So glad you’re posting. Take it easy.
If you wanna see something cool go look in the "don’t bump this thread’ thread. (:))
I’m another strong advocate of the neti pot. I have had chronic sinus issues since I whacked myself in the face with a bat (don’t ask) and cracked my right sinus cavity bone.
Years of “Let me die, for the love of heaven!” sinus infections, years of a plethora of antibiotics, years of sounding like Snuffleupagus later, someone here posted of the joys of neti pots.
The key with using a neti pot is to take a long hot, steamy shower for at least 10 minutes before using it.
The first time I used it, I could hear again! And breathe through my nose! What a novel idea.
Neti pots are wonderful. Messy, but wonderful.
I find that using the neti pot IN the shower cuts down on a lot of the sloppiness all over the bathroom counter.
I have a caution, though. My personal recommendation is to only use the neti pot when you are on a municipal water system. There have been rare (VERY rare) cases where contaminates in a private water system have caused a rare brain infection. The contaminate entered the brain through the nose via a neti pot.
Our AZ home is on a private well. I am just paranoid enough to avoid tap water for neti purposes when we are in AZ.
Waiting for me when we return to SCal (next week), I have a brand new Navage. I think I spelled that right. I will report back when I try that out.
~VOW
Do the hot washcloth treatment, Dork Dear. It works IMMEDIATELY on the pain. The heat and moisture also loosen up that stuff you don’t want to talk about.
If enough Dopers try at least the hot washcloth business, the entire country will reverberate with a groan of relief as that first hot washcloth is paced against foreheads everywhere.
~VOW
I have a classic british electric tea kettle in the bathroom. First thing in the morning I fill it up, flip it on and let the water come to a boil. Putter around until it cools off enough to be comfortable, or flip it back on for a few seconds til it is body temp, and rinse the neti in the boiled water then mix up the flush. And I also use it in the shower =) though I am good at hanging my head over the sink.
Cute, damn cute. 
Oooh. Can’t wait to hear about the ‘navage’ ~VOW. Keep is posted.
I swear by my neti bottle. (Somehow it seems tidier than the pots, even though they’re essentially the same delivery system. I keep trying to get my DD to use one, but she thinks they’re disgusting and would rather suffer. I think of it as housekeeping. Sinuses are like caves: damp and dark and good for growing creepy stuff.
ETA: Dork, glad you’re starting to feel better.
I’d expect that five minutes in a microwave would melt a ziploc full of wet cloths. It sounds like you’ve done it though.
Thick washcloths, tepid dampening water, and FREEZER Ziploc bag!
Odds are, the washcloths will be too damned hot to handle. But if you grab one by two adjacent corners and flap it a couple of times, it wil cool just a bit. You want it to be as HOT as you can stand it on your face.
The groan of relief is automatic!
~VOW
It helps to think of Dopers as randomly generated code snippets that gets outputted to this board.