I was looking at the Google Analytics strings of keywords that have brought people to my blog earlier today. It seems most people coming here trying to find out if Chiro One is a scam. I hope the two-part blog series I wrote about our experience with them is helpful to people considering whether to use them or not. It didn't surprise me at all that a large number of people are Googling to find out more about them; that's the first thing I did after I encountered the sales rep from the company.
What DID surprise me, or rather I should say what made me laugh (because precious little actually surprises me about the internet anymore), was this page of searches:
I didn't realize so many people wanted moms with young boys, and I'm not sure why they're ending up here, but I suspect that they're not getting exactly what they want. I DO have a young boy, a young cook at times even. He's six, and he's my son, and he's a great kid. I highly recommend having a kid like him.
The thing that really made me laugh though was the third one down. MOM! THERE'S HALL AND OATES UNDER MY BED! I didn't realize there was a BLOG dedicated to this phenomenon. It's certainly never happened to ME, although I did have one particularly traumatic experience where my MOM hid under my bed and scared the crap out of me. I suppose I'd be more likely to be shouting "HALL AND OATES! Mom's under my bed!!"
I just didn't realize this Hall and Oates problem was so prevalent. I guess they have a new song (to the tune of Man Eater): wooooah here we come... watch out boys, we'll chew you up... woaaahhhh here we come... we're bed-creepers!
Let's talk Neti Pots. From the first time I heard about them, I was intrigued. I completely buy into the idea that flushing junk out of your body is a good thing. WebMD backs me up too.
What is a Neti Pot, you ask? It's a magic-lamp looking thing with a long spout; you fill it with a lukewarm saline solution and pour it in your nose. In one nostril, out the other; instead of a genie that grants you wishes, you get nasal irrigation. It's supposed to help tremendously with allergies and sinus conditions.
This is the one I have. They make ceramic ones too.
I have suffered from seasonal allergies and sinus issues my entire adult life. In my early twenties, I went through two years of chronic sinus infections, constant stuffiness, antibiotic after antibiotic after antibiotic. I forgot what it was like to have a sense of smell, and that is not an exaggeration. I eventually ended up having sinus surgery to clear it out, remove some polyps, and correct a severely deviated septum; when that didn't entirely clear up the problem, six months later I had a tonsillectomy, and that made a huge difference.
I still suffer from seasonal allergies though, and each year they seem to get a little worse. I get hit in the spring AND the fall. I usually have at least one sinus infection a year.
So the Neti Pot has always intrigued me, but also weirded me out a bit; pouring water into my nose just doesn't seem natural, and I know I HATE getting water up my nose while swimming, so why would I want to do that? Americans who use Neti Pots seem few and far between, and while I talked to a lot of people who were interested in them, I never found an actual person I knew who had used one. Everything I read claimed it shouldn't feel like like much of anything, that the 'getting water up your nose while swimming' feeling would not happen. I remained skeptical.
I finally broke down and bought a Neti Pot early last spring, while I was on vacation in Utah, of all places. Then I left it sitting in my suitcase for two months, until I was beset with a godawful, unexpected late-spring sinus infection. One of the most painful ones I'd ever had. At some point in my misery, while waiting for the medicine to kick in, I remembered the Neti Pot and frantically dug it out. I didn't even CARE if it felt like poolwater-in-the-nose at that point, I just wanted some relief.
It's probably not recommended to start using a Neti Pot when you're stuffed up like crazy, and at first I wasn't even sure it would WORK, but it did. And it helped clear me out. And the next day, and the next. It helped me feel better and I believe it helped me recover more quickly.
It DOES have a little bit of that 'water up your nose' feeling, I won't lie. But it's not as bad as it can be while swimming and you can adjust the tilt of your head and the angle of the water to minimize it. I don't find it particularly PLEASANT (as some people claim to), but it isn't so bad either, and I think the benefit outweighs the weirdness of the experience.
Since then, I haven't used it regularly (I have an irrational fear of running out of the little packets of saline solution it came with; this is stupid because a) we could buy more and b) YOU CAN MAKE YOUR OWN SOLUTION) but I have used it when I've had some stuffiness, and it always helps.
It is now edging towards fall, and with the appearance of the cooler weather comes crazy allergies. I can feel the pain and pressure in my face already. I am making a vow to use the Neti Pot daily this fall and see if it makes a difference with my allergies this year.
Do any if you use Neti Pots? If not, are you willing to try? What's your thought on them?
