Not the kind you get with a cold. Not the sniffly, blow-your-nose-and-move-on kind. This was pregnancy rhinitis —a cruel joke of biology where your body, in its wisdom, floods your nasal passages with extra blood and hormones, swelling everything shut from the inside.
After delivery. I still had twelve weeks to go. Twelve weeks of feeling like I was breathing through a coffee stirrer. severe congestion while pregnant
I called the nurse hotline at 2 a.m. on Saturday. “Is this normal?” I asked, nasally, barely understandable. Not the kind you get with a cold