Hi Ellen,

I am in the same doubt right now unfortanly.

I have a flight planned on sunday, because i have to go for my work for a
week to Munich, Germany. So i have to fly 1.5 hours from Amsterdam Schiphol
Airport to Munich.
But, since yesterday evening i got a cold! My nose is half blocked and
dripping..:(

So, i am in real doubt now if i still will fly on sunday, or drive to Munich
by car. It's a 8/9 hour drive, but then i don't have the pressure changes
which i am afraid of. Unfortanly the ticket is not refundable, so if i
decide to go by car we loose that money.

I hope something good happens and my cold goes away before sunday noon.....

Have a nice weekend!

Andries

Hi John,

I know, bin there too.

The last time is was on the west coast on holiday, i drove on the i10 west
from flagstaff towards palm springs.
On that road, you have steep descends, where your really go down. On one of
those places, i also got the pains in my forehead so bad, i had to pull of
the road to the side and stop. Indeed after a few minutes the pain got less
(i actually heard a "tssspp"  sound), like a opening occured and the air
could get into the sinuses. Then the pain went away. The last part of that
descend i drove very slowly....

Problem is, in a airplane which is descending you cannot stop or pull over,
so when the pain hits you, there's nothing you can do but hope it will go
away and not get worse.
I already have trouble breathing normally now, so i think i will not take
the change and go by car.
I always use Otrivin when flying, which contains Xylometazoline, which works
very well and opens my nose up. But still, the question then remains: Are
the openings to the sinuses open or not....it stay's a gamble.

Andries