Monday, March 2, 2009

Crazy things you see online

One of the fun side effects of pregnancy which I have been blessed with is sinus congestion. All the time. Or rather, since inauguration (January 20th for the non-American audience).

The only decongestant that I'm allowed to take while pregnant is Sinutab, which the pharmacist looked at me sternly after I told him that and said are you very sure? I doublechecked and both the handouts from my OBGYN and midwife gave the big OK to Sinutab. But he seemed perplexed, and went to his documentation and found that Sinutab is a class C drug during pregnancy. I think class C means probably OK. Whereas Tylenol (acetaminophen) is a class A drug - totally OK. I think the letter scale goes to G or something, where a class G drug essentially shouldn't ever been taken while pregnant, or perhaps only to save the mother's life... So class C isn't so bad but probably not great.

At any rate, I tried Sudafed when I was actually sick and not just congested, and it made me really dopey, and it didn't seem to affect my congestion. So I've been thinking about what else I can do to reduce my congestion. And I thought now is the time I should try using a neti pot. I've thought it sounded like a good idea for a long time, but needed the little kick in the pants to go try it. I also still have some credit left over from Amazon.com gift certificates sent at Christmas, so I thought I'd go a searching for a neti pot on Amazon. Well, the search returned a bunch of promising results... what skeeved me right out though was that almost every single model presented had an option to buy used.

Would you buy a used neti pot from a stranger? I wouldn't. Maybe I should, in the interest of being a conservationist or something. But I think I won't be going that far.

I haven't bought one yet. I just remembered I'm supposed to be shopping for jeans for DH as well. Jeans and a neti pot. What doesn't Amazon sell?

5 comments:

Shannon McFerran said...

well, if you want to get a great nose shower without the pot, there is also the giant syringe option. They sell them... called "nasaline" at vitamin stores/health shops. Easier to use, imho.

red storm said...

I have chronic sinusitus from pre-pregnancy days and an OB who raises one eyebrow when I beg to take even class B drugs...so I get down with the neti-pot all the time. It really does help. And no way I would buy it used. It is dishwasher safe, and all, but let's not forget that thing has been up somebody's NOSE!

BTW, I don't know about you but I have small nostrils. You might want to buy one you can actually look at, in order to make sure you can fit it up your nose. There is nothing worse than shoving something 3 milimeters wider than your nostril into a tissue-raw shnoz. Just not fun at all, though I suppose it could be good prep for the day we all know is coming!

red storm said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Congestion must be one of those Secret Symptoms they don't talk about until it happens to you?

Anonymous said...

Inhale a few drops of eucalyptus in a bowl of boiling water with a towel over your head. It works like a hot damn. Just put more and more drops in bit by bit as the eucalyptus burns off.