Another Neti Pot Posting -- What Am I doing Wrong?

[WhyNot]

@Qadgop_the_Mercotan

One must be careful not to use oxymetazoline too often, or one’s nose could get ‘addicted’ to it.

Quoted for emphasis. Oxymetazoline is amazing, miraculous stuff, but I’ve never, ever been so miserable as the *weeks *it took me to knock the inadvertent addiction I gave myself.

StGermain, you sniff while you squeeze the bottle. Within 60 seconds, you experience sweet, sweet relief with a little throat burn. And you mark your calender for three days and DON’T let yourself use it longer than that no matter how stuffed up you are and how important it is to not be blowing your nose at work.

[Qadgop_the_Mercotan]

@StGermain

QtM - This sounds dumb, but how do you use the oxymetazoline spray? I bought some to try before I used the neti pot, and I squeezed, but nothing seemed to blow into my nose. Should you be able to feel the mist?

I’ve pre-mixed a 1/3 baking soda, 2/3 pickling salt mixture and I’m finding the neti pot is flowing better. The saltwater does burn a little. Am I using too much?

StG

Schpritz it up there & snort it down, or dribble it in with your head upturned. If the liquid doesn’t trickle in, it won’t do much. You should be able to sense something penetrating it, if you’re doing it right.

I generally recommend a flat 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt to start, with 1/8 tsp of bicarb in 8 oz of warm water. If that burns or fails to unplug a really swollen nose, I make the 1/2 tsp a bit more ‘heaping’. Not real scientific. Your mix sounds a little tilted towards the bicarb.

Stir well! Not much is more irritating that putting undissolved salt into your nose.

[StGermain]

Qadgop - This sounds like good advice in more than one way!

You should be able to sense something penetrating it, if you’re doing it right.

StG

[Heffalump_and_Roo]

@Princhester

This is exactly my experience. It feels good while I’m doing it and I get free flow of water both ways (right/left and left/right) but then I get the feeling afterwards like my sinuses are waterlogged and congested worse than before. I don’t know whether sticking with it would eventually cause it all to declog and be better off or whether it’s not for me.

I did read that for some people saline rinsing itself seems to irritate sinus linings.

That’s exactly my experience also. I’m actually relieved to read this since I seem to be the only one that seems to have the experience. I only tried the neti pot once. That night, I was so congested that I had trouble sleeping. Since I wasn’t that congested to start with, I decided not to try again at that time. But I still have the stuff, so maybe I’ll try again later.

I now use saline spray that comes in a can. It’s really expensive, but it helps keep my sinuses clear and doesn’t make me feel congested.

[BigT]

I feel the water log thing when I’m already sick, so I don’t use it then, either. Everything is already irritated, and the process is always at least slightly irritating.

Heck, I hate taking decongestants because they tend to dry me out, and that means I can feel the irritation that much more. It feels like I have water permanently stuck up my nose. I’d rather just be a mouth breather for a while, but I know you have to clear the sinuses to clear up the infection.