A Russian online magazine published the story of a Chechen girl Iman, who moved with her family to Kazakhstan as a child, and then, having married a Kazakhstani (also a Chechen by nationality), left for him first to Syria and then to Iraq. website publishes an abbreviated story of a journey to and from ISIS.
When the last gas bottle ran out, three children screamed with hunger. Iman had to figure out how to prepare them to eat. She took an iron can of ghee, cut a hole for the firebox, put a tray on top, and lit a match. First, she threw pieces of wood into the flame, and then - any garbage: old egg trays and unnecessary slippers.
The children woke Iman at dawn to bake cakes. It was the only meal for breakfast, lunch and dinner. First, it was necessary to sift the flour, black from worms and larvae. Iman did not have a suitable strainer, and she fiddled with her fingers. Many many times. Then she rolled out oval cakes the size of a palm, threw them on a tray, turned them over, sent them to a plate. The fire burned Iman's face, it was fifty degrees outside. There were ten thin rye cakes. When the children asked for supplements in the middle of the day, Iman's heart sank, she said: "Wait for the evening."
At this time, Tal Afar, in the suburbs of which Iman lived with her children, was surrounded by the Iraqi army on all sides. Several weeks remained before the fall of the last stronghold of the "Islamic State" on the territory of Iraq.
Iman puts on a hijab
After the eighth grade, Iman stopped going to school. Dad decided that it was better for her to stay at home and help her mother raise her three younger sisters and a brother. Even then, my mother's friend, also a Chechen, came to visit them and loved to repeat: "You are my daughter-in-law, I will take you." Iman turned 15, and her mothers introduced her to Suleiman, tall and green-eyed, seven years older.
“At the first meeting, he said to me:“ Well, wow, you’re complete! ”I was offended. I didn’t like him either. I thought that I would marry a typical Caucasian man like my dad: he said and did. Suleiman did not look like Chechen, he didn't even speak Chechen. I got used to being strict. But Suleiman had a gentle character, he was born and raised in Kazakhstan. "
It so happened that they became friends, mostly corresponded, saw each other sometimes - when dad Iman was leaving for the shift. Suleiman met a Russian girl: he swore, then again converged with her. Iman talked about everything, she comforted him in a friendly way.
A large family always lacked money. And when Iman turned 15, her dad allowed her to earn money in the warehouse of a children's store. Firstly, it was owned by a good acquaintance, an Ingush by nationality. Secondly, Iman was hidden from prying eyes. Every year the girl went to Chechnya to visit relatives. Previously, I ignored my grandmother's words that “we must pray, worship the Lord, thank for everything that we have,” and once decided to listen. I read the book "What should be a Muslim woman" and covered myself. In 17 years.
Suleiman was delighted with Iman's decision, but her parents, who did not even read namaz, insisted that she take off her hijab. "This is how the Wahhabis look like," the father argued. "You are like a bag, the daughters of my friends dress fashionably," my mother echoed. Iman did not want to contradict her parents.
She left the house in a scarf tied at the back of her head - in Chechen, stopped on the stairs, put on a hijab and went to work. This was the first protest against the parents.
Once the owner of the store told Iman that she did not want problems with the special services. "There is no room for you here," she snapped and fired the girl. Iman tried to get a job in another children's clothing store, but as soon as the owners saw the hijab, they refused to continue the conversation.
Iman is not getting married for love
When Iman got covered, it suddenly dawned on Suleiman: "Why am I dating other girls, it's all so frivolous! You are so well-mannered, your mother only told good things about your family, why don't we start communicating seriously ?!"
Iman then liked the guy from Grozny, but she saw him once a year - mostly communicated on the Internet. Mom said that dad would never give her away for the teip (born in Chechnya) of this guy, but Suleiman is "a wonderful person: he does not smoke, does not drink, two higher educations, an oil worker." Iman resigned herself.
“I thought: I’ll get married, and my mother will not find fault with my appearance, and my husband will intercede for me, especially since he loves these clothes,” explains Iman. “In order to observe Islam according to the rules, I was ready to live without Love. Reassured myself: but I will have a good mother-in-law. Usually Chechen daughters-in-law do not get along with mother-in-law, they are very strict, and mine is a simple woman. "
After the wedding, the newlyweds moved to Suleiman's parents. The guy earned good money, brought all the money home to his mother. Together with his younger brother, he paid the mortgage for the three-room apartment in which they all lived together. Soon Iman bore him a son - Ayub. The mother-in-law was jealous of Suleiman's wife. Especially when they went to the cinema (which her dad would not allow her to attend until she was married). Iman asked Suleiman: "Tell me that we didn't go to the cinema, but just take a walk." The guy insisted that you always need to tell the truth. When they held hands on the street, the mother-in-law was angry: "When will you learn to be a Chechen !?" In Chechen families, it is not customary to call the wife of her parents by her first name, and Suleiman called and even used his favorite nickname "dogi" (heart). And he also took the child in his arms with his mother, kissed him, which is also considered a sign of disrespect for the elder.
"He never lied to me, even on trifles. It was interesting for me to spend time with him, to listen to his stories. He is very well-read, we could chat until the morning prayer. I asked how the stars and ants are arranged - he answered any of my questions." ...
Iman missed her husband. He often went on business trips. He plunged more and more into Islam.
He brought home religious books, read hadiths to his wife, and then suddenly grew a beard, started tucking up his trousers, constantly communicated with someone on VKontakte. When he showed that they were men, Iman calmed down. He explained that he was communicating with brothers (as Muslims call each other), and she had no right to dig, to doubt.
