My Weekend with Miss Neti

Warning, this blog post is not for the faint of heart or faint of nose....

(In the Twilight Zone Voice)

By night she is a writer/blogger who writes to entertain readers all around the world, and by day....well, she is a teacher's assistant to nose pickers/booger eaters called Kindergarteners.

I absolutely LOVE my Kindergarteners. They make me smile and laugh all day long with their creativity, sweet personalities, wonderful imaginations, and their Energizer Bunny energy that makes every day unique and special. Not everyone can say they love their job, but I definitely can. My students inspire a lot of my children's stories and keep me young at heart. Being surrounded by kids 24/7, I have no problem speaking with a child's voice and thinking like a child in my stories.

All that being said, my own sweet kids plus my Kindergarteners have one HUGE problem...they cannot keep their cute little fingers out of their cute little noses. It's an obsession for them. I'll be teaching or reading a story, turn around, and 50% of the class has their fingers either up their noses or in their mouths. After pulling out whatever interesting, gooey thing they find in their nose, they touch everything in the room including me, my pencils, my scissors and all other educational learning tools. I'm not a germaphobe at all, but constantly being exposed to ickies unfortunately causes my kids and I to be sick quite often.

Two weeks ago, I was sick, sick, sick with an awful sinus infection. My throat was super sore, my nose was plugged, my ears hurt, and my head had a ton of sinus pressure. The doctors wouldn't give me antibiotics until the symptoms lasted longer than a week. Cold and sinus medicine made me feel worse.

One of my sweet friends at work named Jeane (Thanks, Jeane!), highly recommended that I use a Neti Pot to help me feel better. Not knowing too much about Neti Pots, but desperate to quickly feel better, I got one after Jeane explained how to use it. Basically, you pour salt water into one nostril, tilt your head to the side, and the water will go through the nasal cavities and empty out of the other nostril. I was a bit concerned about putting water up my nose...would I drown? Would it hurt? She said it feels really weird and a little uncomfortable, but makes you feel better instantaneously. You can do it, Kelly!

Because of Jeane being such a great mentor and my personal cheerleader, I went home from school that night on a mission. I was going to do it! I was determined to have enough guts to pour water up my nose. I'm not dunking my head into a bucket of water, I'm not holding my breath for 1o minutes, I'm just putting a little bit of water up my nose, no big deal....time to put my Big Girl pants on.

A picture of Miss Neti, isn't she cute?

When I opened up my brand new Neti Pot, I was surprised to find a cute little teapot with a soft plastic spout. Being a huge Jane Austen fan and a fan of everything in England, I thought it looked so quaint....like I'm about to have a tea party with my nose. I put the saline solution into the Neti Pot and added lukewarm water. Holding Miss Neti up in the air and staring at my reflection in the mirror, I tilted my head to the side and started pouring water.

At first nothing came out for a long time. Did I do something wrong? Then, I tasted a ton of salt water in the back of my mouth and gagged. Instead of coming out of my other nostril, the water came out of my mouth. Yuck! But I was determined to figure out how to get this contraption to work, so I tried again...this time trying super hard not to swallow. To my big surprise, water started dripping through my other nostril. Then to my bigger surprise everything that hurt in my head started popping like fireworks and the sinus pressure released. I tilted my head to the other side and the same thing happened again once the water came out of my other nostril. Popping, lots and lots of glorious popping.

After blowing my nose for an hour after using Miss Neti, I could breathe again and my terrible sinus headache was completely gone....without using any medication. I couldn't believe it! I spent the rest of the weekend with Miss Neti, and every time I used it, I felt better and better. Instead of having a terrible sinus infection that lasted for a month, it was over by the end of the weekend. Was it gross? Absolutely. Did I have to go to the doctor for antibiotics? Nope. And now, since I share everything with my kids, my daughter has the same terrible cold. We've use the Neti Pot all weekend and she is feeling so much better too. I love that I didn't have to give her a ton of Motrin or Tylenol to help her feel better.

Since we are in the cold, flu, and Covid season, I thought I would share my experience with you...because I couldn't believe something so unusual, cheap, and simple could work so well! Feel free to send me a message if you need some cheerleading too: )

Thanks for reading my Country Squawk,

Kelly