A Win for Historic Healing: The Neti Pot Story

As you all might have been seeing, my blogs have had a common "sick person" theme, with the sick person being me. This respiratory infection has taken me through hills and valleys of fun times, and its turbulence is still here today! On Monday, I got an appointment at the doctor's office. It was pretty routine, but they didn't prescribe any antibiotics, just some Mucinex and cough suppressant pills. Palliative care basically. The Mucinex helped loosen everything up, but then...yeah, it just wasn't the best. On Tuesday, I woke up feeling like someone gave me a crude tonsillectomy with a rusty knife AND I was stuffed up like mad! Today is Wednesday, and I had to miss clinical because of this thing, and it is too far. Something was just not right. Why am I still sick even though I'm on 15 million meds?

So after getting frustrated that my mouth was dry because I couldn't breathe out of my nose, my friend Emily texted me about something, and then we started to get on the subject of Neti Pots. Now, a Neti Pot is a device I saw used by my mom, but it looked completely ridiculous when she did it (she preferred the freak out method of expelling the solution, somewhat like seizing, but even more gross). It is an ancient remedy for nasal congestion in ancient India, and was widely used for cleansing rituals. It was designed to irrigate the sinuses and remedy the spirit. In modern times it is a small pot that you fill with warm water and saline solution, like this: 

And you take it and pour this solution into one nostril and it then comes around your nasal cavity and out the other while you breathe through your mouth and exhale through your nose. The pressure takes the solution up and clears and loosens everything up and makes it all come out. Yes, it is messy at first. Yes, it's weird. But, I was up for anything.

I went to Wal-Mart and bought the Naso-Flo "irrigation pot" (about 17.50 with tax) and brought it home.

The directions are really helpful complete with diagrams and specific written instructions on how to operate this device. I put in the 240 mL of warm water into the pot with a premixed package of saline solution and stirred with a shake, capped the pot, and gave it a whirl. Now, I won't gross you out by explaining how the process went, but I can tell you that my nose feels completely clear, with no pain involved. Funny, considering I've been taking medication all week for this infection! 

Why won't more Americans try this? Well, it's possible that we have taken a little too much pride in our medicinal accomplishments. Now, don't get me wrong, I AM in nursing school after all, but I think that we defer to pharmacological treatments more often. Plus, I mean, it's gross, right? Well, honestly when I have a cold and can't do anything for 5 days, I think that I am willing to deal with a little saline solution in my nose.

From now on, this is definitely my new preferred method!