Sinus Disasters: Chapter 2 (Why I Hated Neti Pots)

This is a story about sinus rinses.

Back in college, I was seeing an allergy/asthma specialist who recommended daily sinus rinses for me. She gave me a starter kit with a squirt bottle. I was home for the summer, and I used it sporadically for a couple of months before abandoning it hatefully in the back of my closet.

Fast forward to spring break. Great time for allergies. And I had just finished two rounds of antibiotics for a sinus infection. I decided I might as well try the sinus rinse again. This time, I swore I would diligently use it every day for the rest of eternity.

So, there I was, squirting saline up my nose as I gagged and sputtered. I was almost done. Despite my watery eyes, I could tell there was some saline left in the bottle, but it didn't seem to want to come out. I squeezed the bottle harder, crumpling it in half. Mildly successful at squirting some more saline in.

And then the idea hit me. "I shouldn't be getting more by squashing this thing in half. The straw goes all the way to the bottom, so bending it like this should make me not be able to get anything out."

I jerked the bottle away from my nose to examine it. To my horror, the straw had disintegrated and ended about halfway down the bottle with a jagged edge. There were chunks of plastic floating in the bottom of the bottle. A quick mental calculation told me that the plastic in the bottom was not nearly enough to have composed the rest of that straw.

"SHIT!"

Didn't just think it. Said it out loud.

I had chunks of freaking plastic in my sinuses.

Foreign body + Sinuses + Bacteria left from that other infection = Certain Doom

So I made an emergency trip to CVS to buy a neti pot. I got back to my house and started opening it when I realized that the expiration date on the bottom of the box has passed six months before. Not wanting to inject any more risks into my skull, I drove back to CVS to exchange it.

Chunks of plastic fell into the sink. I used at least 3 rinses before not getting any more debris. And then did another just to be sure. It was torture, and I think it kind of scarred me.

So, the moral of this story is: When the instructions say to replace the bottle every 90 days, do it.