Ode to the Neti Pot

Yes folks, this post is about... wait for it!... my nose. Nostrils, honker, beak, face flusher... you name it, it's been the bane of my life since I first got my cat 13 years ago. (Mwahh, love you sweetie!)

I hate being stuffed up all the time! Hate it, hate it, HATE IT!! But, there's only so much I've been able to do about it. Despite the years of allergy injections, purchases of hypoallergenic bedding and trials of various medications, the core problem has never gone away. Really, I'm just not willing to kill off my cat, no matter if my sinuses would sing hallelujah and throw me a party :-) Evil and object of cursing by my friends and family she may be, but she's MINE darn it!

My latest attempt to fix the darn thing is to try out a Neti Pot I bought online on eBay. It's actually not a pot per se, more of a plastic jug with a nozzle on the bottom, but it fits the general definition I guess - implement for nasal/sinus irrigation. I've been using it for a full week now.



It's sort of an odd sensation, usually people try to keep water out of their nose, but it actually doesn't feel bad once you try it the first time and it's dead easy to do. The process happens almost completely on its own without much work on my part. Gravity and pressure does it all. All you have to do is bend over the sink a bit and tilt your head, and voila!

The good news is it works. Ok, it's slightly gross, especially the first few days with all your old crustiness is getting flushed out, but it's certainly no worse than have to blow your nose multiple times a day. Ugh. Since I've bought it, I've cut my use of nasal spray/medication almost two-thirds, my savings in tissues is immense and, need I say it?, I can breathe!

I actually received my new best friend in the mail the day after I started having the early symptoms of a cold/flu. By that morning, it had moved into my chest and I was doing the wet cough, low grade fever, general crappy feeling thing. I was not a happy camper. The last time this happened, just 2 months ago, I ended up in the A&E (ER) in the middle of the night because I just couldn't breathe! Lucky me got told I don't "technically" have asthma, which is kind of good to know, but didn't help when I thought I was going to die because my chest was so tight. I did get my very first Nebulizer treatment and a brand new inhaler. Yeah for new experiences, right?

Thankfully, this time turned out differently. After I started using the Neti last Monday, the cold symptoms retreated rapidly from my chest and, in fact, were almost gone the next day. My fever and fatigue symptoms abandoned ship as well. I still have a cough hanging around from nasal drip, but it's episodic and never lasts long.

I have to say, for a homeopathic remedy - albeit one that's been used regularly by Indian devotees for centuries - this thing is working wonders! My goal is to eventually get off medication completely and to NOT be asked almost daily "do you have a cold?" That would be nice. So would not having to think about how my nose is working at all.

On A Good Week

Image by Paolo Màrgari via Flickr

• Aero Tone on Monday
• Spin and Tone on Tuesday
• Total Tone on Wednesday
• Spinning and salsa class on Thursday

With this schedule, you'd think I'd feel in better shape. So why does climbing that second set of stairs at the gym kill me every. single. time?!

Stir Crazy and Blocked

10 weeks. Ten weeks! That's how long it's been since I last had internet access at home. I'm shocked (and appalled) every time I actually try to comprehend the reality of it. Who in their right mind, having enjoyed the "benefits" of technology, would willingly put themselves in the position of being cut off from such a big part of their world?

Not me!! All I wanted to do was move to a (geographically and economically) better apartment. Who knew I would get caught up in the toils of what really feels like a third world telephony infrastructure?! Who knew I would become, among my friends and acquaintances, the poster-girl for the perils of "the Irish way" of doing things?

Finally today, after multiple false starts and outright misinformation from the various phone/broadband companies over the last several weeks, I found the one, single, discrete, UNO technical support person apparently in all Ireland who figured out where they had gone wrong and helped me find my way into the datastream again.

So, thank you Mr. Technical Support Man at Imagine! Thank you for actually returning my call after going off to figure out what the problem was. (The last guy never did). Thank you for picking up on the incomprehensible error your company had made. Thank you for saving my sanity!!

Now, if you could just help me recall all the wonderful ideas I had for posts to this blog over the past 2 months, I'd really appreciate it.

Unbelievable.... and not in a good way

What kind of ridiculous third world infrastructure do they have in this country?!

As you can tell I'm pretty pissed off at the moment. Sadly, I haven't had access to either the internet or Sky TV for 3 weeks now, ever since I moved into my new apartment. That's a really loooong time to be cut off from the world. No email, no websurfing, no Skype, no blogging(!) except for what little I can get done on my iPhone (which, amazing as it is, is NOT a longterm substitute for a full-size computer). And why? Because the waiting period for hooking up my phone line with Eircom is ridiculously and inexplicably long.

But I tolerated it because they gave me a specific date that it would be turned on. They lie!! When I called today to find out why the technician never came, I get some sorry ass story about it being a new building and the date they gave me was only an early estimate. Hah! That's not what you told me both times I called to verify my order!

The actual truth is that it could take up to JUNE before they get their apparently single technician for the whole damn country to saunter on by!!!