“My mother-in-law accused me of putting on a headscarf and pulling it along. But I didn’t have so much knowledge! I sometimes liked to listen to Chechen music, but he did not allow me. I even stopped watching TV shows because of him. He spoke that there is sheer debauchery. "
When the authorities asked Suleiman to shave off his beard, he refused. I had to quit. The parents were very unhappy. Scandals in the house erupted with renewed vigor. The mother-in-law called the spouses "lodgers", was indignant that now there was no one to repay the loan, blamed Iman for everything. Once the girl even thought: "Maybe he loves me so much that he is ready to immerse himself in Islam for his wife?" Iman's parents pressed her from the other side. They insisted that she take off her hijab. The girl cried into her pillow every night. When she visited them with her husband, she took off her hijab at the entrance and tied a headscarf in the Chechen style. She explained to Suleiman: "Believe me, they won't understand. Better not to provoke."
At some point, Iman began to notice that a completely tinted car came to her husband, he got into it and left. Suleiman explained that these were the KNB, the special services of Kazakhstan. He swore by Allah that he did nothing wrong.
“The KNB wanted Suleiman to knock on the“ brothers ”, who more and more often visited him, called him in the middle of the day and night. But he refused. The husband submitted his resume to a foreign company several times. There was a case when the boss himself came to a meeting with He liked that her husband has two diplomas and decent work experience, speaks excellent English. This boss called Suleiman to work the next day. And then he called back and apologized that he could not cooperate with him.
As soon as Suleiman hung up, he received a call from the special services: "Well, Suleiman, it's difficult for you to get a job, help us - and we will help you." I have heard these conversations. He said: "Look what they are doing ?!"
Iman sacrifices himself for his son
Iman soon became pregnant with her second child. There was no work, the money ran out, they were supported by Suleiman's parents, who constantly expressed their dissatisfaction. As a result, Iman offered to go to Grozny, arrange maternity capital and start building her own house. The husband agreed.
There were no suitable tickets, and they decided to fly to Astrakhan, and from there, by train, get to Grozny. When they entered the carriage, Iman saw the Chechen conductors and calmed down - soon she would be at home to eat grandma's dumplings. Ten minutes later, the husband said that he needed to change to another car. Iman did not understand what was happening. As it turned out later, they got into a carriage to Makhachkala, which they attached to a Grozny train. Iman was surprised: they did not have a single relative in Dagestan. But Suleiman reassured: "So much the better."
In Makhachkala, Suleiman left his wife for almost two days. I didn’t allow to tell my mother where she was. And then he took the phone altogether. The girl was crying. The husband reassured: "Please, just be patient a little, and I will explain everything to you." Iman trusted because he never lied.
When he returned, Suleiman showed Iman the page of his passport, where his son's details were entered. It turns out that he went to the consulate of Kazakhstan in Baku to draw up documents for the boy to travel abroad. The family flew to Istanbul - and there Suleiman stunned Iman: "Now we will live here, I will find a job, the brothers will help us."
Suleiman, along with his wife and son, were accommodated in a room with another couple, they were separated by a thick curtain. As it turned out later, it was a transfer flat. The husband left in the morning and returned in the evening. When Iman allowed him to call home, he asked them to tell their parents that they were in Poland. The money was running out, the last hundred dollars lay in my pocket. Iman was six months pregnant.
"We went out for a walk, could not find an exchanger. I went to the counter with peaches, sniffed them, put them back in place and cried. Not because I wanted to try the peach so badly, it just accumulated. Some girl, also in a hijab, seeing this, she bought and handed me a peach with the words: "We are all Muslims."
And one day Suleiman admitted: "I was waiting for the moment, I was not sure myself yet. We are going to Syria. There is an Islamic State. We can live according to Sharia, no one will oppress us. They told me that they give a house there, pay benefits. We will live our lives as usual. "
Suleiman tried to persuade Iman for a long time. He said that the brothers had already been there and were satisfied. Cited examples of hadiths she had never heard of before. He explained that it is the duty of every righteous Muslim to live in the "Islamic State". That to give it up is just like not reading namaz - to commit a sin. Iman was shaking. She saw the war in Chechnya and never wanted to live under the bombing again. When Suleiman had no arguments left, he said: “If you don’t want to go, then I will go with Ayyubik. I don’t want my son to grow up amid debauchery.”
Iman gave up, she could not imagine life without her son.
Iman runs through the cornfield
When ten women with children (each had two or three children) approached the border between Turkey and Syria, the men shouted in their backs: "Run, otherwise they will shoot at you."
Iman ran across the cornfield, holding her belly with one hand and clutching her one-year-old child with the other. She could not stop even when the line was passed, and the strangers in black shouted sympathetically: "Enough!"
“The first thing it turned out that I was not dressed correctly,” recalls Iman. “It scared me right away. The men shouted something at me in Arabic, pointing to my face. I was wearing a hijab, I was wearing a bright purple floral dress. Some women handed me a black veil so that I would cover myself from head to toe and hide my face under a special cape. Now I had to go only in black and wear a burqa: one layer of dense fabric left only a narrow slot for one eye, the other (fine mesh) - covered everything. I said that it was hard for me to breathe because of pregnancy, but no one heard me. It was August 2014, 50 degrees of heat. "
Iman was brought to the Syrian city of Raqqa, left in a women's hostel - "Makar". She looked around the area and was horrified.
Near the entrance to the house, on the tiled steps, sat two exhausted Yezidi women, they were not allowed to give food until they converted to Islam.
