flying with a cold

[happy_face]

Have woken up with a cold this morning and my sinuses are killing me. My whole face hurts and even my teeth when I chew. Am flying off on xmas hols next week Saturday and am now dreading it as I've tried flying with a cold before and it's excrutiating. Does anyone have any tips of what I could do to releive the pain when flying?

I always use nasal sprays and decongestants in such cases but they don't really help once you're bunged up. I don't need any help for how to help get rid of my cold just if anyone has nay tips on the flying bit. thanks

[maggie01]

Go and have a chat with your doctor. He may be able to give you something to make your flight a bit more bearable.

[rebajayne]

Hi happy face

My friend suffers really bad with his sinuses, that bad he used to have to lay down becasue of his headaches.

His girlfriend has just recently opened her own beauty salon and she does a treatment called OPI ear candels. Not sure of you have heard of them.

They are candles that you place gentely in the opening of your ear and then light them, they have a fan that sucks out wax and sinuse powder. Its amazing how much they bring out. I havee them done at home all the time (even do my 4 year old boys) and my friend's sinuses are loads better, hardly bother him at all.

I know you can get them from Holland & Barrett and maybe other Medical shops (more herbal shops)

Hope it helps, and have a good xmas hol

[veritymoon]

i have to agree with rebajayne the candles are great i have mine done about once every 4mths and i find they really help

[qapmoc]

A simple and quick way to help clear your sinuses is to wash them out with salt water, do you notice that if you swim in salt water they get better? well do the same thing at home. See THIS site for information on how to do it. Yeah I know it looks yuck and it feels odd the first time, but I have suffered for years with sinus problems and I can personally tell you that it really does work, If you are really bad do it two or three times a day for a few days and then once a day until the sinuses start to clear up
As you probably can't easily get a Neti pot you can use a substitute such as a detergent bottle (cleaned/washed out of course) with a wide top nozzle or something. If you can get course granule sea salt it works best but whatever you do don't use salt with iodine in it.

[fatcat]

Regarding the flying bit, when taking off and landing just keep drinking constantly as the swallowing action helps your ears to equalise the pressure. I tried this for the first time this year and my ears didn't get blocked at all which I've suffered with really badly before. Ear plugs and sucking sweets are a waste of time. My daughter done the same and even though she was quite bunged up she was ok.

Enjoy your hols you lucky thing!

[happy_face]

Hi everyone. Thank you so much for your answers. The ear candle thing sounds really interesting and I'm intrigued as to how it can help get rid of bunged up snot. I read the thing about flushing your sinuses with saltwater and a Neti bottle but I doubt if I'll do that. Whenever I go swimming I have to have a clamp over my nose because I think it's horrible getting water in my nose regardless of what kind of water it is. But thank you for the suggestion. I think I will follow fatcat's advice and just have a huge bottle of drink with me. Just as well the planes have loos as with all the drinking I shall be a regular visitor. Wishing you all a very merry christmas ;-)