Yabbut, I'm not following your doctor's logic.

It probably is safe to use tap water, but may not be as safe as
filtering and heating it.  Since I live where there's easy access to the
means to do both, it seems prudent.

I don't have to choose between not irrigating at all and irrigating with
cleaner water.

Susan

On 4/26/05 8:28 AM, in article
z6tbe.13668$lP1.8561@newsread1.news.pas.earthlink.net, "Steven L."
<sdlitvin@earthlinkNOSPAM.net> wrote:

Benefits include lowering the bacterial count, and thinning the mucus which
will allow the cilia to function - do their job of moving bacteria out of
your nose.
If you aren't using a Hydro Pulse to help restore cilia function, try
Humming: "oooommmmm"

Yes, but I was never completely cured.

Yes.

But because the MRI is not as good at imaging bone as the CT, it's not
going to offer any guidance to the surgeon.  (That's even more important
if you've already had sinus surgery once before, because the surgery
changed the anatomy of your sinuses.)  And it's so sensitive that it can
pick up artifacts as if they're actual disease.  It's generally used
only when invasive fungal sinusitis is suspected.

In my hard-won experience, the best way of viewing sinus disease is to
go for surgery and let the surgeon push his endoscope into every sinus
cavity while you're under general anesthesia.

Failing that, the CT scan, while not 100% reliable (as I and others can
attest), is the best they've got at this time.

Bactroban is very good for gram + infections;  it has no gram =
coverage at all.  So if your infection is caused by staph or strep or
another gram + organism then it should be effective.  It should be used
until you don't have symptoms.  I'm not so sure about long time use or
its ability to reach all of the sinuses.  I have used it a lot over the
years and seems to have totally lost its effectiveness.  Plus, if you
are only killing the gram + organisms, there will be more selection for
gram - organisms which can really be bad news.  But if is your first
time using it there should be no problem.  In people with long standing
problems, that's why I keep stressing direct sinus culures, not just
nose swabs.

   I think that possibly the false negative CT scans are more than
5-10% especially in ethmoid disease which many of the people on this
group that have been misdiagnosed have.   But then again, we may be the
5-10%.  I also kept getting mostly negative scans, but during surgery I
had extensive ethmoid disease.  Also most recently, I've had several
negative scans and have found out that they are "limited" so they
don't show everything.  I had a detailed scan done at National Jewish
about a year ago that did show "mild" chronic ethmoid sinusitis (even
after surgery) with reactive bone formation, which I have now found out
is from bone infection.  So you might want to see if you can get a more
detailed scan.  Make sure you get the results yourself though, because
noone informed me of this.   I personally think that it isn't the
amount that shows up on the scan, but what is actually up there.

   I don't think I would recommend sinus surgery unless the opening
are too small or you have polyps or something blocking the openings
that keep you from draining.  Even then I would suggest a culture to
see what is causing the problem.   You need to be on the right
antibiotic.   If you have surgery and the infection isn't cleared up
you could end up with infection in the bone.

  I would also recommend boiling the water you use for irrigation and
keeping it covered unless you are using premixed solutions.  I was
negligent about doing this and think that is the way I ended up with a
multiply resistant  "bug"    Some bacteria such as Pseudomonas and
Stenotrophomonas can  even be found in bottled water.  I think
distilled water is OK.  You're not likely to get something like this
unless you've been on  lots of antibiotics or are immunocompromised.

    It is also possible that you  have allergic fungal sinusitis, and
all the antibiotics in the world are not going to help unless you get
rid of the fungus that is causing the problem.   Both my latetest ENT
and ID doctor say that fungi are difficult to culture in many typical
hospital laboratories.

   Finally, I've done extensive research on chronic sinusitis and have
come to the conclusion that there are about as many opinions as to what
causes it as there are doctors.  Seems to me like we're still in the
"dark ages" when dealing with sinusitis.

(These are just my opinions dealing with years of sinus problems that
have gone under diagnosed and led to many complications.)

Good luck!!

Kathyw

He was saying the former.

There has been one study that suggests that Bactroban irrigation may be
helpful in sinusitis patients suffering from MRSA.  That seems to be
about it.

Correct

Because the Dr told me to do it the way I described.

I just read

I find for myself that a fine mist from an atomizer works better than an
Ocean type squirt bottle. The squirt bottle shoots too big a stream of fluid
which then runs down my throat or out my nose. My infections are usually in
my front and maxillary sinuses so the fine mist works well.

Bactroban can get very expensive if you have an 80.00 copay for a 3 month Rx
and you also use it on your skin.
btw-Teva has just started making a generic form of Bactroban. I have a tube
but haven't used any yet.     AW