Half of the neighboring house was bombed. People set up a garbage dump around the hostel. There was nowhere to step in the room; mattresses lay close to the floor. Lice roamed freely from one girl to another.
After 15 days, my husband arrived and said that the family was moving to Iraq. All these days he took a course in Sharia knowledge. And when he and other newcomers were asked to celebrate the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha in Baghdad, they immediately agreed.
"They were encouraged, they promised that the capital of Iraq would soon be captured," recalls Iman.
The women and men were put on different buses, moving in a long column. On the way, they suddenly stopped, turned off all the headlights.
The worst night in Iman's life was spent in a city in the north-west of Iraq - Sinjar, a place of compact residence of Yezidi Kurds. In early August 2014, the city was occupied by Islamic State militants. A few weeks before the bus with Iman stopped in Sinjar, the burial of five hundred Yezidi women and children was discovered there, many of them were buried alive. Thousands of people were expelled from the city, some were executed because of their refusal to convert to Islam, young Yazidi girls were enslaved.
“We stood in complete darkness and silence.
I looked at the colored lights in the window. At first I thought it was a beautiful fireworks, and after a while, when we dashed very quickly, I realized that they were shooting at us.
We reached a certain place, people jumped out of cars and started shouting. I didn't understand what was happening. They ran into houses. Then my husband appeared, he took us to some local house, covered the windows with mattresses so that the fragments would not fly in. It was necessary to spend the night here. Drones and airplanes circled above us. You couldn't even shine a flashlight. "
Iman heard the whistle preceding the fall of the shell, and a shiver ran through her body. She remembered the war.
"We were not bombed as much in Chechnya as during that night. My stomach went to one side - it was clearly noticeable. I could not even speak, I was speechless. When they dropped shells, I covered the child with myself, and Suleiman - me He reassured me, assured me that the drone was only dropping a bomb twice. He distracted me, told me about the device of the plane. Later I became convinced that there were a lot of them. I opened the curtain and saw the buses on which we arrived. We were on fire until five in the morning. During the morning prayer, two men ran into our house, one asked: "Can your wife help us, should we bury the women?" I fainted. Many women and children died that night. "
Iman finds a home
When they arrived in Tall Afar, Iman and her children again settled in the "Makar". The men left to look for homes for their wives. They were called "muhajers" - immigrants. They went into empty dwellings left by local residents and chose those that they liked. After a while, Suleiman returned to Iman and happily announced that they now have their own home. You just need to wash the floor before driving into it.
“It was a gorgeous house, where the lights came on on a cotton, but I didn't want to go in there. I sat on the porch and cried. My relationship with my husband began to deteriorate. I didn't want to talk to him, I kept asking to go home. For the first time in my life, he raised a promotion. a voice at me. He said there was no turning back, we would have to live here. "
Suleiman wrote on the fence of the house "Abu Ayyub", which means "Ayyub's father". According to the new rules, it was impossible to give their real names. The man was called "the father of the eldest son", the woman - "the mother of the eldest son." If someone did not yet have a son, then he chose a name for himself, and when a child was born, he called him that. Iman's name was Umma Ayyub (Ayyub's mother). In private, the couple still addressed each other with "hearts."
At first they lived quietly. Drones circled over the rooftops, but did not drop bombs. According to Iman, her husband guarded residential buildings, sometimes dug trenches, went to work for only two hours a day, and immediately returned to his family. He was not taken to the battlefield due to poor eyesight, he did not even go to the army for this reason.
Once Suleiman returned home with a machine gun. Iman got scared: "Why do you need this? You said that there is no war here." The husband smiled shyly: "It's just that, don't worry."
Each month the family received free groceries (mostly vegetables) and financial assistance - one hundred dollars for each family member, plus an additional one hundred dollars for the father of the family - for work. At some point, the management decided to abandon the sinful American dollars and mint gold dinars. True, they had to be bought for dollars: one gold dinar cost two hundred dollars.
Iraqi houses have flat roofs. Iman waited for the night so that a light breeze would blow so she could climb onto the roof, crawl under the mosquito net and fall asleep. There were also huge tanks of water, plastic "tanks" heated by the sun. All summer I had to drink boiling water and sometimes run to the store for a salted piece of ice, in winter I had to wash in cold water. Due to power outages, there was no light for half a month, and in the last six months it was completely turned off. Iman remembered how in Chechnya, when they did not have a refrigerator, her grandmother cooled the water and did the same: she filled up boiling water in a bottle, wrapped it in a thick cloth soaked in water and hung it on a tree in the shade. The wind was blowing and the water cooled down a little.
"I had an ordinary life, like in Kazakhstan. Only I could not leave the house without my husband. You could breathe air in the yard or on the roof, if you climb carefully so that the men would not see. When my son went out for a walk, I stood outside the door and watched him. "
With the capture of every city of the Islamic State, living conditions deteriorated. When the troops were very close, the family had to move to a neighboring village. After the seizure of Sinjar by the Kurdish authorities - in November 2015 - they stopped issuing free gas cylinders (they were brought from Syrian Raqqa through Sinjar), pasta disappeared from the shops.
“At first, my husband bought a SIM card. When the management realized that we had the Internet, they forbade using it. For a long time afterwards we could not get in touch with our parents. There was a huge plasma TV at home. But when the police of the Islamic State found out that one of the women was watching TV series, they cut the antennas for all residents. Iman once played the cartoon "Tom and Jerry" on a flash drive for her son, but her husband, upon learning about it, threw it out. "
In her free time, Iman sewed dolls for her neighbor, but only without eyes. One of her friends ignored the ban on keeping toys depicting humans and animals and bought her daughter a rubber horse and other plush animals. With them lived a girl who quietly, while no one was at home, burned and tore into pieces three-year-old toys.
