Recently, I got a nasal irrigation kit made by Ayr. It comes with a plastic bottle and 50 packets of powder to mix in the bottle with distilled water. I tried it when my sinuses were not too bad and got so-so results. By that I mean that my sinuses seemed clearer for a couple of hours but then they started to stuff up again.

I hope this next part doesn't squick anyone. Last week, something bad must have come into bloom because, for a couple of days, I couldn't breathe very well through my nose at all. I tried irrigating but the water wouldn't go into my sinuses. Instead it wanted to go straight to my throat. Are there any tricks for getting it to go into the sinuses when they're full like that? Is the commercially prepared solution not strong enough to cut through the gunk?

Hey SnoozeHunter,

Bend your head over the sink as far as you comfortably can.  It is an angle thing.  Try being very gentle.  Sometimes it takes a few gentle tries before it will go all the way through.  Also, see if you can do a reverse irrigation, i.e. put the saline in the unstuffed nostril (if you have one) to get it to come out the stuffed side.

You have to be gentle sometimes.  Too much force will mess your sinuses up and can cause some real pain in your ear(s) as well.

Vicki


_________________
That which does not kill you makes you stronger-Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich must of had apnea.

Thanks, Vicki!

I'll try angling differently and see if that helps.

Hi Vicky,  Thanks for the post, I am a brand new CPAP user and am using a full face mask because my sinuses are extremely bad and I have never been able to breathe out of both nostrils at once and so I am a mouth breather.  The mask is uncomfortable and I'd like to be able to use a nose mask of some sort as they seem to be more comfortable.  I read your post yesterday and went out and bought a sinu-cleanse box from Wal-Greens.  I used the tepi pot last night and I am breathing out of both nostrils for the first time since I can remember!  However, I have a couple of questions and if I apologize about the grossness of this post, but I have to know.  First, I was unable to use the entire pot last night, and I was only getting a dribble out of my nose, and when I blew my nose, quite a bit of brown stuff came out.  Is this normal for first time users?  I do not have an infection, at least I'm not running a temperature, and I haven't smoked for over 3 years.  Second, this morning, I was able to get a bit more water through my nose, but this time I had a little blood in the water and when I blew my nose, I blew out a couple of blood clots.  Is this common?  Right now I take Mucinex to prevent sinus infections which seems to work and my MD has given me Nasonex but it just dries out my nose and I get nose bleeds.  Thanks for this informative post!

My allergist/immunologist has what he calls a nasal wash.  He has the pharmacies around here compounding it for his patients.  They use a standard bottle of packaged saline and drop in one pill each of 3 antibiotics.  I used to know what they were, but have forgotten. Supposedly, this came from the Mayo Clinic and it has been maybe 10 years since he first recommended this for me.  

He recommends trying the plain bottled prepared saline solution, but I've had good results from using the 2 c. water with 1 teaspoon table sea salt, and a pinch of baking soda.

He had a syringe included (of course, sans needle) and the compounded saline solution had to be stored in the refrigerator.  I never had time to warm it up, so I used it out of the fridge.  It used to seem the cold helped to clear things out, sort of as being out in cold weather makes one's nose run.

If you would like to try the syringe, I found that I prefer a child's dosing syringe.  It is used in giving liquid medications to tots.  I recently discovered that the Target pharmacist will give me one for free if I ask for help in finding one!  The Target one is latex-free, as well.  Some of the other syringes may have a rubber seal.

I went to the Dr the other day to see him about going to see an ENT.  I asked him if he knew about nasal rinsing and he said yes.  I asked him why he never suggested it to me considering my history of sinus congestion and he said most people will only entertain the idea if they are at the end of their rope!  I guess he never realized I was there and had been there for a long time!      BTW:  I am rinsing about every other day and I haven't had any congestion for nearly a week!  If this continues, my next mask will be a nasal one.  Thanks for the post Vicki!

Hi again Bulldawg!

I am so glad you are finding relief.  To answer your previous question:  blood indicates old blood.  That it was blood was confirmed by the blood clots that also came out.  Just so you know, here is a color chart (Color makes any subject more fun for me   ):

Bight red=Fresh blood
Brown=Old blood
Yellow=Infection
Green=Infection
Violet=I don't know but it is my favorite color!

Vicki


_________________
That which does not kill you makes you stronger-Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich must of had apnea.

Just a side note. I got the Sinu-Cleanse and the NeilMed Sinus Rinse from WalGreens today. The Neil Med was $4 cheaper and MUCH better. The main difference is the NeilMed has a better delivery system. It's essentially a bottle with a little hose that goes to the bottom to be sure to deliver the solution thoroughly throughout the "squeezing" process. It did a tremendous job of rinsing and irrigating for a mere $10. Good recommendation from me.

I have been a regular sinus irrigator since last summer (using the Grossan Hydropulse) and have had great results with it.  

I'm wondering if there are any concerns with using tap water, as I've been doing.  Are there any problems with potential chlorine irritation of sensitive nasal passages over the long term?  Or am I just being paranoid?

Ouch ThStoddart,

Doesn't that hurt?  The issue is not the chlorine, the issue is that tap water is bad for your tissues.  Water without salt at the concentration of salt in the blood will draw water into your nasal tissue causing irritation and swelling.  Using a solution that has too much salt in it will draw water out of your sinus tissues dehydrating them.  That is why you shouldn't drink sea water, it is dehydrating because the high salt concentration pulls water out of your system.

Salt concentration<blood concentration = Hypotonic
Salt concentration=blood concentration = Iso (same) tonic
Salt concentration>blood concentration = Hypertonic

Vicki


_________________
That which does not kill you makes you stronger-Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich must of had apnea.

Vicki,

Why is tap water bad? I've used it with salt added per the directions and not had a problem. It seems to me that if tap water or the solution is hypertonic, that could be a benefit, since it would draw water out of swollen tissues.

Nancy

Vicki wrote:

Ouch ThStoddart,

Doesn't that hurt?  The issue is not the chlorine, the issue is that tap water is bad for your tissues.  Water without salt at the concentration of salt in the blood will draw water into your nasal tissue causing irritation and swelling.  Using a solution that has too much salt in it will draw water out of your sinus tissues dehydrating them.  That is why you shouldn't drink sea water, it is dehydrating because the high salt concentration pulls water out of your system.

Salt concentration<blood concentration = Hypotonic
Salt concentration=blood concentration = Iso (same) tonic
Salt concentration>blood concentration = Hypertonic

Vicki

Sorry, I should have been clearer.  I have prepared, pre-measured dry solution packets (the right combo of salt and sodium bicarbonate) that I'm to mix with a pint of H20.  

So I'm concerned about whether or not I should be using tap water to make the solution or if I should switch to distilled or bottled.  

thanks!
Stodd

I have occasionally had water run out of a nostril hours later but this is only a small problem

It isn't that tap water is bad.  That is what I use.  It is that the solution has to be isotonic otherwise it damages the delicate nasal mucosa.

Vicki


_________________
That which does not kill you makes you stronger-Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich must of had apnea.

I hear ya, when it comes to Dr's not telling us about it. I have had sinus problems for 30 yr and just last week had operation # 23 for nasal polyps. I am in a different province now, and this is the first time I have been to theis ENT and he gave me a presc for one. I have been using it every day since last Sat and it is great. It is the NeilMed one with a bottle, 50 pre mixed packets. At first it is a little awkward but I have the hang of it now and I can see I sill be using it a lot in the future.