Not with h.p. Jon, but I am now dipping my head down during irrigation.

Tom

===> jon banquer, you wrote"Tom, Have you tried Can Do's upside down
techniques with hydrogen peroxide ?

Over four weeks now of continued improvement for me ! :>)

jon" <===

Jon. I was wondering how you were doing. Don't want to bug you too much.
Glad to hear that you still improving. It takes a long time for damaged
sinus membranes to heal. Are you still getting discolored mucus? When the
mucus becomes almost totally clear most of the time, that'll be the sign
that the sinuses are healed, IMHO. At least, that is what happened to me.

There are now three people doing the "upside down" sinus flooding, at
http://www.healthboards.com/boards/showthread.php?t=129210 , James123,
darkman, and Becky123, with varying degrees of success. It seems, as though,
if someone just has infected sinuses, but doesn't have the allergic rhinitis
(hay fever), then all that is required is the "upside down" process. But if
someone has something like allergic rhinitis also, then there are other
steps that must be taken to get to wide open and well working sinuses. It is
a learning process for everyone, and we are all working together. No one has
all the answers, but, at least, we are getting good results!

Let me know how it is going, when you get a chance.

Thanks..... CanDo.

Thanks for the tip Don. The specialist did mention this, in fairness, but I
didn't see much change. That said, it's quite possible I didn't use it for long
enough, and I didn't use it indefinitely.

I'm seeing the doctor tomorrow so I guess I'll ty this again.

Tom

If Afrin is a decongestant like a Vicks Sinex, then yes. I have overused it by
some way, but what usually happens is the post-virus condition gradually gets
better, with longer periods between uses of the spray, and the I'll wake up one
morning  and not have to use it. This has been the pattern many times, but in
this most recent case it's proving more stubborn than  usual.

I do think I have allergy but in the UK there's no way you can get any sort of
decent allergy testing without paying (substantially) privately.

Thanks for your help -

Tom

Hey Ijah:

When I first read your post I honestly thought I was reading my own.
I can't believe how similar our symptoms are.  This is the story of my
life for the past few months wrapped up in a few paragraphs.

October I came down with some type of bug -- I'm not going to say
sinusitis or viral because nobody really gave me a definite diagnosis.
Zpak for 5 days got rid of the sore throat and discolored mucous but
it never really seemed to go away.  My nose remained dry, irritated
and very closed up.  This varied TREMENDOUSLY from day to day.  I
would feel so good some days that I would literally cancel my Dr's
appointments.  Then I would feel like crap, then good, then crappy
etc..

I considered it so minor that I didn't even see any more Doc's.  Then
xmas eve another bug hit me.  I decided not to take any antibiotics
and just keep it moist as all hell.  Nasal gels and saline sprays.
Within 5 days I felt almost normal again but the key word is ALMOST.
This went on for a few weeks but I felt so close to perfect that again
I didn't even see a doc.  Nasal gel kept me good most of the time and
the only crappy time was first thing in the AM.  I would irrigate
every AM & PM and use nasal gels all day long.  Again, I felt almost
perfect but the dry indoors would really set of my symptoms.  For
example I would come to work feeling great.  After about 1 or 2 hours
inside the dry heat my nose would get dry, burny, irriated and
swollen.  I felt like crap until I used some saline and applied the
nasal gel.

Exactly 7 days ago it hit me again but this time it kicked the crap
out of me.  My nose jammed up so bad that absolutely NOTHING was
getting in there.  The post nasal drip actually caused my to vomit!  
I immediately went on Levaquin and a few days later started with
Methylprednisonone & Rhinocort AQ.  Saw 3 different ENT's because I'm
about to kill myself and all of them basically told me that there was
no 'obvious' infection (not classic sigs of puss, discolored mucous
etc...).  My nose however was so jammed up that they could barely get
the endoscope up there even after the Afrin spray.  Everything is
swollen, raw and incredibly congested even today.  Sometimes my nose
is just very dry and painful but then a few minutes later it would
swell up and I blow my nose and a bucket of mucous comes out --- I've
literally gone through 10 boxes of tissues.  As of right now, my nose
is jammed shut with some very dry air getting up there.  I can't smell
or taste anything.  Here is what I'm doing:

1- 21 day course of Levaquin.  1 doc said it could just be a lingering
infection.  If Levaquin doesn't fully relieve my symptoms in 3 weeks
I'm probably going to switch to Avelox or Clindamycin.

2- Continue my Prednisolone unitl completed (another 2 days) and
Rhinocort AQ for as long as needed.

3- Here is by far the most important thing that I've been doing and
without it I would probably be dead by now.  Breathe-Ease XL nasal
gel!!!!  And lots of it.  I just ordered 10 tubes of the stuff -- not
kidding.  When my symptoms are not that severe this gel seems to
"cure" me for a few hours at a time.  Of course now that I'm
completely closed up, it doesn't have the same affect but it still
helps somewhat.

4- Saline spray.  Although it seems to do nothing, I'm going to keep
with it.

I feel for you and I don't know how you've been dealing with this for
9 weeks.  If I could say anything it would be to keep your nose moist
as all hell!!  Spray some saline in there, buy 100 tubes of
Breathe-Ease XL and use it, then spary more saline, then more XL ---
go through a tube a day if you have to but keep it as moist as
possible.

Let's keep in touch --- let me know what else you're doing and if
anything is even remotely helping.  Let me know what the docs say &
I'll certainly do the same.