Neighbors scolded Iman for the fact that her sons had bears on their T-shirts, that Ayyub brought a toy dinosaur to the neighbors, and a child was depicted on the packaging with diapers. "Cut out his eyes," they said.
Husbands drove their wives to internet cafes once a week. They paid a small amount to connect to the internet.
"It was a shed with sofas, but no windows. There was a woman who controlled everything. They said this was done so that a spy would not interfere with us. From time to time a woman would come up, pick up the phone and check. At one time it was not allowed even in her native language. write - only in Russian, because the supervisor understood him. When we left the Internet cafe, we had to leave the phone there for three days and be sure to unlock it. It was carefully checked. We were afraid to write to our parents that we felt bad, we thought that they have programs that recover all deleted messages. "
Once Iman noticed how his son sat down on his back to his younger brother in a game and showed with a gesture that he wanted to cut his throat. She was frightened.
“He saw it somewhere,” she thought. “Maybe on a tablet. I often watched boys about twelve years old sit on the street and watch videos on their phone. Ayyub talked to them.
And I also heard women talking to each other: "Oh, there is a new video of the death penalty, we urgently need to watch!" - "Be sure to look, there the dead man's brains flow out onto the asphalt." "In the new video, a man was slaughtered like a ram, let's see." They showed these videos to children. They said: "Let them get used to it, they will be warriors."
I was opposed to traumatizing the psyche of children, but they did not mind. "
Unlike Suleiman, Iman never attended a public execution. He told his wife how a woman confessed to committing adultery with a married man. She was afraid of Allah and decided to repent - then they made her "rajim" in the square, stoned to death. There were also women in the audience. No one was forced there, but it was encouraged that they watch the death penalty and know what awaits them in case of violation of Sharia law. Another woman was accused of planting chips in houses, schools, and mosques so that Iraqi troops would know where to drop the bomb. During the execution, a woman of the same age, also an elderly woman, was asked to leave the crowd. They handed her a submachine gun and ordered to shoot the criminal.
Neighbor Iman moved to the Islamic State from Dagestan. When he was appointed Emir, the leader of the local community, he received a young Yezidi woman as a gift. The concubine's name was Shirin ("sweet") and she had three daughters.
“They said that the Arabs raped the slaves, but a different story developed before my eyes. First, my neighbor settled the Yazidi woman in a separate house, and then he brought him to him and said to his wife:“ Do what you want - this is my concubine. ”She was very jealous of her husband towards Shirin because he slept with her. Amir was forced to buy dresses for both women, to feed all the children with sweets. He did not offend Shirin, he took care of her so that, seeing his good attitude, she would seek to convert to Islam (some really converted to Islam and married) But his wife brought the Emir, and in the end he took the Yazidi woman far away. Apparently, he sold it. "
Suleiman once told Iman how women who wanted to escape from the Islamic State were imprisoned and raped, and the men who helped them were cut off their heads. When her Russian friend confessed to her husband that she wanted to find an opportunity to go home, he threatened: "You are a kafar (unfaithful), I will hand you over to Dole (the state) - your head will be cut off." Iman had heard rumors that for six thousand dollars you could call a car to take you across the border. But with whom could she clarify this? It was scary even to be interested.
Iman loves her husband more and more
While Suleiman was not at home, Iman painted the white walls with hearts and flowers, wrote with multicolored felt-tip pens how she loved him and missed him, deduced lines from Chechen songs: "Don't leave, honey, wait, my heart is only with you." The husband came home and smiled: "It remains only to paint the walls in the toilet." She answered with enthusiasm: "I can also there!"
"I got married without loving, but then I fell in love with my husband. As he said, I did so. Suleiman brought long red roses from his post, got my favorite Bounty bars from somewhere, decorated our bedroom with scented candles. He never was rude. , did not scold, did not beat, explained everything calmly - only once in my life I raised my voice. When I was lying with a temperature, he sat next to my bed and changed a rag on his head. In the morning he woke up early to change diapers for children, wash them, make breakfast , and then wake me up. Other husbands did not take their wives with them to the market, and I really asked him - and he agreed. He only insisted that I wear gloves: no one should have seen my hands. "
In the bazaar, women were supposed to look at the floor. If someone was looking around or looking at the goods on the counters, a policeman would come up and say: "Let my wife lower her gaze." Some "Madanites" (local Iraqis) were interested in their goods being sold. They did not complain to the police, but, on the contrary, turned away so that the woman could safely choose clothes for the child. The most pleasant place for Iman in Tall Afar was a shop with Turkish women's clothing, a woman worked there - you could open your face: see the pattern on the dress, feel the texture.
Every time her husband returned from his post, Iman twisted her hair into curlers, put on the most beautiful dress and baked something new: pancakes with jam, chicken in the oven.
When Iraqi troops began to recapture their cities, my husband began to leave for a long time. He could be at home for two days, and absent for two weeks. He still assured his wife that he was being sent to guard the neighboring posts and that it was safe there.
Iman and his son missed Suleiman. He returned home, went to the toilet, and Iman and Ayyub stood at the door and excitedly told him how the time had passed. Suleiman built a pyramid out of mattresses, threw his son at the very top - and the boy, rolling down, laughed to tears. Not far from the house was a bombed-out playground with a single rocker, half broken. She didn't really spin, but the son still expected his father to take him there.
When the husband was not at home, Iman was looked after by a special person - he was called Idarian. She would write a shopping list and slip it under the door with the money. The man went to the store, knocked on Iman's door, left a bag of groceries and left. They shouldn't have crossed.
