My personal philosophy is not to irrigate regularly once the crusting is gone. In your short post-op period you must still have much crusting and some foul smell, but as time goes by you will have less and less. I'd suggest that you restrict yourself to irrigating only twice a day - morning and before going to bed, like brushing your teeth. You need to allow the cilia to struggle a little on it's own during the day. Nowadays, 11 years after my surgery - I irrigate only if the dryness becomes unbearable, or if I have a cold or an infection of sort, like a sore throat, which is quite few and far between. To ease moderate dryness and dis-comfort during the day I simply try to keep active - to do things -move alot, drink hot beverages (low in caffeine), do push-ups, whatever. I religiously stick to a simple humidifier 1 meter from my head side of the bed, with a closed door and a slightly open window, and if I have problems falling asleep due to dryness at bed time I'll apply a hyaluronic acid based gel, which will ensure at least a couple of hours of good nasal moisture. I pretty much now manage to get some descent sleep. But it's taken a long learning curve and trials and errors to find out what works for me and what doesn't. Everyone has to figure this out for themselves. By the way, I wouldn't rule a gel just because it has preservatives in it. Every gel will have some, because if it doesn't it will spoil in 48 hours from being opened for the first time. The question is what preservatives. Some are safe, some not. Dr Grossan published a table with the ones you should be careful of.