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Thank God for Sudafed and Vicks Vap-O-Rub
Oct. 26th, 2021 10:14 pmI have terrible sinuses. I get them from my Dad. I spent most of high school sick with one sinus infection or another. I'd get sick, get antibiotics, recover be healthy for a couple weeks or a couple of months and then get another one. Thankfully, I grew out of it; my Dad never did, and pretty much lives on Sudafed to keep his sinuses clear. I haven't had an actual sinus infection in years, although my sinuses are still the canary in the coal mine of me getting sick,* and sinus headaches are an unfortunately regular occurrence.
Tonight's headache was a doozy. Last night, I cried a lot just before bedtime (nothing bad, just hours spent reading really sad fanfic). Which dehydrated me, which is a sure-fire route to sinus pressure and headaches for me. I thought I drank enough last night and today to fix the problem, but apparently not. It crept up on me and went from "nothing" to "holy cow, there is so much pressure in my sinuses I feel like my head is going to explode."
But the old cure of drinking lots of water, spraying a bunch of saline up my nose, taking real Sudafed, and rubbing Vick's under my nose** has led to things breaking up and draining. It's still not great, but it's so much better than it was even ten minutes ago, holy crap. Thank God I live in the modern era, I don't know how I would have survived without Sudafed.
*True story, I once had aches, chills-and-fever, a cough, and an upset stomach, and didn't realize I was sick because my sinuses were fine. It never occurred to me that it was possible to be sick without sinus problems.
**Yes, yes, I know, you're not supposed to do that, but it works and I've never had any problems with it. I only break out that trick when it's really bad.
Tonight's headache was a doozy. Last night, I cried a lot just before bedtime (nothing bad, just hours spent reading really sad fanfic). Which dehydrated me, which is a sure-fire route to sinus pressure and headaches for me. I thought I drank enough last night and today to fix the problem, but apparently not. It crept up on me and went from "nothing" to "holy cow, there is so much pressure in my sinuses I feel like my head is going to explode."
But the old cure of drinking lots of water, spraying a bunch of saline up my nose, taking real Sudafed, and rubbing Vick's under my nose** has led to things breaking up and draining. It's still not great, but it's so much better than it was even ten minutes ago, holy crap. Thank God I live in the modern era, I don't know how I would have survived without Sudafed.
*True story, I once had aches, chills-and-fever, a cough, and an upset stomach, and didn't realize I was sick because my sinuses were fine. It never occurred to me that it was possible to be sick without sinus problems.
**Yes, yes, I know, you're not supposed to do that, but it works and I've never had any problems with it. I only break out that trick when it's really bad.