When Iman gave birth to her second son, the hospital was closed - the village was attacked, and the locals fled from there. Her husband took her home to the midwife.
The woman ordered Iman to climb onto an iron table with a lamb skin on it, wrapped a plastic bag around her hand and roughly thrust her hand deep into her vagina. Iman was very painful, she told Suleiman that on pain of death she would not give birth in these conditions. The couple went home. The birth took place in the dark, only a kerosene lamp dimly lit the room. Suleiman was there.
Iman loved to go to the hospital when she was still working - there was life. But it was not easy to come across a "madanita" who would treat "immigrants" well.
“They treated us, but did not give us anesthetics,” says Iman. “There were cases when the“ Ansars ”(the descendants of the indigenous inhabitants of Medina who swore allegiance to Muhammad) stood with a gun over the souls of the“ Madanites ”so that they could perform a normal operation on their children. I can understand Their hatred. They lived a quiet life, and then some incomprehensible guys came and forbade them what they always did - smoke, drink, live as they wanted. Ishilovites ordered girls to wear a hijab, and boys after twelve years old to undergo military training. might you like it? "
One day, my husband came across a passport that Iman was hiding in a sideboard with dishes. "Why are you holding him? Do you still want to leave?" - he was indignant. And then he went out into the yard and right in front of Iman's eyes set fire to his passport. The flame flared up badly, and Suleiman poured gasoline and kerosene onto the passport.
"I loved Suleiman too much and could not betray him. I knew for sure that he did not wish us bad things. He always told me:" We will just live there. "And when he went to the" naribat "(post), he sent me notes from there: “Don't let the shaitan deceive you, our relationship is better here; if something happens to me, I want you to live here. "I am sure if he knew at the very beginning that all this had nothing to do with Islam, he would not have gone here."
Iman discovers how her husband lost his glasses
A pregnancy test showed that Iman is expecting a third child.
Suleiman returned from a two-week business trip without mood. "Don't panic, I have to tell you something - I am leaving for Ramadi." Iman knew that practically no one returned from there: out of forty people, at most two. She sat for several hours in a chair and could not say anything coherent. And then she showed her husband a pregnancy test, thought that at least it would stop him. “Don't leave me, Suleiman,” she pleaded. He was angry: "Every time I leave, you bury me. Please stop crying, Ramadi is not the angel of death (the one that takes the soul). I will return, everything will be fine."
Iman saw that Suleiman himself was not happy to leave. He walks brooding, not talkative. She did not calm down.
"You are like cannon fodder, you don't even have time to fight like a man. You run around with machine guns, and bombs are dropped on you from planes. 80 countries have united against the Islamic State. You will not win this war." - "I must tell you that I never fought for these lands, for this caliph. I always fought for Allah so that my family could live according to Sharia."
He left at five in the morning. And two weeks later, a woman knocked at Iman's house, who usually informed the residents about the death of her husbands. Suleiman died in battle ...
Incredible facts
American Joe Nagy was shocked to learn that a runny nose that lasted 18 months turned out to be actually cerebral fluid.
A man from Arizona in the United States realized that he had more than just an allergic rhinitis after he got out of bed one day, and the leak from his nose did not stop.
"This clear liquid was dripping from my nose like tears from my eyes. In truth, I was scared to death," Nagi said.
All allergy relief remedies did not help and the condition continued to worsen.
At first it happened once or twice a week, and then almost every day.
Doctors found out that Mr. Nagy there was a hole in the lining of the brainand his "runny nose" was nothing more than cerebral fluid.
The man had to undergo surgery to mend a hole in his brain, but due to meningitis, the procedure had to be postponed. When the infection was cured, an operation was performed, during which the hole was sealed with special glue.
As the neurosurgeon explained, this is one of the common conditions that is not noticed for a long time, since many people have a runny nose.
Every day, our body produces about 350 ml of cerebral fluidwhich is enough for the brain to be covered with fluid and not dry out from such leaks.
The structure of the brain and cerebral fluid
Not only is the human brain one of the most important organs in the body, it is also the most complex, with over 100 billion nerves that communicate through trillions of connections called synapses.
The brain is made up of many areas that work together:
Cortex - the outer shell of brain cells. Thinking and voluntary movement originate in the cortex.
Brain stem is located between the spinal cord and the rest of the brain. In this area, breathing and sleep functions are controlled.
Basal nuclei - a collection of structures in the center of the brain that coordinate messages between many areas of the brain.
Cerebellum located at the base of the brain and is responsible for coordination and balance.
The brain also has 4 main sections, or lobes:
- frontal lobe responsible for problem solving, judgment, motor function
- parietal lobe responsible for sensation, writing and body position
- temporal lobe responsible for memory and hearing
- occipital lobe responsible for processing visual stimuli
Cerebrospinal fluid is a clear fluid that circulates in and around the brain. It helps mitigate tremors and protects the brain from physical damage.
Interlocutor "SP" - famous kiev political scientist Vladimir Kornilov, director of the Ukrainian branch of the Institute of CIS countries.
We see that our defense enterprises are unable to cope even with those, in general, not the largest orders that Ukraine knocks out outside of its country. It cannot cope with the quantity of the same armored vehicles, the quality is more and more criticized. Yes, the Ukrainian defense industry operates exclusively on technologies inherited from the Soviet Union. And this is a problem, a trouble, for Ukraine - that these high-tech industries are not developing, and high-tech industries are in a corral, in a miserable and deplorable state. If you can still say that they are generally alive.
