For not buying my boyfriend decongestants after reading that a blocked nose can be fatal during sleep??

[imjustconcernedforhim]

My other half has got a rotten cold and is right in the thick of the blocked-nose stage.!

I fell down a right rabbit hole reading up on it and found a study [ doi.org/10.1183/09031936.03.00047903 ] saying that nasal blockage can mess with breathing during sleep (causing things like apnoea and drops in oxygen). I know that study was about completely blocked noses, but my anxiety has kicked into overdrive worrying about his breathing tonight!!
To make matters worse, he asked me to pop to the shops for some decongestants earlier. It was just before closing and I could have made it if I'd sprinted out, but I messed about and missed it. Now I'm sitting here feeling like a terrible partner, terrified that his oxygen is going to drop or he'll stop breathing in his sleep!! 😥

He’s definitely going to be mouth-breathing tonight.. but his nose isn't 100% sealed shut.
I read somewhere that your nose has little built-in sensors that basically act like a reminder switch for your brain to keep breathing properly. Since he'll be breathing through his mouth, I’m stressing: does even a tiny trickle of air or a little breeze in the room keep those sensors happy even if he'll be breathing through his mouth so his brain doesn't 'forget' what it's doing?

I don't know the exact answers to your questions but I've had dozens of bad colds and blocked noses and I'm still here 50 years on. I'm really sure he'll be fine.

I posted the wrong study in my post.. this is the one I meant to post: https://journal.chestnet.org/article/S0012-3692%2815%2936918-X/fulltext

Some quotes from it:

"The clinical consequences of nasal obstruction are just beginning to be appreciated. They vary from mildly-annoying to life-threatening. For instance, with their noses obstructed, healthy subjects woke more often, slept more lightly, and experienced a greater number of shifts in sleep stages: when questioned afterwards, these subjects reported disturbed, restless sleep.9,11"

"Perhaps more important, nasal obstruction decreases oxygen saturation during sleep, even in otherwise healthy young adults. Among the four subjects in whom oxygen saturation was monitored by Zwillich et al,9 episodes of desaturation (SaO2 < 90 percent) increased from a total of 27 before obstruction to 255 afterwards. A more alarming increase in both the number and the severity of episodes of desaturation was noted by Taasan et al10 in four of seven patients who had nasal packs placed after orolaryngologic surgery. Decreases in SaO2 as great as 39 percent were noted in one patient who had no significant desaturation when his nose was not obstructed. Perhaps this may explain reports of stroke, myocardial infarction, and sudden death in patients with nasal packing.13,14"

These effects were due to nasal obstruction caused by packing..

You sound a bit unwell with health anxiety. I’m sorry that must be quite tough. Have you had any treatment for anxiety before?

Your brain wakes you up if you stop breathing, which is what sleep apnea is. I’m sure your bf will have a bad night’s sleep and wake up a lot but that’ll be about it! The study you posted was with people who had actual surgery on their nose.

Kindly, are you always this much of a hypochondriac?

Just pull yourself together

Get off the internet

Employ some common sense

Clearly I have very little patience for health anxiety.

Most likely he'll just snore like a tractor. Consider that your "punishment" 🫨

OP - the average person has 4 or 5 colds a year. Do you know a single person who has died in their sleep because of a cold? I certainly don’t. Your boyfriend is not going to die tonight. Please relax and try to get some sleep.

Seriously? Two threads?!

It won;t make any difference if I tell you that the chances of your partner stopping breathing in his sleep because he has a cold are nil - He will breathe through his mouth.
or that
that article is totally irrelevant, the results inconclusive and you have not understood it properly,

Because you have anxiety and you are not thinking rationally, for the moment stay away from google and obscure articles you have found on the internet, and tomorrow work out how you are going to get help, or more help for your anxiety so that you do not constantly put yourself through this worry every time someone has a minor illness.

Stop being ridiculous and apply a bit of common sense.
You may have read one article that says there could be a problem and are now spiralling because of it.
When you actually pause and think, have you ever heard of somebody dying from a blocked nose from a cold?
No. He isn’t going to die.

I have anxiety around certain things which is worse when my mental health is bad.
One thing I do is remind myself how many millions of people are in the same situation perfectly safely.
So ask yourself, have you ever, in all your years on earth, heard of anyone dying from a blocked nose? In real life? Books? Films? Old episodes of EastEnders? I bet you haven't. It's not a thing.
If the blocked nose is bothering him, a steamy shower might help.

