Interesting Cold Remedies...

So I came down with the plague about two weeks ago; after four days, I recovered (mostly), but now I appear to be having a second bout of Rachel vs. virus (So far, virus is winning the series! -I imagine my Phillie's fan friends would say that, too).

Growing more and more tired of being sick and tired, I decided to drag myself to university health services. After waiting for 40 minutes in a waiting room with 5 other people with symptoms similar or worse than mine, I was finally seen by a very helpful and congenial nurse who asked about my symptoms and present treatments and then did a throat culture (they basically tickle your tonsils) to see if my sore throat was Strep (it came back negative, thankfully!). With not too much else to offer, she handed me a brochure with some information and went through it with me, suggesting that I up my fluid intake, get some good throat losenges to numb the pain, consider gargling with a salt-water solution 2x daily and get a humidifier and sent me on my way.

Immediately after this, I went to CVS and our local grocery store and bought at Vick's Steam Humidifier and loaded up on Gatorade (my fluid of choice these days). While I was in the CVS pharmacy, I saw a Neti Pot. I had heard that they work wonders for clearing out sinus congestion, so I thought, "what the heck? 10 bucks for some relief? I'll give it a try." (I got a CVS one, not one of the fancy ones shown in the video in the link below).

http://www.himalayaninstitute.org/NetiPot/WhyNasalWash.aspx
http://www.himalayaninstitute.org/NetiPot/NetiPotInstructions.aspx

I got it home and was pretty excited about trying it out. I read the instructions and prepped everything, then went for it.

Wow! First, I was shocked. I hate the feeling of water in my nose. Ever since I've been a little kid, I've always had to hold my nose to go underwater while swimming. I never learned how to swim without holding it. I guess I didn't expect it to feel that way - but duh! you're pouring water in your nose! After I got over the initial shock and relaxed, it went fine. It's actually a simple process, and takes only a few seconds.

I must say the results are fantastic! I have been breathing much better today as a result!