Hi, My Name is Michelle & I’m Afraid of Nasal Irrigation.

Being sick when you are pregnant is a whole new level of suck.  Not quite the suckiest suck that ever sucked, but close. 

The worst part for me?  Not being able to make sweet sweet love to my Advil Cold & Sinus, with an evening chaser of Nyquil.  I maintain that it’s the only thing that works.  {Um, yes Advil, I would LOVE to be your spokes-blogger, but no they didn’t pay me to say any of this.}

So what are my pregnancy cold & sinus relief choices?  Sudafed.  Does a whole lot of nothing other than making EVERY part of me dry except my nasal passages.  And Tylenol cold stuff that never manages to make a dent either.

And then, everyone told me to get a neti pot or a sinus wash bottle.  Have you seen these things?  A whole new level of scary.

Basically, you take the pot or bottle, fill it with a solution of mild temperature water & salt, then shove it up one nostril, pour the water in and it drains out the other nostril.  Allegedly.  I’m pretty sure it just a way to drown yourself on perfectly good dry land.  Or end up in the hospital like Bobby from Cougar Town.

But after four consecutive days of complete sinus pluggage and emptying my second box of tissues I decided something HAD to be done.  Since the possibility of maiming the baby with my Advil/Nyquil option wasn’t the best choice, I went with the squeeze bottle.  I thought maybe the neti was a bit out of my realm of coordination level… trying not to spill a teapot of salt water while drowning myself probably wasn’t in the cards.  The squeeze bottle eliminated the spillage factor and for that I am grateful.

My fears were as follows: vomiting, swallowing snotty salt water THEN vomiting, drowning, drowning then Dave finding me drowned and covered in snot on the bathroom floor, the water going in but not coming out, water going into my ears via my sinus cavities and causing an ear infection, choking, coughing, asphyxiation, crying, ending up calling the ambulance, or otherwise making a total ass out of myself.

OK, so it takes some coordination, but I did it.  And it wasn’t a miracle worker by any stretch of the imagination, but it DID help.  The first couple times I did it in the shower because I felt like it was easier to work out the coordination piece of it before spilling water all over.  Basically, you look down into the sink with your neck bent, put the bottle in your nose, tilt your head to the side and squeeze.  One thing that is really helpful to remember is to remain bent forward and to keep your mouth open… you know that breathing thing is more important than you realize.  It takes a second but it’ll start coming out the other nostril.

I don’t really have allergy issues, but I’ve heard it is a kick ass solution for that.  I’m thinking about going to get one for Dave.

So tell me if I am the only freak who was deathly afraid?  Do you use one?  Is it a daily routine?