Lo and behold, I managed to blow a chunk of chewed bread out my right nostril. Yeah.

Needless to say, after blowing a bunch more I decided it was high time to get out the neti pot again.

The instructions that came with this pot included the informational nugget of putting a bunch of the salts into a container, filling the container with water, and simply adding some of the resulting brine to the water you add to the pot, instead of trying to dissolve salt in it each time. So long as there is always salt at the bottom of your container, you know you’ve got enough salt in there, and your brine will always be the same strength.

And let me tell you, adding just that little bit (it recommended a teaspoon, working up to a tablespoon) of brine really made a difference. Having used just plain water last time it felt… well, like I had turned on a hose inside my nostril. This time it felt entirely different. Natural, almost. I knew my nostril was full of something, but it wasn’t unpleasant at all, unlike the plain water.

Now, you may remember from last time that my nasal passages were blocked in relation to each other. No change there, initially. I took Violet’s advice and gave it a good 30 seconds per side, and did it twice per side, and finally got a very slow trickle happening. Wooo!!! I changed sides a few more times to try and work the blockage a bit more, and it did open a little bit. I still have to do it a few more times to really clear things out, but I’m on my way.

Hopefully I’ll be well on my way to clean, clear nasal passages, so long as I can keep the peanut butter chunks down to a minimum.