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Medical Forum / Diseases and Disorders / Sinusitis / March 2007Swollen Turbinates and Sinusitis
Hi, I'm new to this board and wondering if anyone here has had similar experiences to my own. I've been dealing with sinusitis symptoms for 6 months now, going through various phases: post-nasal drip leading to very sore throat, headaches, couch, congestion, feeling sick, allergies, etc. I have a deviated septum and a turbinate spur on the right side but the doctors do not think it needs to be operated on. For the last two months or so most of the above problems have subsided, except that I have been left with some very swollen turbinates, that often completely block my airways, esp on the right side (my PCP said they looked like two big slabs of raw meat). I am being treated for sinus infections with anitbiotics. The antibiotics seem to help in that I feel much better and my mucus turns clear, but the swollen turbinates remain. I am 27 male and have never had anything like this occur previously. Right now I am taking Levaquin, MucinexD, Clarinex, and doing saline rinses (NetiPot) 2xday. I have been to the ENT and allergist but they can't seem to give me an answer as to why the turbinates have decided to swell up so much, and they don't think the sinus infection is causing it, though the resulting congestion is leading to me getting infected repeatedly. Anybody ever had anything similar happen to them? I'm thinking of stopping the saline rinses, even though everybody says they are safe (I use distilled water with pure canning salt) and probably necessary to rinse out the mucus in my current situation, because I'm out of ideas otherwise. Thanks in advance, Scott The lining of your nose heals rapidly unless biofilm bacteia have penetrated the surface cells. If they have set up shop there, you have to take the Levaquin for at least three weeks until the infected surface cells slough off. The Levaquin will keep the bacteria from invading the new cells as they are exposed by the sloughing of the old ones. A word about "pickling salt" if it is alum you might be on the right track to eliminate it. Alum is aluminum potassium sulfate and was very drying and irritating when I had the bright idea to use it in my nasal wash. An emulsion of liquid coconut oil, boiled water, vitiman C and xyitol and Zantac (the old OTC tummy med) is about the least irritating set of things that you can use to rinse your nose out with. Find a concentration of each that feels good to you and is soothing. you can also add just a drop of peppermint. Disolve the xyitol and vitiman C in the hot water. Put the coconut oil in a clean blender and add the water a little at a time while blending to finely mix the oil and water. Use it before it seperates and clean your equipment with Dawn and rinse really well. twice a day at least 3 hours before bed, because otherwise the crawling sensation of the film retracting interfers with trying to sleep. Use Vitiman C in your mouth, let it diffuse into your sinuses, sniff, sniff, sniff, spit spit spit to clean out an airpath before bed. Dannon's "immunity" can be used in the same way. Wear a mask as much as practical to heat and humidify your nose. The bad bugs don't like heat. Hum an hour a day. Get a Zapper. > The lining of your nose heals rapidly unless biofilm bacteia have > penetrated the surface cells. If they have set up shop there, you have [quoted text clipped - 34 lines] > > Get a Zapper. Thanks for the advice. I have not heard about "biofilms" (the ENTs haven't mentioned them to me), sounds frightening and I'll look into it. Last night I went and ordered some Breathe-Ease XL saline rinse formula; they claim it's better than just salt for the cilia. Humming?? Does that work and why?? On 3/21/07 9:03 PM, in article 1174536211.851843.146590@e65g2000hsc.googlegroups.com, "truehawk" > Wear a mask as much as practical to heat and humidify your nose. The > bad bugs don't like heat. It is beneficial to warm the air when you sleep with mask or under the blanket. This often opens the nose. > On 3/21/07 9:03 PM, in article > 1174536211.851843.146...@e65g2000hsc.googlegroups.com, "truehawk" [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > It is beneficial to warm the air when you sleep with mask or under the > blanket. This often opens the nose. Sure, I'll try wearing a mask, though it seems counterintuitive to me. I think that would hinder the expelling of germs via breating. And if the germs have already infected my body, it seems they can withstand body temperature heat just fine. > Hi, > [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > turbinates, that often completely block my airways, esp on the right > side (my PCP said they looked like two big slabs of raw meat). Get a second opinion from another ENT. And then, if necessary, get a third opinion. Asymmetric symptoms like that (turbinates much more swollen on one side) suggests a problem that can and should be corrected surgically. Oh God, here we go again. This is like the proverbial broken record. Poster after poster comes to this NG with the exact same story that you have: 1. The patient is chronically sick. 2. The symptoms are worse on one side than the other. 