First Timer's Review: Thumbs Up!
Written: Dec 29 '07 (Updated Jan 28 '08)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Easy, comfortable. Squeeze-bottle allows you to bleed air from its spout before starting. Good feature!
Cons: None. Perhaps a little silly to pay for packets of salt and baking soda, though.
The Bottom Line: Great first experience with sinus irrigation. I will use it again.
|
|
|
| Andyman's Full Review: Neilmed Pharmaceuticals Sinus Rinse |
I've never tried sinus irrigation before, and the Neilmed Sinus Rinse kit gave me a good first experience. There was no discomfort or mess, and afterward my sinuses and nasal passages were very clear. Cool!
Neti-pots?
I'd heard a lot about Neti-pots and such before, those little teapot-like things you pour water through your nose with. Some people swear by sinus irrigation as a way to avoid getting sick, and I can see some logic in that. If inhaling airborne pathogens into your soft sinus tissue is one way to get sick, then giving that tissue a regular bath in warm saline solution seems like a good idea.
Fears
But I was always afraid of choking or getting that swimming-pool-upside-down feeling of water going up your nose. Well it turns out that I was afraid of nothing. Read on.
Here's what you get in this pack:
1) A soft-squeeze bottle 240ml
2) A tube and nozzle for it with a rounded conical spout
3) 50 packets of saline mixture
4) Detailed instructions on a laminated card
5) A card-stock storage box with plastic organizer tray, all of which is probably sturdy enough to store the kit for 50 uses.
Saline Mixture
The saline mixture is Sodium Chloride (common table salt) and Sodium Bicarbonate (which I believe is baking soda?). The packets are very small foil with no tear scoring, so you need scissors to open them.
Using Clean Water
The instructions advise you to use distilled water or previously boiled water. But obviously you don't want to put boiling water into your nostril.
I used the water that was left in the kettle from making coffee this morning. It was cool. Per the instructions, I warmed it in the squeeze bottle, in the microwave (I removed the tube and spout), in 5-second increments until it was lukewarm.
The Moment of Truth
After mixing in the salt packet and reading the instructions over and over, I started.
I leaned over the sink, placed the bulbous spout in my right nostril, tilted my head slightly to the left and forward, and squeezed ever so gently on the bottle.
At first I felt my nostril itself filling with water, which was no big deal. Once it was full I continued squeezing. Water began to trickle out my other nostril and into the sink. I'm not an expert on the anatomy of the sinuses, but it felt like the water filled my right nostril to the top, then spilled through a hole in the septum wall and out my left nostril. Nothing more complicated than that. It didn't go up into my brain or behind my throat or anything.
Any Discomfort?
I did feel a slight tearing up in my eyes. Nothing major. And there was a very very slight sensation of water going up my nose. I can't emphasize enough how slight this sensation was. It was barely noticeable. Nothing to fear. You probably feel as much each time you take a shower and get your whole head wet, or sniff after washing your face. It truly is nothing to worry about.
Don't hold your breath
I was unsure how to breathe at first. The directions say not to hold your breath, so I didn't. The directions also said that water may drain out your mouth, so I wasn't sure where that left me.
What I did was breathe gently and continuously through my mouth the whole time. At the midpoint between breaths, where I switched from breathing in to out, I did sense a little pressure on my sinuses, a brief pause in the flow of water. I learned after a couple of breaths to make my breathing lighter and smoother, and this ceased to be an issue.
One trick you need to know
You need to do each nostril separately, so I planned to use half the bottle on my right one, then switch over. However, before the bottle was half empty I had already squeezed/crushed it at much as I could. I needed to let more air back in. So I removed it from my nostril and let air bubble back in.
Water and clear snot drained out of both my nostrils at this point. I let it clear, blew out my nose without pinching, and resumed. And here came the only moment of discomfort.
If I didn't make it clear about how the bottle works, it's an upright, cylindrical, narrow-necked bottle made of squeeze plastic. The cap you screw onto the top has an attached tube which you insert down into the bottle before you screw it on. In this way, you're able to squeeze water up out of the bottle in the upright position. All clear on that?
So here's what I did wrong. After I let go of the bottle to allow air back in, I placed it back in my right nostril and began to squeeze. This time, I felt air pushing into my nostril and sinuses, which were saturated with water and snot. This was a little uncomfortable.
So I took it away from my nose, squeezed it until the water had a chance to rise through the tube to the top of the spout, and then, with the air bled out, I placed it back in my nostril and proceeded. I realized that this hadn't been a problem at first because the bottle was full to the brim when I began. But with the bottle only 3/4 full, there was air in the tube.
So I kept going. Once the bottle was half-empty, I switched sides, repeating this air-bleeding step.
Afterward
When I was all done I felt the need to blow my nose in a big way. The directions tell you to do this, but not to pinch your nose, as this will put pressure on your sinuses and eardrums. I found it hard to resist pinching a little. I've been blowing my nose that way my whole life and it was somewhat automatic. I did indeed feel a little popping in my ears.
After blowing, and per the directions, I inhaled a big *SNIFF* and felt some residual saline go up the back of my nasal passages. This felt totally normal, and is supposed to be good for you to do.
The directions advise you not to do all this immediately before bed, because sometimes a little solution will drain at some point after the rinsing. I haven't experienced this yet, but I imagine you need to be awake so you can give a little sniffle.
Conclusions
Overall I found the experience interesting and one I will repeat. I was able to breathe clearly through both nostrils afterward, which is unusual for me. Usually one or the other is blocked at any given time.
I will definitely try this again over time and see how it affects me. I like the NeilMed squeeze bottle. It seems like it would have more control than a neti-pot, which relies on gravity alone to create pressure. And I have no idea how you'd bleed the air from a ceramic neti-pot spout. It's easy to do with the NeilMed bottle.
I doubt I will continue to pay for packets of salt and baking soda (what a waste to package each little dash of salt individually). But I'm glad to have the bottle. And the directions were excellent.
I also doubt that I will use distilled water or pre-boiled water every time. I can see how using sterile water is a good idea, but it's also inconvenient. I will probably try using warm water from the tap (which I drink and bathe with) and see how that goes. If it's not clean enough, perhaps the saline will help.
Update 1/28/08
After a few dozen more experiences I'm still very high on using this. One trick I have found useful (though it sounds weird) is to get down on my knees afterward, bow my forehead to the floor and blow out both nostrils. This helps drain and expel any remaining fluid in the sinus cavities. I discovered this by accident. One day after irrigating I was bending down to switch some plugs on the back of my computer. A few drops of water spilled out my nose and onto the floor. My little bow-down trick seems to take care of this up front, ensuring it doesn't happen later when I am not expecting it. A strong SNIFF afterward is good as well, and recommended in the instructions.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
Andyman
|
 - Top 1000 |
|
Member: Andy Hilal
Location: Berkeley, CA
Reviews written: 128
Trusted by: 175 members
About Me:
Epinions Alum!!
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2008 Shopping.com, Inc.