49. Don’t Try This At Home
When I was in med school on my family medicine rotation, I was sent in to see a middle-aged woman with complaints of sinus congestion. Sure enough, from the very beginning, I can tell she’s really stopped up with her nasally voice, and my history and exam are consistent with your run-of-the-mill viral upper respiratory infection.
I begin educating her on symptomatic management and the following exchange ensues: Patient: “Do you think it might be the flu?” Me: “It’s possible but unlikely; it’s really out of the typical season.” Patient: “Yeah, I guess I wasn’t sure; I’ve been spraying Lysol everywhere and it doesn’t seem to be doing any good, and it says it removes the flu bug.”
Me: “Well, that’s something that could help disinfect the house and keep it from spreading.”Patient: “I guess, I just wish it didn’t burn so much” Me: “…what do you mean, ‘it burns’?” Soon enough, it all became too clear. Patient: “You know, when I spray it up my nose, it burns so bad.” Yep. My patient thought that since Lysol gets rid of influenza, the best way to nip it in the bud was to flush her sinuses with it like a saline spray. It did not work, for the record.