Today, I just got sick and tired of the constant drainage running down my throat. Off to the medicine cabinet I went and came up with a combination Antihistamine and Nasal Decongestant.

After reading about some on these, I note that they can also cause drying, which plays a big part in the Sjogren's I may or may not have.

In one Internet article, I saw some mention of newer products that don't seem to have as much drying effect. Does anyone happen to know the name of any of anything that fits this description, or maybe I am just dreaming... It sure seemed to help...

I would guess there must be some sort of allery component that goes along with the sinus/lung/ears issues...

Cathie

are mostly non drying.

However, decongestants are ALL drying. (phenylephrine and pseudoephedrine)

Claritin is OTC now, Allegra still RX.

Singulair is not drying.

All of the first generation antihistamines (Benadryl, chlorpheniramine, brompheniramine, hydroxyzine) are all drying.
They are also more efficient as antihistamines. Claritin and Allegra are second generation along with Zyrtec (more drying)
and rather useless IMO.

Well, I must share what I have been taking for my cold for two days. I have been on Zycam Nasal Swabs. Nifty little things and so easy to do. No side effects, no nothing. You just swab your nose, hold the nostrill for five seconds, and throw the swab in the garbage. Every four hours.

Been doing this for 2 days. This morning I was able to go out for Breakfast and my voice is clearing up. I am still blowing my nose but it's clear (always has been). I do have a cough but I take that awful Buckleys.

I know a cold (whether or not you do anything for it or not) will take a week to 10 days to run itself through, but if this darn swab thing reduces the symtoms, I figured "what the heck".

Alan said I'm sounding better, not so nasally and people don't mistake me for a man on the phone anymore. So that's a good thing.

Alan has an ivig thing on Tuesday. When the visiting nurse comes, (she's very nice), I'm going to take out my stethescope and have her listen to my lungs). I'll feel much better after I know they are clear. I don't foresee any problems, but if you think I'm going to have a nurse in my home and not ask her to please listen to my chest, well forget it.

She likes my muffins and she's a doll.

lol

Melody

I suggest you get that zinc.

Here are the ingredients for Zicam swabs.
Now let's back up a bit. Why are there swabs now? Well the original Zicam nose spray (also containing zinc) was shown to damage the sense of smell (in some cases permanently).
This is because Zinc should not be applied to mucous membranes. It can damage nerves.

It would be more effective to take zinc orally every day, and prevent the cold. Since you use an ACE inhibitor, and have done so for a long time, these drugs have been shown to deplete zinc from the body.

I am sorry I cannot endorse any Zicam product. Besides the nasal application,
It is basically a homeopathic remedy and limited by the dilutions to very minimal effect.
http://urbanlegends.about.com/librar...am_anosmia.htm

Ah, well I knew it was too good to be true!!!

I slowed down my symptoms, but I don't want to damage any mucous membranes. So I'll eat the $10.00 and go to gnc and buy some zinc.

How about cold-eze? or those losenges that contain zinc and C??

That any good??

Melody

Zinc sulfate is very nauseating. The only really good forms that are
not expensive are Zinc monomethionine or Zinc picolinate.

The oral lozenges do not have documentation of hazard associated with them.

However, I used a Cold Eze lemon last spring for a bad sore throat I had at work (we had samples). It worked fine. But it dried out my mouth severely and I couldn't taste anything for 2 days. Patients with Sjorgren's might have a rough time with that effect-- the drying. The lozenge really knocked out that viral sore throat tho, and I never got any follow up "cold" or anything upper respiratory.