The night before last I had a bizarre reaction to an over-the-counter nasal spray. When I bought it at the grocery store it was in amongst all the saline nasal sprays and was called "Moisture" something or other. I didn't bother to read the small print. Heck, I would have had to get my glasses out anyway. 

That night I squirted a dose in each nostril like I would my normal saline spray. It's been really dry in the house and I thought my nasal passageways could use the "moisture." How wrong I was.

Within a minute the back of my throat between my nose and my mouth was on fire. It felt like it does only when I have a really bad cold and have had lots and lots of post-nasal-drip discharge. Burning. Raw. Awful. If only that was the worst of it. 

I laid down in bed to read and had to sit up because all of a sudden a huge amount of phlegm was collecting in the back of my throat. I got up to spit it out, but the minute I did I had more forming. It was foamy and stringy all at the same time and it just would not stop coming. I kept gagging and spitting non-stop for about ten minutes. I blew my nose and the same stuff came out of my nose.  I thought I was going to die. It was verging on me not being able to breathe. Rick asked if we needed to go to the hospital ER (we have no 24 hour/urgent care close to us) and I think I might have yelled back something like I don't know. I didn't want to get in the car and drive for 40 minutes only to find my symptoms go away.

So I went downstairs, drank some milk (which did not help), ate a teaspoon full of honey (sort of felt better) and took some aspirin for the rawness. The discharge had slowed down but was not completely stopped. I was spent, shaking, and worn out from constantly coughing that stuff out. Rick suggested a honey licorice cough drop might help so I popped one of those into my mouth and the vapors from the menthol in the cough drop did ease the discomfort in the back of my throat some. 

Finally after about 20 minutes or so the discharge had almost stopped and I was feeling good enough that I thought I could actually lay down and go to sleep.

Hey folks, they don't call them mucous membranes for nothing!

It turned out that the spray was not a saline spray, but a nasal decongestant. Still, I don't think it should have done that to my nasal passages, congested or not. On the back of the box it says " temporary discomfit such as burning, stinging, sneezing or an increase in nasal discharge may occur."  Uhm, yeah, no kidding. I plan on calling them since it says on their box "you may report side effects to this phone number." I think I had a more serious reaction than a 'temporary discomfort'. I would call it more a severe allergic reaction. So, I won't be buying Mucinex Moisture Smart Nasal Spray anytime soon. How about you? Care to try it out?

(photo: Course Bark [kind of like my throat] )