Neti Pot

I have a love hate relationship...with the neti pot. Some of you might not even know what the neti pot is...and I didn't until Sunday. See, when you're prego, if you have a cold, you pretty much better just hunker down and take a few days off work, because you can't take any medicine. While I do see it as a pretty good chance for my body to prove that it still works and can heal itself the way God made it, (as if being prego isn't enough) it's pretty much miserable. Oh, you can take Tylenol (and let me just remind you that there's a reason you start taking Advil once you're over the age of 12) and Mucinex...but really? They don't work. They might ease the pain/agony for a minute, but you're pretty much on your own!

Now, I understand my body has more important things to do right now besides kick this cold to the curb, growing an alien human and all. But that doesn't make it any easier to take the constant runny nose, stuffed up head, and soar throat! I mean, I'm not Wonder Woman, I'm just prego!

One of my friends who has a 1 year old told me last fall when I was suffering with a cold that I should try the neti pot. Before I go any further and to help you understand why I said, "Heck no!", you need to understand what a Neti Pot is.

The neti pot originated in India, which helps me understand why it looks like a foreign tea pot. It's a small tea pot looking thing. You fill it with saline solution and...................you stick it up your nose. Remember when that weird kid in school would sniff a spaghetti noodle up one nostril and make it come out the other? Well, that's basically what you do with the neti pot. You stick the end of the tea pot up one nostril, tilt your head, and allow the saline to come out the other nostril. Um, no thank you! EEW!!!!! Sure, it's supposed to clean your sinuses out, but that's disgusting. I'll just sniff night and day. Thank you!

Here's a disturbing picture of what it would look like if you were lying in a sink while someone is using their neti pot right above you. That's gross. And how much did this woman get paid to have this picture taken? Not enough.

So, that was the fall. This is now. I felt horrible on Sunday so Jeff went to church without me. He was talking to our friends who brought up the neti pot again. Before Jeff came home from church, he stopped at Walgreens to pick me up my very own plastic, heather gray, Walgreens stamped neti pot. Using it the first time was as awful as I thought it would be. It feels like you got in the ocean and sniffed up as much salt water as you could, and then snorted it all out. So gross.

But 6 days later, I have to admit, I'm a fan. It's probably the least glamorous thing I've ever done (probably can't say that in a few months when I'm lying on a bed with all of my goods out on the table, waiting for Jack to pop out) but it's amazing. Truly. It's gross, it's disgusting, but I can actually breathe!

So, kudos to the neti pot and to Kim for talking Jeff into just buying me one. But does it have to be so disgusting?

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