Have you all ever used Afrin? It is a sinus medicine that is over the counter and comes as a nasal spray. When we were at the doctor yesterday he said along with my antibiotic, I could take Sudafed, but that he really recommends Afrin...that it seems to work better and is safe for pregnancy. Now, twenty four hours later, I am seriously torn on the question of if Afrin comes from God himself, or the devil. First off, as soon as I got home I popped off the cap and gave each nostril a good squirt. One squirt. And I seriously thought my entire head might explode. I was concerned. It was...tears welling in my eyes kinda painful. I immediately flipped the bottle over to make sure I wasn't taking it wrong (seemed self explanatory to me, but still...could this PAIN be right??) and it said to squirt 2-3 times in each nostril. ARE THEY SERIOUS?? One almost killed me!
I threw the bottle across the room and yelled something along the lines of "no more devil spray for me" and then sat down to eat my (delicious) twice baked pizza (would have been better if I could taste it). Then....then an amazing thing happened. maybe ten minutes after the devil spray was in my nose, I COULD BREATH! No more running nose, no more sneezing, NO MORE DRAINAGE. I still had the nasty cough, but that was it! And so it was decided, AFRIN IS FROM GOD HIMSELF. So I carefully go and pick up the bottle and apologize to it for being so cruel and judging so quickly. I then feel the sleepiness coming on. The sleep I needed for the past two days was finally going to happen! I laid down and drifted off...only to wake up an hour later with what I will refer to as the Devil Afrin's head ache. IT. WAS. AWFUL. And it never went away. I could numb it with Tylenol (regular strength...because you know...pregnant) and that would give me three hours. Then one hour of waiting in misery for it to be time to take more Tylenol. Then back to sleep.
And so my day went. I only got out of bed for dinner, and then I had to take more devil spray. It allowed me to sleep all night except when the head ache woke me for more Tylenol. I am on the fence about this Afrin...one one side it stopped all sinus issues. One the other side, I question whether it did long term damage to my brain. I guess time will tell...
Afrin is seriously addictive. I worked with a girl who was addicted to it, my dad was addicted to it, and it took doctor intervention to get off of it, and I also had a friend in high school who was addicted. Like, several times a day for years addicted.
ReplyDeleteI am shocked your doctor recommended it to you, be very careful using it!
My stepfather thinks Afrin is the greatest thing on earth. Your experience with it cracked me up - great storytelling!!!
ReplyDeleteI use Afrin - works better for me than any pills. It will (obviously) dry you sinuses out majorly. Try a little saline spray to see if that helps with the pain.
ReplyDeleteSince I can't sleep when I can't breathe through my nose, I think it is a gift from God. I guess that it does burn a little when you use it, but maybe it won't be so bad next time?
ReplyDeleteI wonder if your dr would let you combine sudafed and afrin just for a couple of days...that would help everything clear up faster. I understand about taking drugs right now though. I don't even like to take tylenol unless I feel like I'm going to die. :)
I hope you feel better soon!!!
Ack I had this problem recently too - I'd never used a nasal spray before and T suggested I use a sinus soother as I get terrible sinuses and that worked great. But then when I felt a cold coming I used a strong "first defense" one and my god I have never had a worse pain in my head. It shot up past my eye and straight over the left hand side of my head and continued to come and go for the next few days. And my eyes were watering so much my boss thought I was gonna cry lol. I have not touched it since... I don't trust those things now and your post makes me even more wary of them!
ReplyDeleteHope your head and cold get better soon - sending you lots of positive healing thoughts!
My god! I hope you feel better soon! I've never used it but I'm understanding the mixed reviews!
ReplyDeleteAfrin is so addicting!! I used it during one of my headcolds and left it sitting on my nightstand so I could take a quick puff in the middle of the night. My friend had to physically take it away because you won't get better if you become addicted to Afrin. Good luck with that, I think that you will come to love it!!
ReplyDeleteWhoa!! Glad you can breathe . . . but that sounds like a rough way to make it happen. Funny story, though :)
ReplyDeleteOk, this post made me want to do a search for "addicted to Afrin". The results are not good. Check it out, so you can weigh the pros and cons.
ReplyDeleteI hope you feel better soon. Like I said, pregnant women should not be able to get sick. It's just not right!
OMGosh, I was so addicted to that stuff. I couldn't breathe without it... for YEARS. I had to get a prescription spray to get off of it and it wasn't fun.
ReplyDeleteUse ONLY according to package directions!
Hello! You don't know me but I just surfed for "Afrin" on the net and I found your blog. The post and the subsequent comments were really very helpful. I've been using Afrin since Christmas (today is the 29th) .. it's only been four days or so and I'm already wary of the effects. It's exactly how you described! Marvelous-then treacherous within hours.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, thanks for posting this, it really helped me a lot.
Merry Christmas from Manila, Philippines!
Sincerely,
Gang
PS: I hope you don't mind, I linked this entry onto my post on my nasal congestion for other friends to learn more about it. Without knowing it, you've helped me a great deal. Thanks again
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