Stuffy Nose Issues

[Starlette]

Hey everyone,
I've just spent over an hour looking up information on stuffy nose/nares.
Nose is so stuffy that I literally cannot breathe.
What to do, what to do?

Starlette

[robysue1]

Starlette,

How rapid was the onset of the severely stuffed up nose?

You need to first try to figure out the cause.

Is it just a super bad head cold or some other upper respiratory illness? If there's any chance you might have covid or the flu, it's worth getting tested for those; they can both cause pretty severe congestion. Self treatment with lots of chicken soup, hot tea, and warm showers together with a judicious use of a decongestant, including the possible short term use of a nasal decongestant spray or an oral decongestant (like Sudafed) ought to help open up the congestion.

Is it allergies? If so, do you know what you are allergic to? And if so, is it possible to avoid the allergen? If not, have you had a way of dealing with the allergies in the past that has worked? If so, start that routine and if it doesn't work well enough to breathe this time around, it's time to call the doc and get some advice. The usual self-treatment for bad nasal allergies is some combination of saline nasal sprays, saline sinus rinses, steroid nose sprays (like Flonase), and OTC antihistamines like Claritin, Zirtec, Allegra, etc.

If you are still in heating season or if you've already turned on the air conditioning, replacing the filters in your house heating/cooling system is also worth doing. If you have the windows open right now, consider whether that's allowing allergens to get into the house.

If it's a chronic problem, seeing an ENT or an allergist may be in order.

[LSAT]

Worst Allergy Season in many years and it's getting worse.
https://news.yahoo.com/yes-allergy-seas ... p_catchall

[Don.dbrw@gmail.com]

I recommend Neilmed nasal rinse. It helps.