What? You breathe through your nose? Since when?

Since today.

I have suffered from year round allergies my entire life.

I've never met a flower, pet, weed, perfume or dustmite that didn't make me sneeze or clog my sinuses. I have tried every medication known to man. Long ago,I finally quit taking them. It seemed as though for every allergin they drove off, another spore was just lurking waiting to enter and fill the newly vacated space in my head. I also had some (possibly) irrational fears about what all those chemicals were doing to the rest of my system.

That's right, I made a concious decision to go through life sounding like I had a head stuffed like a pillow.

Over the last couple of days, in an effort to take advantage of a couple of beautiful days and get some of the last summer/ winter prep chores done, my head finally screamed "ENOUGH! DO SOMETHING"!!!

Too cheap to pay a co-pay to be told I had allergies, I hopped into my 11 year old carbon footprint and drove up to Walgreens and met the person who might have changed my life.

She sold me a Neti Pot. This Neti Pot Kit in fact.



Now seriously, if anyone had told me when I got up this morning that by noon I would be pouring anything up my nose, I would have told them they were nuts.

So nuts in fact, that when I got home, I set the box on the kitchen table and stared at it for about 30 minutes.

Then I read the instructions and thought about it some more. I took the little pot out of the box along with a packet of the mixture that needed to be added to warm but not hot water.

When I tore open the little packet, I was standing next to the sink. The furry thing with super sonic hearing that lives here was sleeping on another floor of the house. She woke up, and bounded down, clearly anticipating a new food taste test experience. She must have sensed my reluctance to pour anything in my nose because she parked herself literally on my feet, looked up at me and gave a little yip as if to say,"Don't worry. Pretend you're at K-Mart, if you need a clean-up in aisle 4, I'm here for you". Dang dog.

In the instructions, it tells you when you do this, to keep your mouth open and to try not to swallow the solution even though it won't hurt you. Suffice it to say, when the big moment came, the solution went in my nose and some went down my throat. Pretty gag worthy but to put it in perspective, it was nothing compared to that junk you have to drink before a colonoscopy.... More importantly, was how much stuff was coming out my other nostril. I switched sides and again stood there, bent over the sink lost in a really weird fascination of what was going on.(The dog was fascinated too, but after the first round she chose move and watch with a wary eye from under the table as water poured out my nose)

I finished up as per the instructions and here it is, hours later and I can still breathe. One side is completely clear and the other about 65%.

Granted I need a longer trial period than just once, but the kit comes with 50 little packets so I'm going to try it at least for the next 50 days.

But I thought I'd share my experience and recommendation to anyone with a cold or allergies to try this.

Good luck and good breathing.