What am I supposed to do till then? Are they serious? Even Jamaica does better than this.

Can you tell I'm pissed beyond belief?!

Am I spoiled?

In preparation for my apartment move in 2 weeks - YEAH! - I popped over to An Post at lunch yesterday to pick up a change of address form.

Imagine my surprise, shock and outright horror at the realization that there's a charge for this service! Really? You need to rip me off for €55 just to transfer my mail for a measly 3 months?!!

I can understand this for businesses, but I may get 4 pieces of mail a week given the wonderful dearth of junk mail here. Why do I need to get charged in the first place?

I hate to resort to the "this doesn't happen in America" mantra, but.... Am I just spoiled? Does this make sense to anybody else?

A little aggression goes a long way

Today I came home quite late. The rain was doing its Irish thing of misting in all directions so umbrellas are useless and it was hard to see. As usual lately, as I pulled into the apartment parking lot, I felt a burst of anxiety as I craned my neck to see if anyone was parked in my assigned spot.

Ever since the next door neighbors moved in with their 4-6 cars (not counting guests), it's been a crap shoot as to whether someone will decide that my empty spot is fair game. I've come home at all hours of the day and night to find some inconsiderate jerk sitting in the spot I pay for. Apparently the bright red sign perched 2 feet in front of my spot saying that illegally parked cars will be clamped was viewed as a suggestion rather than a warning. Such was also true of the numerous notes (progressing from polite to sharp) I placed on windshield after windshield.

The only thing that seemed to make anything of a difference was the handwritten sign I finally gave in and tacked to the official sign: "The next car that parks here illegally WILL BE CLAMPED!!" That got me some relief. Until the day a week later when I came home at 7:30 pm to find somebody's truck again in my space. I'd had enough! I took pictures, then called the management company, again, this time demanding that they come and clamp the car.

Apparently all it took was me finally giving in and acting like a hardass for people to decide that they needed to obey the rules and respect my space. Not a problem since. Tonight when I came home there were cars parked literally in every free space that could be seen, or created. The only empty space left was mine, blessedly free of interlopers. Hah!

But why did you have to make me act like a b---h?!

21st Century Plumbing

Is it too much to ask for that Ireland join the rest of the world and awaken to the joys of combined hot and cold water taps? Yes, Mr. Irish plumbing contractor, there is another option that doesn't include alternatively scalding and freezing the user. Lukewarm water. I know you've heard of it because, while it seems to be completely absent from bathroom sinks, it's definitely present in kitchen sinks (as well as in the tub/shower). Would it be that hard to use the same plumbing in the face basin?

I have to admit though that the Irish plumbing mafia aren't the only ones refusing to move away from The Dark Side. I've found the same situation in the U.K. And now I'm racking my brain trying to remember what it was like in Barcelona and Italy. Horrors... is this the case throughout Europe?? That can't be true, can it?

Phew! I just checked my pictures and Italy does have combined taps! So, apparently it's just us :-(

Slightly impulsive

OK, the truth is I couldn't wait one bit longer! I finally gave in my resignation to the JFH ("Job-From-Hell") yesterday, and it felt gooood!! My recruiter advised waiting till next week when the visa application will actually be submitted, but I've been bursting to tell the job trolls for months now, and I couldn't wait even a few more days. Impulsive? Probably. Dangerous? Probably not. I just really needed to finalize things here and convince myself that the long nightmare is (almost) finally over! [Deep, heartfelt sigh]

I set my last day of work for the 31st of May, which should give me another 3-4 weeks to close up the house, etc, etc, before flying out. I can't say enough about how much I'm looking forward to not having to go into work to sit and stare at a computer all day! This is my definition of absolute, stark raving boredom. Ugh! I'm looking forward to sharpening my clinical skills even more and actually interacting with other professionals, rather than being indentured to a bureaucratic, paper-pushing system that could care less about clinical values. OK, enough ranting. I'm supposed to be feeling happy here.

Funk-induced ranting

Remember my earlier post about things I hate (see #3)? Why do people, even professionals in a business environment, think nothing of backing out of their given word? In the last 4 days, I've had 3 specific promises broken outright by the paperwork facilitator girl at the recruiter's office. After telling me time and time again, "I'll call you at such and such a time. Is that OK?", she then proceeds to NOT call! These are not promises I've solicited, but completely spontaneous on her part. Don't tell me you're going to call if you're not sure! It just makes me MORE anxious! Don't you get it?! Yesterday, I fell into a huge funk because I was on edge waiting for the 2nd (or was it the 3rd) promised call that never came. I was so preoccupied and disappointed that I couldn't even enjoy the work "party" we had. I even refused cake!! When I saw today's email, again promising a call later today, my immediate thought was "You lie!" And, I was not proven wrong.

The long and short of it people, is that I still don't know what the outcome is of the big review meeting (for Irish professional licensure) that was held on Friday. At this rate, I'll get the d-mn notification in writing before I hear anything from their "inside source".