#i just don't know...

i just hope people don't think i've given up on writing entirely

total sneezes: 293

daily average: 9

in addition to collecting the total number of sneezes each day, I'm also separating out each sneezing fit as its own entry so I can keep track of how much I'm sneezing at once! as I had guessed, I'm usually sneezing 6 times per sneezing fit. of the 48 bursts of sneezing this month, 17 of them were bursts of 6. the highest amount I sneezed at once (continuous sneezing before I can finish entering it into my spreadsheet) was 14! the day with the most sneezing fits in one day was January 3, with 6 separate bursts of sneezing that day. I guess 6 is my lucky number

I've been trying to keep track of outside factors, but haven't had much luck finding a pattern. I know that on January 3, I started sneezing first thing in the morning while I was still in bed and I'd slept with the window open and it was bad enough to start a nosebleed, but honestly I'm not really seeing recurring causes throughout the month aside from the sunlight sensitivity I was already aware of. weirdly, that first span of two days with no sneezes was when I went to the doctor to ask about my sinuses, which feels like a classic case of the problem going away as soon as you get a professional to look at it

as for that doctor's visit, I didn't really get anything conclusive out of it. we ruled out the likelihood of me having a deviated septum, but aside from that he just prescribed me a nasal spray and said to keep collecting data. I've only been taking the nasal spray since the 24th, but I haven't really noticed a meaningful difference. my average before taking the nasal spray was 10 sneezes a day, and my average since then is 6, so I guess that's a reduction? still seems high, but I guess we'll see

And of course, the knee-jerk answer I would expect to get from a “devout Mormon” is, well, you need to listen harder. You need to pray and read scriptures and participate in church, and like. I get it. Maybe those things do help the vast majority of people. They used to help me. They generally don’t anymore. Deciding whether to be okay with that or terrified by it (as I was taught to be) is a whole other animal.