3. But the CT scan doesn't show definite evidence of sinus disease. 4. So the ENT says "I don't 'think' you need surgery" 5. And he sends the patient home to suffer some more. This happened to me too. I had a negative CT scan and I had to try four different ENTs before I found one who understood that asymmetric symptoms are indicative of chronic sinusitis no matter what the CT scan showed. And when he operated on me, he found the sinus disease that the CT scan had failed to detect. And every time we have to explain that sinusitis is difficult to diagnose accurately, even by trained ENTs; that CT scans have a 5-10% rate of false negatives and can easily miss things; that no treatment for chronic sinus disease has proven as effective as surgery at this time. It's *NOT* a criticism of you, believe me. It's just that we keep hearing the same damn pathetic story from patients over and over and over, and we then have to keep explaining this, over and over and over. I wish I could just set up this NG to just autopost this stuff once and for all, every single day!  SignatureSteven D. Litvintchouk Email: sdlitvin@earthlinkNOSPAM.net Remove the NOSPAM before replying to me. When the ENT operated on you... was he correcting something in your nose or merely doing exploratory surgery to look for an infection? The full story is even more pathetic. I have actually been to three ENT's, all of whom failed to diagnose the infection. It wasn't until I saw an allergist and he actually examined my mucus that he figured out I was infected. When I went later went back to one of the ENT's and informed him of this, all he said was "but the sinus scan didn't show an infection". It seems that ENT's rely very heavily on what the sinus cat scan says. If anybody here is from the Dallas, TX area and knows a good ENT feel free to share his name. > octo...@hotmail.com wrote: > > Hi, [quoted text clipped - 50 lines] > Email: sdlit...@earthlinkNOSPAM.net > Remove the NOSPAM before replying to me. I've had very similar symptoms to the original poster that have hit me one-by-one for the last year. The only additional symptom that I've experienced, and my least favorite of the bunch, is the "brain cloud" feeling that many others have described in other posts. They have never let up despite antibiotics and a good amount of time... The last ENT I saw actually suggested surgery, but only to correct what he described as "structural" problems (deviated septum & enlarged turbinate). My CT scans also showed very little as far as any actual sinus decease. I don't actually have any problem breathing through either airway, just a minor stuffed up feeling most all the time. I'm seeking additional opinions before I decide to go under the knife. I actually had a thread on the subject here: http://groups.google.com/group/alt.support.sinusitis/browse_thread/thread/8f660e 8c47a385b0?lnk=igtc Dyger, Actually yes, I have experienced the "brain cloud" for a long time, very difficult to function day-to-day with that, you have my sincere sympathy. That, thankfully, has disappeared as of late, maybe because of the antibiotics. I just gave a brief overview of symptoms in my original post. I also had the strong headaches you mentioned in your post, wrapping around my head, and I too almost went to the ER before I knew what was going on. One doctor noted that I was grinding my teeth strongly (which can happen from stress) and thought that might have been producing tension headaches. He could have been right. Currently, though I've gone through a variety of symptoms, right now the prominent ones left are swollen turbinates and mild feelings of fatigue and sickness. I also have a deviated septum (much more so than the "normal" amount) and a turbinate spur. However, the doctors don't think that is the problem, and I can see why: I've probably had those for most of my life, so why would they suddenly become problems at age 27? I can also breathe fairly okay at the moment, but I think that is because the antihistamines and other drugs have dried my nose to the point that air can flow through the small gaps not completely shut off from the swollen turbinates. Right now I think the problem is either a biofilm that someone above mentioned, or allergies. But do allergies commonly cause massively swollen turbinates, without the sneezing and puffy eyes and all that? Because I have no other symptoms to suggest allergies, and yes I have been tested for allergies, and I stay away from the grasses and weeds that irritate me. It sounds like I'm going to be doing a lot of research on my own (instead of just going to the doctor) for the next couple weeks. Just a comment i thought about while in this thread. Basically, there are two types of antibiotics: bacteriocidal (very strong-acting, kill the disease by their presence; penicillins, quinolones) and bacteriostatic (slow-acting, stop the bacteria from multiplying and it dies of "old age"; an immune system usually is given a chance to "clean up" an infection that is no longer overwhelming it.) Basically, the bactericidal antibiotics are better for treating illness, have more side effects. They should be more effective against disease in places like sinus, but there is a place for the bacteriostatic antibiotics as well. |
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