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Medical Forum / General / General / February 2004

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Scary sinus problem

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MB - 13 Feb 2004 18:21 GMT
I seem to have a nasty sinus infection, mostly in the upper sinus
(ethymoid--sp).

I feel lousy and have a sore throat. Anyway, I'm getting lots of yellow
gook. My problem is that I'm bleeding a
lot too. It seems I have no problems blowing out the gook (which provides
quite a bit of relief) but over the last few days the bleeding has
increased. Basically, every time I blow my nose, half the stuff is yellow
crap and now half seems to be fresh blood. I'm trying to blow gently, but if
I blow just enough to get everything out, the blood comes too. (It started
out as just a little blood but as I said it's more now). It also get in my
throat and I cough up blood (but clearly from a little bit of back nasal
drip).

I haven't seen any reference to bleeding in the sinusitis descriptions. Is
this unusual?? Or is it just a typical symptom?

My concern/fear of course is something more serious, like cancer.

Mel
anon - 14 Feb 2004 14:41 GMT
It sounds like you have a cold along with a nosebleed. The common cold
is indeed common this time of year. Cancer presenting in this manner
would be decidedly uncommon. I wouldn't lose any sleep over that at
this point, certainly. Dry winter air causes the lining of your nose
(and the tiny blood vessels within) to become more easily damaged by
blowing your nose, etc. You don't have to blow "hard" to cause a little
bleeding. In some cases, the blood can drain into your throat and thus
your stomach, causing some confusion, especially if someone throws up
and sees blood in their vomitus.

Many people who think they have a "sinus infection" merely have a cold,
which is a viral illness and not treatable with antibiotics. If your
symptoms have persisted for 10 days or more, or they are associated
with a fever, facial *pain* (not merely pressure), or shortness of
breath, then you may have something that warrants a visit to the
doctor. Otherwise, simply try to keep things out of your nose, use a
bit of vaseline petroleum jelly (applied gently with a q-tip) to the
area just inside your nose near the middle part of the nose - the
septum - which will coat the area that is most likely to bleed. Saline
(salt water) nasal spray) can also be used by virtually anyone to help
break up nasal mucus, but use it gently so as not to disloge any clots
and restart the annoying nosebleed.

> I seem to have a nasty sinus infection, mostly in the upper sinus
> (ethymoid--sp).
[quoted text clipped - 14 lines]
>
> My concern/fear of course is something more serious, like cancer.
Tom Burns - 14 Feb 2004 16:10 GMT
> It sounds like you have a cold along with a nosebleed. The common cold
> is indeed common this time of year.

You should go see an ENT specialist. I had the same problem which was
remedied by antibitics applied to the nasal passage. Sometimes the blood
vessels in the nose become very susceptible to bleeding. Do you notice
any scabing in the nose, or hard blood patches when you blow your nose?
You can try an OTC cream like polysporin, 3x daily to see if the
bleeding subsides.
anon - 14 Feb 2004 18:28 GMT
>> It sounds like you have a cold along with a nosebleed. The common cold
>> is indeed common this time of year.
>
> You should go see an ENT specialist.

An ENT specialist? You've got to be kidding me. You probably don't even
need to see a family practitioner, let alone a surgical subspecialist.
It never ceases to amaze me that people think they need a specialist
for every litle problem, yet these same people will turn around and
accuse doctors of not treating "the whole patient". Get yourself a good
family doctor, and learn when it's really necessary to see him/her and
when it's not. Then let them worry about when you need to see a
specialist. You'll save yourself a lot of time and aggravation, not to
mention money.
MB - 14 Feb 2004 19:19 GMT
Anon:

Thanks for your encouraging post. I did see my family doctor. He did look in
my nose and found a couple of spots (as you predicted, in the septum) where
is appears to be bleeding. I am also pretty sure it is bleeding elsewhere
higher up in the sinuses.

It is not like the usual gushing nosebleed. It;s just that the mucous has a
lot of blood in it. The mucous is also quite yellow.

He gave me a prescription for antibiotics, but we agreed that I should try
the salt water stuff and just see if I can't get it to resolve in about a
week. If not, we go with the antbiotics. Frankly, I am still concerned. The
bleeding is just unnerving, I guess! In addition to the bleeding, I keep
getting a slight headache between the eyes and also a feeling of eye
discomfort (kind of like I'm squinting, but I'm not -- perhaps it is
pressure). From what I can read, all of these symptoms appear to be very
consistent with a sinus infection. I'm sure it is more than a cold.

> >> It sounds like you have a cold along with a nosebleed. The common cold
> >> is indeed common this time of year.
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
> specialist. You'll save yourself a lot of time and aggravation, not to
> mention money.
 
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