I have had a sinus infection for the last three months. For two of those months I was on antibiotics and they would knock the infection down but never get completely rid of it. A week after my last round of antibiotics (augmentin) I’m still having pain, getting some blood when I blow my nose, but not much else for discharge.
I have chronic, hard to get rid of sinus infections every few years. My GP has recommended that I consider sinus surgery.
In various combinations I’ve tried antibitiocs, cortical steroid sprays, saline flushes and antihistamines. I smoke about 5-7 cigarettes every three days (can’t quit) and this latest infection was complicated by smoke from forest fires.
Can anyone give tips or suggestions or reports of the success of their sinus surgery?
Thanks,
whistlepig
I had sinus surgery in February. I don’t know if I’ll be much help to you…so far my experience has been mixed.
I have had chronic, reocurring sinus infections for years now. No one ever suggested sinus surgery for them until I finally got referred to the sinus specialist when I complained to my GP that I wasn’t sleeping well and I thought I might have apnea. We scheduled a sleep study and a CAT scan at that time. I had the CAT scan which showed a deviated septum, narrow sinus passages, and a cyst in one of my sinuses. The doctor said she was amazed that I could breath through my nose at all. We were jumping through the insurance company’s pre-approval hoops when I found out that I was pregnant. That put everything on hold until the baby was born. (The last trimester of my pregnancy was a nightmare due to the sinus problems, but that’s a different story)
Anyway, as soon as the baby was born and I was recovered enough that my Obstetrician thought it was safe, I scheduled my surgery. It was quick and easy outpatient surgery. I went in at 8:00 AM and was home by 1:30 that afternoon. There was very minor swelling and my nose hurt to touch, but the only way you could tell I’d had surgery was that I had gauze taped under my nose to catch drips for the first day or so.
The reason I say it’s been mixed is that I’ve still had sinus infections for the past few months and I still snore like the dickens and have trouble sleeping. I do breath easier when I’m upright though, and I can’t say that the trouble sleeping isn’t from apnea or weight related or any of a zillion other things because I haven’t had the sleep study done yet. The sinus infections *could[/] be because of having a kid in daycare and me catching all of his bugs.
I have another follow-up appt. at the end of this month, and if there is no improvement, I’ll have another CAT scan to see if the surgery fixed all the issues in there since they haven’t been able to use the scope due to the sinus infections. Depending on what the scan shows, I may have to have another surgery or other treatments (medication or whatever), or I may just have the sleep study done and go from there.
When Iwas a teen, I had endoscopic surgery on my sinuses to remove polyps…LOTS of polyps. I had been seeing allergists and allergy specialists for a long time (and I do have allergies) but my mom took me to an ENT doc finally, who looked at me and said I was developing a “mouth breather” look to me because, well, I always breathed through my mouth. This means a more jutting chin, differnt jaw and cheekbone development, etc.
Anyhow, the surgery was an amazing blessing. Before, I breathed through my nose so rarely that it was amost anovelty. Afterward it felt like I had wind rushing through the grand canyon of my sinuses every time I breathed in. It was a wondrous new experience for me. And yes, the insurance companies are pains in the ass about paying for this most of the time…the doc will often have to word things just right in order to get it approved.
I had 2 procedures on my sinuses.
The first was to correct a deviated septum (and also remove an infected cyst). I had been getting reoccuring sinus infections for about 4 months. I saw an ENT who ordered a MRI that showed the problems. Surgery was no big thing and I had a headache for the first 2 days. The rest of the recovery period felt like I was just stuffy for the next month, but it did the trick.
The 2nd procedure was having my turbinates cauterized. I was having problems with them swelling all the time. So my ENT recommended cauterizing them. I had the procedure done and again was stuffy for about a month afterward, but it seemed to help. I later found that I had allergies (though I never tested positive for anything the 2 times I was tested by an allergist).
So now I’m on Zyrtec and Nasonex spray and that seems to keep me in the clear for the most part, but even now as I’m typing this I know I have a sinus infection. The only saving grace about this is that it’s the first one I’ve had this year, so I’m not really doing all that bad on the whole.