Is it a full moon? (And also: Why nasal sprays are Evil!!!)
Of course it is! And of course I am wide wide wide awake at 2:30am... And rather hungry and debating going and making some food. Maybe it would help me sleep. Seems unlikely...
Now that my normal bitching about insomnia is out of the way... On to the evils of Nasal Sprays.
So I noticed last year at some point that this strange scent used to follow me around. There didn't seem to be a rhyme or reason to it. Sometimes it was very faint and sometimes very strong. Sometimes it lasted a few seconds, sometimes days. It wasn't me personally and
i could never pinpoint it to a particular object, person, or place. The scent itself was hard to describe. Somewhat sweet, almost floral. Slightly chemically. After a couple of months of being very puzzled by this, it finally occured to me that maybe it was a side effect from using my prescription nasal spray, Flonase. (You probably wonder why it took me so long to figure out. So do I. I blame crazy shit at work stressing me out.) Anywho... So I did a little online research, and low and behold, I was not the only person to experience this strange smell. I never even used the Flonase every day, more on an as needed basis, but at the time that the smell really started to bother me, my allergies were very bad so I was using it pretty regularly. I immediately stopped using the stuff once I made the connection, and suffered through with the allergies, because the mystery smell freaked me out so much. I could still smell other things, but I had to be holding something directly in front of my nose, or purposely trying to whiff out a different odor. Even after I quit using the Flonase, it took about a week for the scent to completely go away. And for a couple of weeks after that, I would still occasionally catch a whiff of it. Irritating, to say the least.
So then back in February, I switched to a new general doctor and happened to fall sick. She told me that she was pretty sure it was mostly allergy related and loaded me up on allergy meds. Then she asked if I'd ever used a daily nasal spray. I told her about the freakiness of Flonase and she suggested I try the completely unscented Nasonex, and even gave me a free sample.
So I used the sample, suffered no freaky side effects and she called me in a prescription. I have been using it for no more than five weeks. On Monday, my allergies were behaving so I didn't use the Nasonex. And throughout the day, this strange lingering smell followed me around. Not exactly the same scent. Less florally, more medicinal. It didn't even dawn on me what it was until almost 10pm, when it seemed to get stronger. Needless to say I didn't use the crap today. But today the scent is 5 times WORSE! I can't breath in through my nose AT ALL without smelling it and it's pissing me off! I wish my nose was stuffed up, so that I could be forced to breath through my mouth. It is making me BATTY! I can't stand it!
So I called the pharmacy to ask for recommendations, totally stumped the pharmacist. He couldn't begin to figure out why the smell was stronger today and he didn't even know the half life of the medicine to give me some idea of when this might finally go away. He suggested a saline spray to clear it out. Well, tried that. Relief lasted about 10 seconds. FUCK!!! it doesn't help that I am very senseitive to smells to begin with, and now it's starting to make me nauseated. I give up. Maybe I should go plug my nose up with cotton and try to go to sleep....
Wow. this is so not helping. I give up. Maybe it's time to execute the emergency-beat-myself-over-the-head-with-a-frying-pan-until-I-lose-consciousness plan...
Now that my normal bitching about insomnia is out of the way... On to the evils of Nasal Sprays.
So I noticed last year at some point that this strange scent used to follow me around. There didn't seem to be a rhyme or reason to it. Sometimes it was very faint and sometimes very strong. Sometimes it lasted a few seconds, sometimes days. It wasn't me personally and
i could never pinpoint it to a particular object, person, or place. The scent itself was hard to describe. Somewhat sweet, almost floral. Slightly chemically. After a couple of months of being very puzzled by this, it finally occured to me that maybe it was a side effect from using my prescription nasal spray, Flonase. (You probably wonder why it took me so long to figure out. So do I. I blame crazy shit at work stressing me out.) Anywho... So I did a little online research, and low and behold, I was not the only person to experience this strange smell. I never even used the Flonase every day, more on an as needed basis, but at the time that the smell really started to bother me, my allergies were very bad so I was using it pretty regularly. I immediately stopped using the stuff once I made the connection, and suffered through with the allergies, because the mystery smell freaked me out so much. I could still smell other things, but I had to be holding something directly in front of my nose, or purposely trying to whiff out a different odor. Even after I quit using the Flonase, it took about a week for the scent to completely go away. And for a couple of weeks after that, I would still occasionally catch a whiff of it. Irritating, to say the least.
So then back in February, I switched to a new general doctor and happened to fall sick. She told me that she was pretty sure it was mostly allergy related and loaded me up on allergy meds. Then she asked if I'd ever used a daily nasal spray. I told her about the freakiness of Flonase and she suggested I try the completely unscented Nasonex, and even gave me a free sample.
So I used the sample, suffered no freaky side effects and she called me in a prescription. I have been using it for no more than five weeks. On Monday, my allergies were behaving so I didn't use the Nasonex. And throughout the day, this strange lingering smell followed me around. Not exactly the same scent. Less florally, more medicinal. It didn't even dawn on me what it was until almost 10pm, when it seemed to get stronger. Needless to say I didn't use the crap today. But today the scent is 5 times WORSE! I can't breath in through my nose AT ALL without smelling it and it's pissing me off! I wish my nose was stuffed up, so that I could be forced to breath through my mouth. It is making me BATTY! I can't stand it!
So I called the pharmacy to ask for recommendations, totally stumped the pharmacist. He couldn't begin to figure out why the smell was stronger today and he didn't even know the half life of the medicine to give me some idea of when this might finally go away. He suggested a saline spray to clear it out. Well, tried that. Relief lasted about 10 seconds. FUCK!!! it doesn't help that I am very senseitive to smells to begin with, and now it's starting to make me nauseated. I give up. Maybe I should go plug my nose up with cotton and try to go to sleep....
Wow. this is so not helping. I give up. Maybe it's time to execute the emergency-beat-myself-over-the-head-with-a-frying-pan-until-I-lose-consciousness plan...