Living With a Nasal Polyp Sufferer

Living With a Nasal Polyp Sufferer

If you have a partner that suffers with nasal polyps you’ll be able to sympathize and understand that their life can be quite challenging at times. Just breathing for them can be an everyday labouring struggle.

As a wife that is living with a nasal polyp sufferer I know that it isn’t always easy watching your spouse deal with this condition. After all it affects so many aspects of their life. Sleeping, working, eating and even their confidence seem to suffer.

My husband Greg has had this condition for some time, years in fact. As his wife, it’s been rather sad watching him deal with the symptoms and I’ve often felt quite helpless just seeing him trying to find relief.

I didn’t always know how to help him or give advice, after all I don’t know exactly what he may be feeling or going through. Sometimes I’ve felt quite selfish and guilty not sharing in his pain because breathing has not been an effort for me.

But then I realised feeling guilty doesn’t do him any good and what is it that I can do to actually help him? And what could I do to help myself deal with living with this condition that he has as well?

One of the first things I realised is that it’s not selfish for me to not feel guilty for not having this condition. It doesn’t do me or him any good. It was important for me to support and help him and being happy was probably one of the best emotions I could offer. Even if he was having a rough day, it was so important to keep up that good vibe. I have found that a happy environment is a healing one.

Sometimes offering advice wasn’t always the best option. After all I wasn’t living in his body and had no idea what his nose must have felt like. Most of the time I found it was just good to offer a sympathetic ear, no talking back with suggestions, (which was hard for me not to do) but listen to what he actually had to say. That’s when I started to understand more about his nasal polyps and what they were really all about.

I was so happy when he started finding solutions to the symptoms he was dealing with. He has tried them all from using antibiotics, steroids and prescription nasal sprays to natural remedies. It also gave me some relief. I know it sounds selfish but it would be difficult to listen to him blow and snort his nose all day long. Yes it would get on my nerves.

My only regret that as a pharmacy assistant working in a chemist I wasn’t always prepared with a medicine cupboard full of what he needed. I try now to have at least a supply of what he may want (just in case). On occasion he may have come home from work with blocked nose and there was nothing worse than having 3 nasal sprays at home and all of them were empty or out of date.

He seems to have the polyps under control now. Yes he may still get an occasional flare up and a cold can sometime make it worse but as a true boy scout would say “It’s better to be prepared”.

Sometimes he would get so busy that he would forget that he need a new prescription or referral to the nose and throat specialist. I think it’s easy to fall into the trap that if it “aint broke don’t fix it”.

Regular trips to the doctor would keep his polyps under better control.   That’s why I’m so thankful that I’ve got his doctor’s number saved in my phone now. Sometimes I need to take the reins and just make an appointment for him.

I think that the key to anything is to maintain the symptoms so they don’t flare up out of control. It was always easier to calm down minimal flared polyps for him than ones that were raging out of control.

So as the wife living with a nasal polyp sufferer I’d have to say it’s been so much easier living with my hubby Greg when I know he’s feeling really good and his health is managed well. You know what they say Happy Wife, Happy Life!