I just heard Peter Orszag, aka, “the Calculator” quote Toby Keith: “There ain’t no right way to do the wrong thing” while discussing the budget. I got a good laugh out of that.
At any rate, I am going to try to nap for a bit. It is either try to sleep or take a drill to my temple, so I am going for the first option. Decongestants and the neti pot have not fixed things at all, and this sinus headache is killing me, but at least the flu-like symptoms are not as bad as I have had in the past. Staring at this computer screen trying to work is the opposite of fun. If this doesn’t get better, I will head to the doc in the morning, but these things usually clear up after a couple days.
At any rate, here is a thread for you.
Batman
Look a new thread.
jibeaux
I remember one of the first things the internets were good for, for me, was disseminating the stories and pictures of people who engaged in trepanning.
In terms of really seeing the crazy, it was kind of like having 20/80 vision and finally getting glasses.
DougJ
You might want to wait a little while before you go to the doctor. In a few weeks, Obama will introduce free communist health care for everyone. Though you might have trouble squeezing your appointment in around all the compulsory voluntary service we’ll all be doing.
That’s why I’m going Galt and moving to another country with a large American community.
TenguPhule
And the mandatory gay abortions that will take your guns away.
TheFountainHead
I really can’t fucking wait.
Martin
If it’s the cold my entire family is recovering from, give up on the drugs – they didn’t help at all. Just sleep it out. The painful stuff drops off after about 2 days, leaving you with random annoying symptoms.
Keep the neti pot going though – you’ll be glad in the long run.
anonevent
It’s move to the rockies, but if you have a perpetual energy machine and a cloaking device, why not just leave the planet.
Buckethead
The best headache med ever is Excedrin Migraine. Try some.
Emma Zahn
The worst sinus headache I ever had was after taking decongestants when my sinuses were too dry so here’s some unsolicited advice: Try taking something to moisten your sinuses when you take a decongestant. Guaifenisen or plain fish oil Vitamin A gelcaps (more palatable than a spoonful of cod liver oil).
FourtyTwo
Instead of the Neti Pot, I just make a strong table salt solution (warm water is key) in a wide mouth plastic cup, and take that into a hot shower.
Steam yourself good, and put your nose in the salt water. Drink from the wide mouth cup like your nose was a straw and spit out the salt water into the drain.
Usually does the business for me.
Diamondrock
The Calculator?
Michael D.
Help to get to sleep:
NyQuil and Melatonin.**
** By taking this combination of substances, you agree to not hold Michael D. responsible for the consequences (beyond getting a good sleep, that is.)
Sweet dreams.
KevOH
Try Vicks Sinex Nasal Spray, it will reduce swelling causing your sinuses to drain and have you feeling better within 5 minutes (no joke). The effects last about 12 hours. The stuff is seriously amazing. If things are really blocked give a squirt or two to each nostril, wait 5 minute then give it another spray while inhaling. This stuff works better than anything else out on the market with or without a prescription.
Spring for the expensive bottle with the spray tip (not the little squirt bottle), it makes a difference as the finer droplets get further in. Careful, while the spray is available OTC, it is habit forming.
gnomedad
An idea popped into my head in case you get tired of your "Consistently Wrong" tagline:
"Like MST3K for the Republican Party"
Rainy Day
Keep your mucus membranes moist (saline nasal spray and humidifier). Do this even when you don’t have sinus problems, and you’ll greatly reduce your sinus problems as well as reduce your chances of getting colds. Remember: Your mucus membranes are your friends and your first line of defense against germs. If they dry out, they can’t do their jobs.
Try not to blow your nose (sounds counterintuitive, but it makes sinus problems worse).
Do the shower/steam thing recommended earlier (again, it’s all about getting moisture into your mucus membranes — saline/salt helps retain moisture.
Ramalamadingdong
I’ll add my recommendation – DayQuil cold and flu liquicaps. They never fail. Unless of course you’re dying.
Michael
Don’t take NyQuil. It gives the crazy dreams, completely unpleasant.
Tim
Forget the Neti pot – you miss too many areas of your sinuses. Use one of the squeeze bottles instead, then you can do it standing up and leaning over slightly and get more if not most/all of the sinus passages with it. Far more effective. Combine with steam and
If this is a recurring sinus problem, see a specialist. It’s likely nothing more than a persistent infection that requires more than the standard 10 days of medication to clear up. (My ENT doc says 4-6 weeks for such)
Of course if an ENT recommends surgery, get a second and third opinion. Even large cysts in the sinus passages do not usually require such, and a few ENT docs out there (supposedly – I’ve read such anyway) jump to surgery too fast. Sometimes it is necessary though.
Nicole
It might be a flu headache, not sinus (or so teh Google told me when I googled, "Cold or flu?" while I was sick with it three weeks ago. Severe headaches are apparently very common with the flu. Yes, I’m a nerd). If it’s flu, nothing is going to help it. If you’re coughing a lot (I was and it hurt like evil because of the headache), the doctor can give you cough syrup with codeine so you can sleep. Drink a lot of fluids, too. A hydrated body fights off illness better.
This year’s flu is apparently very virulent. Lots of people who don’t often get flu are getting it.
valdivia
Excedrin is all caffeine which relieves a migraine (for a while it can give a rebound migraine later) so be careful. To much caffeine on a sinus headache not so good.
Comrade Darkness
You can test for a sinus headache pretty easily by rubbing vicks vapo-rub under your nose. If that gives you relief it’s a sinus headache. If it makes it worse, it’s some other kind.
You can take nsaids and tylenol together. I find that two advil/ibuprofen and one tylenol work pretty well as a team on headaches.
But here’s hoping you feel better.
joeyess
Hey Cole! Go and get yourself some Vicks™ Shower Lozenges.