"SP": - But among the arguments in favor of the western path of development, the topic of the upcoming NATO orders for the Ukrainian military-industrial complex - with new technologies, a new level of production, etc., is constantly heard.
When I hear the reflections of some of our European integrators that the latest Western technologies will suddenly flow from the European Union to Ukraine - alas, it only brings a smile. By and large, nobody in the West needs Ukrainian high-precision science and Ukrainian weapons development. The only one who may be interested in the development of this industry - of course, develop together with its domestic industry! - this is Russia and the countries of the post-Soviet space. And we must understand that the potential for development here exists only if Ukraine and Russia are united into a single integration project.
"SP": - What is the "single project" if Yanukovych himself, together with the government, have repeatedly, clearly and unequivocally stated that we are giving up the Customs Union, we are going to Europe?
In this case, the high-tech Ukrainian defense industry and sectoral science will remain out of work. In fact, it ceases to exist. The West showed some interest in Ukrainian military-industrial complex enterprises, but in what sense? In the early 90s, some samples of Soviet equipment were purchased - one sample at a time, exclusively for testing and training, to be taken apart by screws. But nothing more!
Viktor Yushchenko made every effort - in fact, he tried, honestly tried, why hide there! - to bring Western firms associated with NATO orders to Ukrainian defense enterprises. For example, he personally drove representatives of Sikorsky's company to Zaporozhye, to the aviation giant Motor Sich. So how did it all end? We looked and admired the ruins left over from the Soviet car. Admired the remnants of the former power. But they did not express any interest to invest or develop something. The only thing that may still interest them is the elimination of potentially dangerous stocks of equipment that have not yet been sold out and not completely stolen. Elimination of ammunition, mines and shells. For this, the West will give us, as has happened more than once, some kopecks ...
"SP": - That is, Western friends expect rapeseed, wheat and chicken eggs from Ukrainians?
Yes, rapeseed for biofuel, which they do not want to grow on their own, because this is a crop - death for the soil. And you see how many people are willing to develop shale gas in Ukraine! It is not surprising that a French company actively participated in the tender. In France, the development of shale gas is legally prohibited, since it is terribly harmful to the environment. But here, in Ukraine, don't care about the environment. You can take part in production, and at the same time supply this gas to European countries. But at the same time, no one has promised or promises us any technologies.
"SP": - How real are the fears that Ukraine runs the risk of remaining a society without designers and engineers?
We have already faced the fact that there is a sorely lack of engineering specialists. Last year, they finally managed to open the only engineering gymnasium in the whole country. They present it as a great achievement, and you remember the super-powerful network of vocational education that existed during the years of the Ukrainian SSR. This network has been destroyed to the ground. Ukraine is indeed in a state of scientific, technical and intellectual stagnation. But the main thing is that given the current social and political priorities, she has no motivation to get out of this farm state.
For about two years, one of the residents of the state of Arizona, John Nagis, did not stop having a cold. My nose was literally flowing. At first, John thought it was an allergic rhinitis and was not particularly worried. He took antiallergenic drugs. However, the flow from the nose did not stop. The sufferer, exhausted by a runny nose, went to the doctor and was given a shocking diagnosis. The man's nose was leaking ... a brain.
After listening to the unfortunate patient, the doctor quickly made a diagnosis - a hole formed in the membrane that surrounded the brain through which cerebral fluid flowed through the nasal sinuses.
It is known that the human body is capable of producing about 340 grams of fluid daily to protect the brain from drying out and overheating. That is why John's runny nose practically did not stop.
Soon the doctors operated on the patient and he recovered. The operation was done through the nose. The hole in the membrane was sealed.
We forget that the brain is located above the nose and in case of damage to the membrane, cerebral fluid begins to flow out, commented on the situation, professor of neurology Peter Nakadaji. - By the way, this is a very common disease and should be remembered by all those who have a runny nose for a long time.
The adenoids or pharyngeal tonsil is an important part of the lymphoid apparatus of the pharynx. These structures protect the respiratory tract from various aggressive environmental factors.
The nasopharyngeal tonsil begins its barrier function immediately after the baby is one year old and up to 5-7 years old is the main filter on the path of infection. Therefore, viruses and pathogenic microorganisms that cause acute respiratory diseases often provoke inflammation of the adenoids or their proliferation.
It should be noted that otolaryngologists used to treat the removal of adenoids as a routine procedure, but today this organ has achieved a more careful attitude towards itself. But nevertheless, it should be recognized that quite often adenoids acquire a porous structure that absorbs a maximum of microbes, dust particles, allergens like a sponge, turns out to be a weak link and requires removal (see Is the removal of adenoids justified).
Nasal congestion, reflex cough, runny nose and adenoids are links of one pathological process, as well as signs of adenoiditis and / or hypertrophy of the nasopharyngeal tonsil.
A persistent runny nose with adenoids most often has an infectious-allergic nature
The appearance of a prolonged runny nose in a child over one year old is considered the first sign of an active reaction of the lymphoid tissue of the nasopharynx to inflammatory or allergic processes that are triggered by infectious agents or allergens.
Causes of a runny nose with proliferation of the nasopharyngeal tonsil
A runny nose against the background of adenoids occurs almost always. Therefore, attentive parents should know that adenoids and a runny nose are a serious problem that can be successfully treated in the early stages of growth, but under certain conditions and indications requires a balanced approach, careful diagnosis and timely surgical intervention in the formation of complications and progressive growth.
