A strange thing happened yesterday and the “symptoms” are too common to come up with something useful.
It happened 3 times, and I knew it had happened before, though I could not say when or how often. (Obviously not that often).
Three times yesterday (in the morning, early afternoon and evening) I got this intense pressure bordering on pain at the top of my right nostril (so close to my right eye). This was accompanied by a strange feeling in my head, I think the right side which I don’t think I have the right word for, maybe tightness (?).
The first time it happened I knew I would have to vomit soon even though I do not recall any upset in the tummy area. Which is what happened all three times (though only the third was successful). Upon going to the bathroom and horking a few times the sumptoms would go away.
Possibly relevant history points: I used to get migraines complete with vomiting (which fortunately seem to have been replaced in recent years by ocular migraines with no vomiting.
I have what the doctor called (more than 10 years ago) allergic rhinitis which causes me to sneeze in the morning, and now that my cleaning lady has not been visiting due to the lock-down, I have been sneezing much more.
I have sinus issues. I do not know to what degree this is intertwined with the rhinitis. I have post nasal drip, again, I do not know if this is connected with the above issues.
So, any thoughts as to what might have happened here, or any suggestions to where I should start looking?
IANAD, but I have long-term allergic rhinitis, and it certainly sounds like a severe case of that. The blocked sinuses, sneezing, and post nasal drip will all be due to it.
Antihistamines and a nasal spray keep it under control for me. Modern antihistamines don’t make you drowsy, or at least not as much as the old ones.
Sneezing is a daily phenomenon and it does get worse when my flat is dusty like now. It’s something I just live with, I just use up plenty of kitchen paper. (Meaning to say that as is, I don’t think the situation is so severe it warrants a permanent management system).
I have no idea about the vomiting, but coughing is common with allergic rhinitis.
It really sounds to me like it’s severe enough to do something about. It may be affecting your sleep as well, if you’re having trouble breathing at night.
See a doctor, anyway.
Or if you can’t easily see a doctor, go to a pharmacy and ask them for their recommendations for allergic rhinitis. Antihistamines and nasal sprays are cheap and available without a prescription at pharmacies (at least where I am).
This is probably not the same thing, but when I’m having sinus/allergy problems, I’ll have so much junk in the back of my throat that it will trigger coughing, then the gag reflex kicks in, then I sing lunch.
Until you get in to see a real doctor (as opposed to my degree from the Medical College of Google, which is not valid where you live), a couple of thoughts:
Doesn’t sound like nasal crud dripping back and triggering your gag reflex; although the location of the pain DOES suggest something sinus-related.
My first thought when you described it was that it’s some sort of referred pain - the thing that is actually unhappy is not tne nose, but that’s where you feel it. I was curious as to whether GERD (reflux) could do that, and I didn’t get anything describing your situation but I found a few that were suggestive of GERD triggering nasal symptoms in general. Maybe try some antacids, or proton pump inhibitors (Prilosec, Nexium etc.), for a day or two if this persists.
Decades ago, I went to see an ear, nose and throat doctor and he took X-rays of my head and found a golf-ball sized cyst in my sinuses right behind the right eyeball. Told me to come back in 3 months for more X-rays, at which point the cyst had flown the coop. Where’d it go? I asked. Beats me, he said, like it happens all the time (maybe it does). This is the same guy that put gauze pads – treated with some banana-smelling shrink medicine – far up my nose to have a look around; when he came back to extract them for the exam, he couldn’t find them. Where’d they go? I asked. You probably swallowed them. Until the banana-smelling shrink medicine wore off (about a half hour), I had the best breathing through my nose experience of my entire life.
This happens to me, too, but not in the instance I am talking about. There was no sneezing or coughing at the time, just intense pressure (almost pain) in the nose, strange pressure feeling in my head, and a “knowledge” that this happened before and that it would lead to vomiting. No tummy upset either.
@Mama_Zappa (I tried to do the “quote” thing but it didn’t work). I do have what I think is GERD, either in the form of actual food coming back up or really really intense pain in the chest.
It never crossed my mind that the pressure/ pain could be referred.
Thanks for the advice and thinking points, everyone!
Chiming in with unsolicited and potentially unusable advice
Have you tried regularly using a neti pot to mitigate your typical symptoms? I only bring it up because it’s one of those things that legitimately changed my life and I can’t shut up about it, especially to a captive audience on an internet messageboard!
