Moisture in the Air

[Joe S.]

Christmas eve my grandsons were coughing. That night I had a very sore spot in my mouth/throat and thought that I had caught something from them. I did my mega dose of C and that helped a little. Now the dryness overwhelmed me and I started to cough. It worked its way into my upper chest as the days passed.

Thursday night I was awake most of the night trying to breath. If  held my hand or a towel over my mouth I could breath through it and the recaptured moisture helped. I drained my water bottle before 2am. I needed more moisture.

Now, I will admit that some times I am a bit slow. While trying to decide how I would make it through the night, I remembered I had an ultra sonic water bottle personal humidifier. I dug it out and placed it on the printer stand next to my chair/bed. and turned it on. Soon I felt enough relief to fall asleep.

I still had the severe sinus pain when I woke at 8am. My mouth and throat felt better. I got ready to see my new dentist at the VA. He said my mouth was very very dry. We discussed treatment options for my teeth. We talked about partials and dentures. Posts were not mentioned as an option.

Stepping back out into the negative temperatures dried me out within moments. When I got home, I ran another bottle of water to mist the air by my chair. My sinuses started to open. A couple of more days with humidity and I may be able to breath through my nose again.

I just wanted to remind everyone that this time of year you need more moisture in your air. My water bottle humidifier was less than $30 when I got it. The whole house humidifier works better but the small one will do in a pinch.

I know that it is hard to keep your air moist enough to breath but it is worth the effort to manage your symptoms.

[Deb 27]

Joe, I hope you are feeling better by now with more humidity.

I was just going to post something about dehydration when I signed on. I was wondering if we get more dehydrated than folks without SJS??? How much water should we be drinking daily, I wonder??
I am feeling dry and I live in Florida! I've had 5 UTI's this year and I am so sick of them! It's so annoying!!!!! It occurred to me today that despite drinking a ton of water that I am dehydrated. My skin is very dry, so are my eyes and everything else.
I am considering starting the evoxac......... 

I think they make these small portable sinus steam machines that you hold up to your face. I have thought about those but don't have one yet. I can't imagine how dry it must be in other parts of the country. We have a lot of humidity down here in the South......

[Carolina]

With temperatures in the high teens, mid twenties, (yes, North Carolina) we have finally put our whole house humidifier into action.  We also have a humidifier on our forced hot air furnace, and I will ask my husband if it is turned out (bet it's not) when he gets home from the store.

The whole house humidifier, and furnace humidifier (when we've had one) have made all the difference for me.

Hugs, and will it please warm up!  Elaine

[Joe S.]

During this period, I have been sipping 6-32oz of water each day. I checked the furnace humidifier and it was on and set to 45%. The dehumidifier was set to 30%. I changed it to 50%. Now there is more moisture in the air.

My ultrasonic bottle humidifier goes through 4-16 oz water bottles a day.

My dry mouth and throat are healing slowly. Coughing is lessening. Breathing is slowly improving.

I hope everyone else is doing better.

[lorigacc]

Going thru the same stuff. A few days before Christmas, I had my grand-daughter and great grandson visit, they were sick. Fast forward, I am on day 6 of what I believe is the flu. Sure it has a lot to do with running myself ragged with holiday business. Taking megadoses of vit c and trying to stay hydrated. With all the stress being sick brings, I did need your reminder to get some moisture in the air. I do believe we are affected differently by colds and flu. I am so super careful to stay away from germs....but they always find me anyway!  Hope you are feeling better soon😊

[warmwaters]

I'm running the humidifier constantly right now. Cold air, dry heat, miserable warmwaters!  See I even have water in my name!   First winter in a house with forced hot air. We are renting, and had limited choices.  It's worse than I imagined, but I know I have at least one more winter in it.

Big change up from milder California to cold NJ (though not a cold as a lot of New England). 

[Pete0211]

The dry air (coastal NC) now is brutal. I unfortunately do not have a humidifier attached to the heat system, and I've been going through gallons of water per day with my room humidifiers. I've been lucky enough that after a week of this all I have is slightly drier eyes and a slight soreness in my throat.

I've increased my daily water intake by about 1.5 liters per day - I usually aim for 3 liters/day, but right now it's about 4.5.

[SjoGirl]

Moisture in the air, where, where? 

These are the days when I remind my spouse why I wanted to move south and closer to the water.

I run the shower for a while before getting in during the morning, gives me moisture as a prepare for the day.