The decision on the need for surgery is made by the attending physician, a pediatric otolaryngologist (pictured)
One of the indications for the removal of adenoids is considered to be prolonged mucopurulent nasal discharge, night snoring and significant difficulty in nasal breathing, provoked by the development of purulent adenoiditis and / or sinusitis.
This is dangerous due to the constant presence of a source of chronic infection in the nasopharynx, as well as the appearance of persistent hearing impairment associated with the blockage of overgrown tissue of the mouths of the auditory tubes and other serious purulent complications (recurrent otitis media, bronchitis, eye, heart, kidney, and joint damage).
Most often, nasal liquorrhea occurs due to traumatic brain injury
Nasal liquorrhea is manifested by external and internal symptoms. The first thing that the patient or the victim notes is the appearance of a clear liquid from the nose, which is very easy to mistake for ordinary mucus at the initial stage of a cold or at the first symptoms of hay fever. But liquorrheal mucus differs from ordinary mucus in a more oily texture and level of outflow - it is almost continuous or stops for a while when the position of the body changes. Fluid often flows from one nostril - from the side of the defect in the skull bone and meninges.
After the beginning of the outflow of fluid, the patient notes the appearance of a dull headache, which is directly related to a decrease in the amount of cerebrospinal fluid in the skull and a decrease in the level of pressure.
Some patients, especially during sleep or when taking a horizontal position of the body, have a cough, a feeling of suffocation. This phenomenon is due to the fact that the liquid is not released outside, but enters the respiratory tract, provoking a cough.
In accidents with skull injuries, blows to the head or gunshots, the fluid released is mixed with blood.
For a year and a half, Joe Nagisa's nose did not stop flowing. At first, the man blamed everything on a year-round allergy, which, in his opinion, was caused by the weather in Arizona. The aggravation occurred once or twice a week, most often while he was awake. However, within a short time, his nose bounced back. In the end, Nagisa's condition became unbearable: "One day I realized that I was holding my handkerchief and blowing my nose constantly."
It was then that the man decided to consult a doctor and found out that his runny nose was not at all a consequence of an allergy. In fact, his brain was leaking. "This clear liquid oozed out of my nose like tears from my eyes. And I decided to find out what was happening to me," Joe told Fox 10.
Joe got into very awkward situations in public because of his current nose. Several times, due to the fact that he did not manage to get his handkerchief in time, those around him witnessed liquid flowing from the man's nose. Realizing that treatment for allergies had absolutely no effect, he went to the doctor.
The doctor diagnosed the problem pretty quickly. There was a hole in the membrane surrounding Joe's brain, and his cerebral fluid leaked through it.
"People often forget about it, but our brain is actually just above our nose. This is one of the most common diseases that people who have had a cold for a long time should think about," said Peter Nakaji, professor at the Neurological Institute.
Dr. Nakaji explains that human bodies produce about 340 grams of cerebral fluid every day, which is enough to protect the brain from drying out. This is why Joe's runny nose never stopped. "These holes can be very, very small, like a puncture in a bicycle tire, which is sometimes very difficult to find."
Nagis was operated on. The operation did not require opening the skull and was carried out through the nose. Essentially, the doctors used glue to seal the hole.
More recently, in El Salvador, doctors removed a nine centimeter long knife blade from the skull of a man who had lived with a foreign body in his head for about 18 years.
Scientists have proven that improper blowing of the nose with a runny nose not only does not help to clear the nasal passages, but can also become a trigger for the development of sinusitis, sinusitis, nasal polyposis and other unpleasant consequences.
How do adults blow their nose?
Usually a runny nose is one of the symptoms of acute respiratory viral infections, and with the help of blowing our nose we clean the front portions of the nasal cavity. But in the case of a chronic, complicated or lingering rhinitis, mucus accumulates in the deeper parts of the nose and nasopharynx, and blowing the nose will not give the expected result.
Moreover, as a result of strong and frequent blowing of the nose, mucus can get into:
- into the middle ear and cause otitis media;
- into the sinuses and cause sinusitis, sinusitis and, as a result, nasal polyposis. Why are nasal polyps dangerous if not treated read here.
The risk of spreading a viral infection that has entered the nasal cavity along with mucus throughout the body should also be alerted.
Scientists argue that blowing your nose for a cold is harmful in principle, especially if it is done incorrectly, as most often happens in most people.
According to research by doctors, blowing your nose causes a sharp increase in pressure and an increase in the risk of hemorrhage by about 6%. And sneezing and coughing, on the contrary, practically does not affect the pressure. Sniffing is also not an option, as the infection can penetrate even deeper into the nasopharynx.
The advice is simple - in case of a cold, it is better to wipe your nose, and with ordinary disposable handkerchiefs, and not reusable ones - this is an ideal breeding ground for harmful bacteria. In extreme cases, if necessary, you can blow your nose, but this must be done correctly.
How to clear mucus from your nose?
Doctors advise doing this:
- In the process, you cannot pinch both nostrils in order to prevent an increase in pressure, the penetration of bacteria along with mucus into the frontal and maxillary sinuses and, as a result, the development of sinusitis.
- The nostrils must be cleaned one at a time. First, gently pinch one nostril, open your mouth slightly and clear the other. No need to strain and do it with effort. Then repeat the procedure with the second nostril.
- Don't blow your nose right after waking up in the morning. 5-10 minutes of movement and everything will drain into the nasal cavity, from which you can easily get rid of it later.
Sinusitis, as a rule, occurs after a cold, acute respiratory viral infection, flu, and is, as it were, their continuation, only with slightly different symptoms.
Sinusitis is not difficult to cure at home, if it is not "started", and not brought to a severe form with complications. Therefore, it is so important to recognize it in a timely manner and cure it using accessible and simple methods.
