The Assertive Cancer Patient

Rain or Shine

Raintree Nursery is one of my favorite places to get plants. I eat at a restaurant called the Sunlight, and another one called the Sunflour. And then ...

Raining cats and dogs ...

May godly clouds rain for you (from Sanskrit) ...

... and again falls this quiet, persistent rain (Robert Creeley) ...

Looking up to see rain safely kept in clouds, secrets that won't let go until it's time ...

The rain came down most of the day, bringing with it a steady drip, drip, drip of torture ...

Your love's coming down like rain (Madonna) ...

It never rains but it pours ...

The quality of mercy is not strained, it droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath.

Someone left the cake out in the rain ...

Rainy days and Mondays always get me down ...

Was that last one the Mamas and the Papas? Send me your rain metaphors: jeanne.sather@gmail.com

@ Jeanne Sather 2007.

It's a Neti Pot Kind of Day

Actually, it's a neti pot time of year.

Seattle's cold, damp weather is bad for anyone with any kind of sinus problem, from hay fever to other allergies to chronic sinusitis.

I've had all these problems for years, except for the four years I lived in Hawaii, when I could breathe freely, and typically I needed antibiotics once or twice a year to get rid of sinus infections.

My friend Pat, who is an alternative-medicine kind of person, told me about neti pots. Actually, she kept telling me about them for years, until I finally bought one at the East-West Bookstore in Seattle's Roosevelt neighborhood. They are also available online.

Since I've been using the neti pot, two or three years now, I haven't needed antibiotics for a sinus infection (did take them once for bronchitis). With the neti pot, my sinus problems never get bad enough to qualify as an "infection," which is great.

A neti pot is simple to use: Just heat a cup of filtered water to a comfortable temperature (warm, but not hot) and mix in a packet of saline solution (table salt is OK too, if you want to save money). Then fill the neti pot, which looks like Aladdin's lamp, and pour the warm saline solution into your nostrils one at a time, while bending over the sink.

At first, it will feel like you are drowning, but hang in there. It really does feel wonderful to have clean sinuses.

Using the neti pot has become as much a part of my morning routine as brushing my teeth, as least during the cold months.

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@ Jeanne Sather 2007.