With all modesty, I am a 40-something year-old woman that can be proud of my looks. Throughout my past, I was a extroverted young girl intensely responsive to the fact that I caused men to turn and look intently as I strolled. I never had a dilemma with the opposite sex. My problem was protective girlfriends. To date, 2 decades on, I still manage to attract men's interest.

But in the last ten years, things have been different. I have been disturbed by a huge case of bad breath. This is a thing that has restrained me greatly in every way. Because I was acutely aware of the problem, I felt my self-esteem go downwards. All my life, I have been devoted to sound oral hygiene, but the bad breath would simply not give me peace. In fact, it seemed to get worse over time.

Anxious to cure this problem, I tried everything. Different toothpastes and mouth washes. I changed my toothbrush every month. I could loose my keys and money, but would never leave home without my mini toothbrush and dental floss. I even chewed on parsley each morning for a time because I was told it was an ancient therapy. But no. Nothing helped.

With no Medicare or an alternative health insurance, I was I had to wait. Finally, I joined up all my savings to pay a visit to my dentist. Gum disease was detected. In fact, my gums are weak and bleed frequently, which has influenced the care of my teeth, which are weak, yellow and some are even shifting. I am clearly heading towards loosing some teeth. There didn't seem to be a raison d’être for this as it was obvious my oral hygiene practices were indeed admirable. So I was sent for a head scan. My dentist saw there was another cause there that had to be diagnosed.

The scan showed the situation was much more troubling than simple gum disease. It showed a mysterious coating that reached from my nasal cavity right down to my bronchus. Confused, my dentist sent me off for a battery of tests. With the results back, I was immediately recommended to a specialist.

The diagnosis was terrifying. The wrongdoer of my bad breath was nose drops. A full check-up showed that halitosis was the least of my troubles. And it all sunk in then.

Approximately 10 years ago, I recall getting a cold. Nothing special. It was a cold. Just a cold. I took the usual treatment from the chemist - an aspirin for the headache, drops for the nose, lots of lemon tea and a few hot baths.

But I remember it did take ages to disappear. So, I set off for the chemist to get anything stronger, and was recommended to go on with the nose drops to help me breathe better overnight.

I didn't see, then, just how long ago that was. All the basic symptoms withdrew, except the blocked nose. I continued with the nose drops, because I couldn't breathe without them.

That was 10 years ago. For 10 years, I have been stuck with nose drops. I never went for medical help to get over my addiction because I never understood this as an addiction. Nose drops! Who would have seen it would be so destructive?

All this time, I never envisioned so much trouble would come of this. But I now see the guilty party for my heavy head, bags under my eyes and a heavy chest. My throat is commonly filled with mucous, and my lungs can’t seem to take in all the air I need. Even climbing a set of stairs has become a test for me. My cardiovascular system has also been affected. Heart failure, also known as congestive heart failure, is a condition in which the heart can’t pump sufficient oxygenated blood to meet the requirements of the body's other organs. A heart attack, or myocardial infarction, is equally a possibility.

So, now I am getting ready for surgery. Four surgeries, to be exact. With a calculated time to heal of 6-9 months. It will feature a huge exercise program of body building, designed to strengthen my destroyed muscles and tendons.

I am paying a heavy price for my innocence. Had it not been for something as simple as halitosis, I would be paying much higher. Halitosis may seem a simple fiend that irks you for bad oral higiene, but it may well be the sneaky sign that something much more dangerous is damaging your health. At the end of the day, bad breath saved my life.

And to think that all this was brought on by just a cold that was not cured properly