Some symptoms of sinusitis:
- thick, copious, yellow-green discharge from the nose
- periodically can lay one or the other sinus, or only one (with unilateral sinusitis).
- when the body and head are tilted forward and downward, heaviness and throbbing pain appear in the maxillary sinuses, in the eyes and above the eyebrows, or in the entire forehead
- possible headache
- pain in the eye / eye area
- body temperature can be elevated or normal, and high is more common in severe disease
- poor general health
- fast fatiguability
What causes sinusitis?
- due to the inability to blow your nose well with ARVI, flu. Instead, the discharge is drawn into the nose, which eventually clogs the sinuses.
- due to a deviated nasal septum. People with such a problem are prone to sinusitis most often, since the passage in one of the sinuses is very narrow and as a result, the normal outflow of discharge is disrupted, it begins to move into the maxillary and frontal sinuses of the nose, plus there is swelling and inflammation of the mucous membrane, which also worsens the condition.
5 tips to get rid of sinusitis
Add 5 drops of iodine to slightly hot water (1/2 cup), stir. Prepare cotton swabs. Dip a cotton swab into the resulting solution and insert it into the nostril, and also do it in the other nostril. Keep them in the nose for 3-5 minutes, then remove and blow your nose well. Do this several times in a row. Repeat this procedure throughout the day.
A good result in combination with the previous procedure is given by nasal drops - Pinosol and Ksilen, they relieve swelling and inflammation, which also contributes to recovery. You need to drip them according to the instructions attached to them.
Warming up the sinuses. This also needs to be done in conjunction with other measures. Warming up at home can be done with a boiled chicken egg - wrap the hot egg in a cotton cloth (so as not to burn the skin) and apply to the sinuses until the egg cools down. Or you can sew small bags (4 by 4 cm), fill them with salt, then heat them in a dry frying pan or battery to warm up the areas of the paranasal sinuses. Warming up should not be done at high temperatures.
Drink plenty of vitamins - sea buckthorn, raspberry, cranberry fruit drinks. Cranberry is a natural antibiotic.
To speed up your recovery, you need to blow your nose as often as possible.
It is necessary to start such treatment as soon as the first signs of sinusitis or just a lingering runny nose appear. All of the above must be done until complete recovery. If you follow all these tips, the symptoms of sinusitis go away rather quickly, of course, if the situation is not running.
Can a polyp be blown out? Answers to popular questions about nasal polyps
Should nasal polyps be removed? Polyps are terrible for their complications, such as sleep apnea, exacerbation of asthma, chronic sinusitis. Surgery is the only way to remove nasal polyps. However, it is worth highlighting such modern methods of removal as laser burning and endoscopic resection with a shaver. As for conservative therapy, it is aimed primarily at eliminating the cause of the proliferation of the nasal mucosa. Therapeutic treatment acts as a preparatory stage before the operation;
Can polyps in the nose be warmed? It is impossible to heat polyps. This is not only an absolutely ineffective procedure, but to some extent even dangerous, since there is a high risk of burning the mucous membrane. Warming up should not be confused with thermally removing the polyp using silica fiber. This procedure is performed by a doctor in a hospital setting;
Is it possible to treat nasal polyposis without surgery? Treatment without surgery can be aimed at preventing recurrence of polyps, or if there are specific contraindications to surgery. However, it is important to understand that if a polyp has already formed in the nasal cavity, then it will not be able to eliminate itself without surgical intervention.
Can I blow my brains out? Blowing your nose incorrectly can lead to serious consequences.
American researchers have found that improperly blowing your nose not only will not help clear your nose, but can also lead to the development of other more dangerous diseases.
If a runny nose is a symptom of an acute viral infection, blowing your nose will usually help clear the front of your nose. But in the case when the runny nose has a protracted, complicated or chronic nature, this method is not able to bring the expected cleansing. In such cases, mucus is formed in the deepest parts of the nasal cavity and nasopharynx. It can also drain from the paranasal sinuses, be very thick in consistency, and collect in large quantities. According to experts, very frequent and strong blowing out can cause many dangerous complications, such as the throwing of mucus into the middle ear (risk of otitis media) or sinuses (sinusitis and sinusitis), irritation of the skin under the nose with their subsequent infection, nosebleeds. Moreover, if you blow your nose improperly in acute viral diseases, some of the mucus that gets into the nasal cavity can provoke the spread of the virus throughout the body, which, in turn, will lead to more dangerous diseases.
Researchers argue that blowing your nose during colds is basically harmful, and especially if you do it wrong, as most people usually do. According to doctors, it is extremely wrong to blow your nose from two nostrils at once, as the pressure in the nasal cavity increases very much. Also, in the case of such a blowing of the nose, some of the mucus can enter the sinuses, which will cause complications and slow down the healing process.
American expert Dr. Owen Hendley from the University of Virginia conducted special studies using computed tomography of the brain. His results showed that when sneezing and coughing, there is practically no pressure on the nasal cavity. While blowing your nose, the pressure increases significantly, and its indicators can even be equated with diastolic blood pressure. According to doctors, blowing your nose increases the chance of hemorrhage by 6%. At the same time, experts also do not recommend sniffing, since the infection can spread even further in the nasopharynx.
Researchers advise to simply wipe your nose, and for this purpose it is better to choose dry disposable handkerchiefs, since an ideal environment for the growth of bacteria is formed in a damp cloth. In extreme cases blowing your nose alternately from each nostril is permissible. According to experts, the main thing is to blow your nose not too often and without effort, opening your mouth slightly.