Edit: I had someone comment one time when I did, and it was kind of weird and embarrassing? But it seemed like a fairly normal thing to do, so I thought I’d ask.
Just checking for blood
Yes. Excess of green or yellow mucus could be indicative of strep throat or a cold. If there’s bleeding, that’s a sign of worse.
If I feel something more solid than snot hit the tissue, I’ll check.
You never know when it might be bloody sinus tissue again.
Lots of people talking about monitoring health, I just look because I’m curious lol
In the modern day, sometimes it’s just nice to be able to say “I did that!”.
Same reason I look in the toilet.
Someday there might be brains there, so I agree!
Yes. The color of the mucus is informative for Chinese medicine. I don’t have the full details of it, but if it’s transparent, that means you are dealing with “cold” infection, and you should use herbs that are “hot”. Oppositely, yellow means “hot” infection, and you should use “cold” herbs.
If you use the wrong herbs and fail to balance it out, the infection gets worse.
Yes. And we always should. The colour of what is coming out can hint how far/how bad you might be on a cold, as well as the consistency. Knowing if you’re losing blood or clots is also important.
Yes for same reason, plus sometimes I feel like something came out and it hadn’t so I know I need to blow again.
The following can be filed under the “too much information”.
My airways act very weird when I get a cold or something is afecting my air ways. My nose tends to feel clogged but I have nothing to discharge, even if I feel the need to. I often have to force ouy whatever there may be backed up in there, often to the point I get light headed and/or dizzy. The first wave is usually clear and very low in volume. The second wave often brings out a deluge of yellow greenish mucus (good sign) or a blob of green greyish stuff, often with blood spots or small strikes (very bad). The third wave makes my ear pop and causes me to start coughing and pull up more gunk that then start to flow without the need for me to try to blow my spine from my back.
Sounds like there might be a problem with your sinuses.
My own sinuses are kind of messed up, and they get inflamed and swell up as soon as I get a cold which makes me stuffed up even if there’s no mucus. But all the mucus I do get doesn’t drain properly, so I have to obsessively blow my nose every 10 minutes or else it just gets packed up inside and I get a sinus infection. I also pay close attention to the color; clear or pale yellow is good, green is getting concerning, and brown means sound the alarm, sinus infection is imminent.
Have you tried a neti pot? It works well to help irrigate my sinuses without feeling like I’m trying to force my brains out onto the tissue.
When things get dire, I use vapor with some mint or eucaplitus oil added to the boilling water. It tends to ease things.
Yes, for three reasons.
- I judge the color to be sure I’m not getting sick and it’s just a regular need to blow my nose.
- I check for the presence of any blood, since I work around materials and in environments that can cause alot of dry air, giving me a higher incidence of nose bleeds.
- My work environments are very dusty, and if Inhave alot of black or grey dust when I blow my nose, I know I need to clean my airways when I get the chance so the dust isn’t in there longer then a day.
Yes, maybe a Burglarobbit came out me nose, gotta check.
Are there people that don’t?
Yes, and they’re either sociopaths, or were born with a critical lack of curiosity.
Okay this is entirely unrelated but your “born without a lack of critical curiosity” really hit home for some reason.
Whenever I go to a store that has stuff I find generally interesting, I feel the need to touch it, just so I know what it feels like. I had an ex who hated whenever I did that, like she thought I was a toddler trying to look at and buy everything. It really made me feel bad.
I smell everything I grab. Sometimes my wife comments on it but it doesnt bother her. We use our senses to make sense of the world, big news.
I don’t smell everything I grab, but I smell everything I eat before I put it in my mouth. Imo though it’s not like a neurodivergent sensory thing, I just like smelling good food before I eat it; kinda like a palate preparation.
My dude, that rings super true for me. I’m very… textural? I’m not going to buy something if it feels shitty to touch. Most of the foods I don’t like taste just fine, but I don’t like how they feel in my mouth.
Don’t feel bad about it, you’re not alone, and even if you were, that’s really got to be one of the stupidest reasons I’ve heard to be pissed at someone.
Ya. Don’t you care at all about your health? Why wouldn’t you check?
Yes, I need to make sure that what’s in the tissue matches what I felt fly out of my nose so I know it’s not stuck in my beard.
Or 'stache.
But also, it’s kinda satisfying to see the huge chunk of hardened snot that’s been bugging the ever living hell out of you most of the day.
Yeah I kinda lump the stache in with the beard.
To be fair, your username kind of suggests you want to look inside everything anyway
Right you are!
Yeah man, gotta know if there’s blood or not.
If the heat is running, we’re playing a dangerous game.
95 % of the time. I don’t if I’m in public and in close proximity to someone.
It’s like looking after you have a bowel movement. It’s normal.
But do you really have to show your friends every time?
Yes
If I didn’t look how would I know what kind of infection I have?
