colds/allergies?

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Ever have one of those colds/allergies where you catch yourself considering filling the water pick with hot salt water and shooting it up your nose?

[MountainDon]

Don't laugh at that idea, although you probably shouldn't shoot water under pressure up your nose. There are "nose bidets" available; also known as "neti pots". SinuCleanse is one. I own two; one at home one uop in the mountains. Ditto my wife.

http://www.sinucleanse.com/?source=google&group=sinucleanse&campaign=1

You use it to irrigate the nasal passages and sinus cavities. Goes in one, through the sinuses and out the other. Repeat in the other direction. We both find them extremely useful. My doctor agrees that there should be no harm in their use. It's use relieves my post nasal drip and headaches from being congested. Use warm water, not too hot and definitly not cold. Cold will give you a bad headache for sure.



Got ours at Walgreens.

[Sassy]

Some of our docs recommend those...  in fact just the other day, someone with chronic sinus infections was told to irrigate with warm saline (saltwater)

[muldoon]

I hate the summer colds.  I generally get one every year.  Hope you feel better soon. 

Using lots of garlic, ginger, honey and lemon in any dishes and huge 2000mg daily does of vitamin C seem to help me get over it quicker.  get some rest. 

[Daddymem]

I use a neti almost daily.  I use Kosher salt in mine and do it during my morning shower.  I have noticed a world of difference, it really cleans the sinuses out.  My nose is a horrible mess anyways, having been broken several times.  Since I stated doing the neti for several years now, my colds seem to be shorter lived, I get fewer colds, and my nose is clear more often than not. 
I've got the bad cold going around right now and I can't wait to get home to neti some of this snot out!

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

I actually have been using the simply saline with menthol in it.  Great stuff.  Like a party in your nose.  It seems to be helping a lot.  I can almost talk today and can breathe without my mouth hanging open all the time.  Yesterday I was so completely stuffy and my head felt like it weighed about 75 lbs....caught myself standing in the bathroom staring at the waterpick thinking, oh yeah, I could crank that baby up and rename it the "snot blaster", sell it on infomercials, and then I got tickled at how gross the very thought was... DH thought I was losing it.  I'm feeling quite a bit better today... unfortunately the baby seems to have gotten the cough part of the cold from me.  She doesn't act sick at all... just as smiley as ever, but  not sleeping more than 15 minutes at a time because she'll cough, pee her pants, and then wake up and grin at me.  Hard to homeschool when you can't even talk.  Yesterday, my oldest DD wanted to do 4 reading lessons at once.  We struggled through, but by the time she was done, I didn't have a voice left to teach the younger one, so I had her do writing work instead where I could show her rather than tell her.  Today because the little one is so demanding of time, the older girls are outside bug and snail hunting until I can get her down for the next 15-minute nap!

On the neti pots, I got one for DH a long time ago.  He said it helped, but he hardly ever uses it.  He is just one of those guys that if you don't take care of him, he sure as heck isn't going to do it for himself....uses excuses like "takes too much time" etc.  Just like his skin.  He has horribly dry skin, and his face is the worst, around his eyes.  I got him some face cream that really does work and keeps his skin from cracking open and bleeding, but unless I harp on him to use it or actually do it for him, he never uses it.

[Redoverfarm]

I would fear that I would drown.  Like the cautions on the 5 gal bucket that says a child can drown in 1" of water .  I just start eating horse radish on everything. It will usually open things up.  The sweat glands as well.