How have I lived this long and never had a nasal wash?
I've been suffering a bit lately with infected sinuses and so the chemist suggested that among the antibiotics and decongestants and pain killers, I douse my nostrils in saline solution.
By coincidence I was talking to my son minutes before the big nasal tsunami and he gave me a few tips. He said if I say "k,k,k," as I do it, it would keep the soft palate high and stop the wash going into the mouth and not out of the other nostril as desired.
He told me he had a pack of 100 sachets ready to go for a nasal wash at any time. I was surprised to hear it, but perhaps this is something professional singers do and we mere choir members are not in that singing/nose washing loop (thankfully).
And so I started a casual mini survey, asking my children and then my friends about this mysterious sink-based practice. It appears that we nose washing ignoramuses are in the minority and my children and indeed my friends do not mind a splash of saline up the old nostril on a regular basis.
How does a parent/friend who never introduced such a horrendous procedure into the lives of her children not know that her offspring have turned to the nasal dark side?
Is this some sort of sadistic addiction to that near drowning feeling, created by plunging a cupful of salty water up your sinus passages?
There is a whole world of discomfort out there that I have previously not been privy to.
As a novice nasal washer, I found that first squeeze of the bottle that would send the first jet skyward incredibly difficult. My brain was telling my right hand to squeeze, but my right hand was saying "no". Four times I told it to squeeze before it unwillingly complied sending me into that swirling feeling of being dumped in the sea before reaching the surface.
I did not immediately get the joy in such a manoeuvre until about an hour later when I realised that the headache had eased, I had not coughed for a while and I felt curiously light headed.
The next time I told my right hand to squeeze it did it more willingly. And now, I have been back to the chemist and bought 25 more sachets of the heavy duty stuff.
