I'm swimming with a new workout group this year, and am thus in a new pool. Something in the water (not necessarily chlorine) is giving my sinuses fits. It takes more than a day to unstuff, during which time sleeping is problematic. I've rather casually tried decongestant (currently only Sudafed PE) and antihistamines (Claritin) and my trusty neti pot. The neti pot doesn't help a lot if your sinuses are completely clogged though.
I'm skeptical that it's chlorine causing problems mostly because I swam in an older pool last season which had higher chlorine levels with no problem (at least by how long the chlorine smell lingered on my skin).
I realize that chlorine is an irritant, not an allergen, so maybe antihistamines or decongestants won't be all that effective. Is there a nose clip in my future? Anybody using a nose clip strictly to keep chemicals out of your nose and sinuses?
Thx,
Skip
Skip, was wondering how the nose clip experiment was going.
I think it's helping. I certainly have a lot less crud in my head. I would have added a comment earlier, but just after starting to use the nose clip I came down with a cold. Took awhile to clear that up so I could actually tell if the clip was helping.
The day I decided to try one I ran up to Kiefer and bought this one. It was about all they had in the store. The hoop part tends to "catch" on the water flowing past my face and want to rotate down. I think I will eventually order this one or this one. I think the spring steel hoop will present less surface area to catch on the water.
I was quite out of breath the first few times as well. I'm getting a bit more used to it. I haven't had a meet since starting to use it. I don't know if I'll use it or not this weekend. My longest event is a 200, so I suppose I can probably dispense with the clip in the races and just use it during warm-ups.
Skip
Skip, was wondering how the nose clip experiment was going.
I think it's helping. I certainly have a lot less crud in my head. I would have added a comment earlier, but just after starting to use the nose clip I came down with a cold. Took awhile to clear that up so I could actually tell if the clip was helping.
The day I decided to try one I ran up to Kiefer and bought this one. It was about all they had in the store. The hoop part tends to "catch" on the water flowing past my face and want to rotate down. I think I will eventually order this one or this one. I think the spring steel hoop will present less surface area to catch on the water.
I was quite out of breath the first few times as well. I'm getting a bit more used to it. I haven't had a meet since starting to use it. I don't know if I'll use it or not this weekend. My longest event is a 200, so I suppose I can probably dispense with the clip in the races and just use it during warm-ups.
Skip