It’s a handy little disc that you place on the floor of your shower. Turn the water on as hot as you can stand and if you have a shower chair, all the better, then just breathe deeply thru your nose. The lozenge bubbles and dissolves on the shower floor in the water and vapors rise.
I think it’s Vicks. I could be wrong. Just ask the pharmacist.
But these things really, really work. I suffer from sinus troubles as well and these really turn the trick.
Either way, better you than me. ;^)
HeartlandLiberal
Not to beat around the bush about it, but when flu strikes me (age 63 this past February), I can guarantee that hydrocodone (lortab) is your best friend to ease the pain and the coughing.
And if you get into real trouble with painful cough, get your doctor to prescribe the codeine syrup cough medicine. If you are known to the doctor as not an abuser of such meds, he/she will not hesitate to prescribe it.
At some point, having accepted you are not going to be a drug abuser, it beats the hell out of the pain, and lets you get a good nights sleep while your body fights off the flu virus. When I have a bout with really bad flu, the coughing can be incredibly painful and constant, and anything short of the cough suppressant power of codeine is just a waste of time. I always keep a supply of tabs on hand for this, and for when I travel, especially if I am going fishing in back country. Nothing more fun than a toothache or injury when the nearest road is a float plane flight of a half hour or more away. Be prepared, in other words.
I note your advocacy of the neti pot, and have and use one myself, but since we are getting all personal and family here, one more bit of advice. Run a clean basin with a few inches of very warm water, and put salt in it. Then cup your hands, and literally snort the warm salt water into the sinus cavities and nasal passages immediately at the back of the nasal passages, then let the water drain out. Which nostril is optional, but alternating helps. Practice, of course, till you can do this without inhaling the water, this is a consideration. This will force the warm salt water much deeper and do even more good than the draining with the neti pot. You will know you are succeeding when the passages let you know as they react to the salt water, but remember, it, like many painful things in life, is ultimately good for you.
JenJen
John, since misery loves company, I’ll let you know I’m suffering a similar fate. Nyquil and my Neti-Pot aren’t doing shit to this cold. I slept 14 hours yesterday and woke up feeling even worse.
Seems like I always get the worst cold of the year during the February-March seasonality. My condolences. :-(
hoi polloi
The missus has been fighting the same condition for going on two weeks. Go to the doctor.
JenJen
By the by, since this is a semi-open thread, Nicolle Wallace becomes the latest GOP op to throw in with Camp Limbaugh.
Don’t Lecture Us, Mr. President!
Good stuff. The dramatics, the death pangs, the whining, the "how dare you!", the weird comments section…
Billy K (D-TX)
Hope you feel better Cole.
After weeks of feeling lousy, I finally came to the conclusion my "flu-like" symptoms were in fact, a sinus infection. So I went to the doctor (which I only do if ABSOLUTELY necessary), who told me I have allergies. Nothing else, just allergies. And that’s why I feel bad and can’t sleep.
So I’m now resigned to taking a step toward hippie-dom and investing in a Neti Pot.
All of this just to say, I feel your pain in some way/shape/form.
Betsy
Sorry the usual remedies aren’t doing the trick. Have Tunch make you some tea and feel better soon!
Joel
Phenylephrine decongestants don’t work at all. They do a great job at raising your blood pressure, but little to constrict the vessels in your sinuses. Because of our government’s heavy-handedness, you’re stuck with those if you don’t want to hand over your identification.
I would do that anyways, because pseudoephedrine works, and extremely well. I’d drop the extra for the 12-hour, which has some sort of plastic in it to release the extra dose (4x the standard tablet) over a longer period. Keeps your sinuses clear with the exception of the very worst cases.
If you want to breathe, nasal sprays work great, except for that rebound rhinitis. Sometimes I give them a shot just to blast those insolent blood vessels into oblivion.
Quicksand
Hey, what are all you people doing in here? John said this thread is for ME.
Litlebritdifrnt
I had my sinuses "done" about 25 years ago when I was in the Navy and never regretted it (despite the fact that the surgery is mofo painful – or it was back then) the only drawback is that now when I blow my nose properly (ie close one nostril blow the other, vice versa) I swear that there is hair conditioner in there. However, my sinus infections were such that my face would blow up the size of a soccer ball and the bags under my eyes looked like I had just done three rounds with Mike Tyson. If you are prone to sinus infections John I would weigh the pros and cons of sinus surgery heavily, I basically had no choice seeing I had virtually no airways due to a slightly bent nose and serious overdevelopment of cartilage in my nasal passages. As for a quirky remedy I heard snorting beetroot juice works wonders. :)
Phoebe
Drink a whole lot of water.
Alan
Please take a zinc tablet (40-50mg)daily with food during the cold ,allergy or flu seasons.It will dramatically reduce your sinus infections.
Steeplejack
@Comrade Darkness:
I hate to go all Brick Oven Bill on this thread, but does anyone use/remember Mentholatum? I love that stuff, but it’s getting harder and harder to find. I thought it was sort of a universally accepted nostrum, but I have been discovering that, no, it was simply a rustic artifact of my crackro-American upbringing.
But it smells great! Eucalyptus! What’s not to like?
TheOfficialHatOnMyCat
@Joel:
Clemastine Fumarate. Cheap, effective, OTC, no side effects.
Formerly sold as Tavist (not, repeat not, Tavist D) and still sold by Walgreens as Wal-Hist. Was prescription only at one time.
Twelve hours of very pleasant sinus relief. Sleep all night, breathe.
Good.
rachel
@Joel: My husband gets better results with phenylephrine than with pseudephedrine, but it only works well enough for me if I allow the pills to disolve under my tongue so the mucous membranes there can take some up directly.