Way back when Scott & Sharon were here, they told me about the Neti pot, and I was enchanted. Then, they left, and I got one, but didnt use it right away. Days rolled on and suddenly, months had gone by and I had neither gotten better (from a nasal-health standpoint) nor used the Neti pot.
I was afraid, you see! Afraid that the Neti pot wouldnt work, that its legend cast a shadow too long for the little clay thing to live up to. Last night, however, I had had enough, and was ready to try anything – ready, even, to be disappointed by the Neti pot.
I wasnt disappointed.
It wasnt a miraculous cure, not by any stretch of the imagination, but neither was it useless. The thing, properly salted (although with the improper salt), did just what it was supposed to do, up to a point. It didnt get up into the sinuses behind my eyes, but it did wash out my nasal passages and make me stop sneezing and coughing in response to all the mucus.
- After my initial 2-cup (measured) use last night and another this morning, Ive come to some conclusions:
- my sinuses are indeed tightly packed, and water aint getting up there to wash anything out without multiple, patient applications and the help of gravity in between
- Im not sick – all my mucus is pretty much clear
- some additional snot-blasting ingredients to my ritual might help a little (I read that grapefruit seed oil is great – what about hot pepper powder? I bet thats great!)
- I need to experiment more with head tilt – if I could stand on my head, it might be a little better at getting water to the sinuses under my eyes
- keeping the passage between nasal and mouth closed is paramount, or else the water just runs down into your mouth and is unpleasant
- the recipe of one scant teaspoon of salt in two cups of luke-warm water seems to work well, in terms of not hurting my nasal passage at all.
Im sure theres more, but now its time to get some work done. Thanks, Scott & Sharon, for putting me on to the Neti pot. Ill keep working on recipes and re-washes to see what the best thing I can come up with is. And Ill keep everyone updated on the progress of my snot.
Youre welcome.