neti redux

hmmmm. i used the neti last night. i didn't use it the night before. this morning i woke abruptly at 6am with a nosebleed. i didn't have a nosebleed yesterday morning. previously, i used the neti on sunday (first time) and monday, and i had nosebleeds on monday and tuesday.

i think i need to stop using it for a little bit, and let my sinuses fully heal from the flu/cold i had a couple of weeks ago. i'm still dealing with low-grade snot, which i'm sure is causing inflammation and dryness in my nasal passages and sinuses. i don't know why the mild saline solution rinsing through my nasal passages would cause further irritation and even bleeding, but the correlation seems pretty strong to me, so i'm going to operate on the assumption that the relationship is causal, even if only partially. (i'm sure that neti irrigation wouldn't "cause" nosebleeds if my nasal passages weren't already irritated.)

i hasten to add that these were minor nosebleeds that ended quickly. none of them lasted more than 10-15 minutes. (i used to get really bad ones when i was a kid, so i know what that's like.)

maybe i'm running a little low on iron or something.