Sinusitis is associtated with broken sleep, sleep apenea, and ADHD.
If she has been stopped up for a long time
she may have a fully developed biofilm extending forward from her
adenoids. Current antibotics are not really able to get to the biofilm
very well, because the bulk of it is above the surface and subject to
selective diffusion of blood borne factors like antibotics.
She will probably need surgery to clean out the bulk goo, while the
antibotic attacks the goo at the surface.
That said,you can give this a try.
She may be able to clear the stopped up side enough to breath by
holding something like Crest Antiplaque Rinse in her mouth and laying
on her back about 5 minutes or as long as she can stand it,  with the
plane of her ears an inch or two below the plane her shoulders.
Support her Head so that it is slightly down in other words, so that
the mouth wash can flow back into the space where the sinuses join the
espohagas. The she can sit up and sniff, sniff sniff, spit spit spit.
Be prepared to Repeat 15 or 20 times as you are probably looking at
loosening up and spitting out 4 or more ozs of goo, then she will be
able to blow.  Have her take some advil first because the mouth wash
will feel astringent and removing the goo will give her a dull
headache.
Once she has established an airpath you can have her snort xyitol and
mannose and might just be able to get an antibiotic nasal spray
prescribed, but the odds of that are probably 30/100.

Good luck

I guess I'm wondering why they wouldn't have you start the allergy
desensitization first?  It helps me a LOT, but you must be sure to get
an allergist who uses a rapid (3 mos.) schedule for desensitization and
keep doing it.  I inject my serum every two weeks.  It rids me of the
sinus clogging congestion and thickened mucous that my allergies cause.
I still have to irrigate and use a local antihistamine nasal spray.

If you start the shots first, she'll have a better shot, either with or
without surgery, whatever you decide.

Susan

How old is your daughter and how sick does she get with these sinus
infections?

If your idea is for her to just accept a few sinus infections per year
and treat each one with antibiotics, I can tell you that the latest
medical thinking is that this is going to be worse than futile in the
long run.  All you are going to end up doing is breeding bacteria that
are increasingly resistant to all the different antibiotics the doctor
can throw at her.  The fact that her sinuses are already chronically
blocked on one side makes this even more likely.  Or worse, allergic
reactions will develop.  Then those antibiotics will be ruined for use
in truly life-threatening infections that your daughter could get
someday.  Finally, for mild sinus infections, the latest statistics
have clearly shown that the benefit of antibiotics is marginal
anyway.  Because of all this, the latest 2006 medical guidelines in the
United Kingdom are to NOT prescribe antibiotics for acute sinusitis at
all, UNLESS the infection is truly severe.

So I would strongly advise you to consider if your daughter can take
having sinus infections and letting her immune system deal with them
eventually on its own, rather than hitting each one with antibiotics.
If so, and if your daughter doesn't mind being unable to breathe out
of that side of her nose, then fine.  But if she is so sick that she
needs an antibiotic each and every time, then that is NOT a
satisfactory approach.  Don't make the same mistake I did.  I've still
got my sinusitis but now I've also got the problem that no common oral
antibiotics work on me any more and I'm allergic to both the
penicillins and cephalosporins.

Now as to what to do:

1.  Get a second opinion from another ENT.

2.  The poster "Susan" already suggested starting allergy therapy immediately.  I agree that's desirable but I do not think it will fix your daughter's ethmoids by itself.  The vicious cycle of infection, inflammation, blockage, infection, etc., has to be broken and adequate drainage restored.  Other than surgery, her best bet for doing that is a course of oral steroids.  Ask the 2nd ENT about putting your daughter on Medrol for a while, in conjunction with the allergy therapy.  Steroids can shrink the swelling and inflammation enough to enable drainage, and then healing might be possible.  If the ethmoids are so badly involved that even steroids have no effect on them, then surgery starts to look like the best option.  But see what the 2nd ENT says.

3.  What is the outdoor and indoor air quality like where you live?  The fact that BOTH you and your daughter have chronic sinusitis is of concern to me.  If the air quality is poor, then it's no wonder that the sinuses are reacting to it.  It can lead to worse colds and other problems too.

For outdoor air quality, check the EPA's own monitoring reports at
www.scorecard.org

For indoor air quality, it would be worthwhile to pay a home inspector with experience in air quality (or even an industrial hygienist) to take a look.  The book "My House is Killing Me!", written by an expert home inspector, can be very enlightening:

http://www.myhouseiskillingme.com/

Again, aggressively dealing with these issues in conjunction with putting your daughter on steroids might have some benefit.

Good luck.

Andy,

I'm glad you declined the surgery. Please decline it for your daughter. All research seems
to show that surgery in the sinus area does little good.

Please look into the SCD diet as proposed in the book "Breaking The Vicious Cycle" by
Elaine Gottschall and using probiotics.

If you will do some research or googling on these subjects you will find much support for
probiotics and the SCD diet.

Before I started using the SCD diet and probiotics I use to have constant stuffy nasals,
sinus infections, etc. Now about 5 months into SCD diet (not completely followed but
close) and probiotics I have no sinus infections, no stuffy nasals, no colds, no virus
infections, etc. I'm in a different world and it's all because of SCD diet and probiotics.

Probiotics are sensitive and have to be taken first thing in the mornings when there is
less stomach acid and every day. I use Culturelle and Healthy Trinity and drink Kefir
several times every day. Amazing improvement to my over all health.

Good luck.

Worth a try other than surgery.

Billy Boy

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