" A more alarming increase in both the number and the severity of episodes of desaturation was noted by Taasan et al10 in four of seven patients who had nasal packs placed after orolaryngologic surgery. Decreases in SaO2 as great as 39 percent were noted in one patient who had no significant desaturation when his nose was not obstructed. Perhaps this may explain reports of stroke, myocardial infarction, and sudden death in patients with nasal packing.13,14" *

Has your partner just had orolaryngologic surgery and has he got packing in his nose ? No, he has a cold, - one of the commonest viruses a human can get that millions of people survive unscathed on a daily basis -
therefore he does not fall into the category of people who 'perhaps' (based on an incredibly small sample) may have a stroke, heart attack or sudden death (this is a correlation not a proven causation in a sample of 4 out of 7 people) He hasn't had orolaryngologic surgery or packing therefore again this article is completely irrelevant. Stop reading irrelevant articles.

The packing causes these effect through nasal obstruction (blocking up the nose).

How is that different from a blocked up nose caused from swollen sinuses and mucus?

Order a nose rinse bottle and salt packets and keep that in your house. It doesn't expire and you can use it both preventively and while you have a cold, to help keep the nasal passages clear and reduce cold severity.

Have him sleep with more pillows propping him up to help with breathing and drainage.

If you're this anxious about death from common circumstances though, make him take out life insurance!

This is the opposite of what you're trying to achieve. Get the decongestant and open his nasal passages. Although if you don't he will not die you've not understood Yr article

Because nasal obstruction and nasal congestion are different things, your partner has congestion, his nose is full of mucus and is inflamed which makes it feel 'stuffed up', there is not a load of packing blocking his nasal airway, he probably has a perfectly adequate airflow through his nose, and if he needs a bit more he will breathe through his mouth, people do not die of a stuffy nose from a cold.

But you are not listening to what anyone is telling you. Seriously you need to get some help for you anxiety, you are making yourself miserable. You are reading articles with a complete lack of critical thinking and a lack of comprehension, applying things to your partner who has a simple cold that are not relevant to his condition. You are looking for things to feed your anxiety. That study is about 7 people who have had surgery and had their noses packed. It is not about people who have a common cold and can breathe perfectly well.

You are not being rational to think that your partner might die from a blocked nose. And this is anxiety talking. You both deserve that you get help with that.

But a blocked nose is horrid so I do think you were a bit mean not to rush and get him some decongestants. The otrivine nasal spray is fabulous for this. Given you are so wound up you won’t sleep why not find an all night pharmacy and go and get the nasal spray. Not because he mught die if you don’t. He won’t. But because it would be a kind thing to do for him.

I don't know much about decongestants effect on breathing but I think it's sweet that you're concerned enough about him to look it up and worry about him.

Thanks. I saw nasal obstruction in the study, and my mind thought "what about nasal blockage from a cold? why won't that cause a similar effect?" I appreciate people with way more knowledge than me explaining the differences

Make yourself a nice hot drink and try to get a bit of rest, your partner will be absolutely fine.

Yawn.

Again, do you know a single person who has died in their sleep because of a cold? Of course you don’t. Because that’s not a thing that happens to healthy adults.

What is the point of starting this thread if you’re not going to listen to any of the answers you get? Would you rather we all just agree with you that your boyfriend is doomed?

OP, hi 👋🏼 I have had severe health anxiety and sat where you’re at right now. It was hard hard work. I went through 18 months of minimal sleep, most nights watching my kids breathing, feeling their pulses etc in their sleep. I was a mess. Literally. I ended up having a mental breakdown due to it. It was triggered by the sudden loss of my sister.

Please ignore the “get a grip” comments, totally unnecessary.

I’d really like to just sit with you a minute and say, you must seek some professional help. Go and speak to your GP, and ask for some talking therapy. It took me 3 rounds, and I’m not 100% settled and I do still have triggers but I’m much much better than I was.

It is really hard work.. but you can get there, and it will be ok. Your boyfriend is very unlikely to die tonight due to his cold, you don’t need to sit awake watching him breathe. Try to rest your eyes. Let your body relax with it.

There was a post (not here) about a man who didn't want his girlfriend to have any drugs during labour because he'd read it could have side effects for her or the baby. You can imagine how that went down-even though it isn't untrue that in very rare cases, drugs we take in labour, or spinals for CS, do affect us.
But it's up to each adult to choose what they want for themselves.

You really don’t need 2 threads on this