nasal drip starting right after cold

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marlacomm@hotmail.com - 10 Feb 2008 15:15 GMT

Did any of you ever hear of chronic sinusitis with postnasal drip
starting immediately after a cold? That's what happened to me in late
Sept 2005 after I caught a very bad flulike illness (bad cold,
unbearable sore throat fever, cough, dizziness). The acute illness got
better after a week, but the postnasal drip that still plagues me
started right after that illness got better.

I never had asthma, sinus problems or any nasal allergies except very
mild hayfever that required no treatment until I caught that unlucky
cold. Colds I caught before that one never had any lasting effects and
got better within the expected time frame.

Is it possible that what was going around in late Sept 2005 was not
just an ordinary respiratory virus (the doctors on this list may know
something)? When lasting postnasal drip starts right after a cold,
what causes it?

Thanks to those of you who can answer my questions.

Marla Comm

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ellen - 10 Feb 2008 18:56 GMT

marlac...@hotmail.com wrote:

> Did any of you ever hear of chronic sinusitis with postnasal drip
> starting immediately after a cold? That's what happened to me in late
[quoted text clipped - 16 lines]
>
>Marla Comm

marla,

i'm the least qualified/knowledgeable person who posts here, but any
long lasting/continuous postnasal drip issue sure sounds like chronic
sinusitis. the cold may have created the right conditions for a
persistent infection.

but to those who respond to the questions about the postnasal drip, i
also have a question. i've always thought that postnasal drip =
sinusitis, but is that always the case? can you have that symptom
without underlying infection?

ellen

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Steven L. - 10 Feb 2008 20:43 GMT

> but to those who respond to the questions about the postnasal drip, i
> also have a question. i've always thought that postnasal drip =
> sinusitis, but is that always the case? can you have that symptom
> without underlying infection?

There are many, many causes of post nasal drip.

http://www.entnet.org/healthinfo/nose/nasal.cfm

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Shirley ann - 11 Feb 2008 11:40 GMT

My MD recommends me to use a saline rinse at night as I usually see him
once a winter with a sinus infection.

He says a saline rinse is good for allergies that I breathe in during
the day.

shirleyann

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Steven L. - 10 Feb 2008 20:40 GMT

> Did any of you ever hear of chronic sinusitis with postnasal drip
> starting immediately after a cold? That's what happened to me in late
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
> something)? When lasting postnasal drip starts right after a cold,
> what causes it?

With any cold, the tissues of the upper respiratory tract are infected
and inflamed. Scientific research has revealed that even after the
symptoms of the cold seem to have disappeared, the patient continues to
shed virus up to *three weeks* later. That's how long the infection
takes to heal completely--all that diseased and inflamed tissue has to
be sloughed off. If a secondary bacterial infection invades the
sinuses, it can take even longer to clear that out.

In your case, it sounds like it never healed completely.

Have you had a CT scan to see what's happening inside your sinuses?

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marlacomm@hotmail.com - 11 Feb 2008 01:59 GMT

Steven:
I have a requisition for one, but our Canadian health care system
sucks. I was told I'd have to wait 3 months or more to get an
appointment in a hospital to have a scan.
-Marla

> Have you had a CT scan to see what's happening inside your sinuses?
>
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
>
> - Show quoted text -

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Steven L. - 10 Feb 2008 20:44 GMT

> Did any of you ever hear of chronic sinusitis with postnasal drip
> starting immediately after a cold? That's what happened to me in late
> Sept 2005 after I caught a very bad flulike illness (bad cold,
> unbearable sore throat fever, cough, dizziness). The acute illness got
> better after a week, but the postnasal drip that still plagues me
> started right after that illness got better.

What color is the postnasal drip?

Is it clear, yellow, green, what?
Is your problem one of excessive drip, or that the drip is thick and sticky?

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marlacomm@hotmail.com - 11 Feb 2008 02:10 GMT

Steven:
The drip ranges from clear but has a lot of green and yellow pieces. A
few are so hard they feel almost like stones. Others are the
consistency of chewing gum. Even the clear mucus is stringy and ropy,
very thick and sticky . I wonder if some hard crap got stuck in my
sinuses during or just after the cold and they're secreting all that
mucus to try to get rid of them.

This drip has been a constant scourge since that cold I mentioned and
never went away despite antibiotics (which just screwed my digestiive
system up) and steroid sprays.

In addition to that I sometimes feel pressure in my upper nose and
around my cheeks. I also hear crackling sounds coming from the upper
part of my nose. People even tell me they can hear it when I talk.

I tried saline rinses that are sold in spray cans. Now and then a hard
chunk comes out, but the drip is still there. I have a feeling there
are more pieces stuck down there that my sinuses can't get rid of.

The drip is causing so much distress because the mucus I swallow
upsets my stomach and the mucus that runs down my throat left me with
an irritable airway. I never had asthma type problems before this drip
business. On this group I read about others who mentioned airway
issues starting when the sinusitis did.

I didn't mention this before, but for reasons too complex to go in
here (my disability and sensory abnormality being one of them), I have
a decision to limit medical tests to noninvasive ones like simple
blood tests and CT scans (will do rhinoscope if I have right kind of
doctor who understands my situation) and other interventions to
treatments for infections and comfort measures only for serious
illnesses like cancer, autoimmune disease or any serious accidental
injury if I ever sustain one.

> What color is the postnasal drip?
>
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> Email: sdlit...@earthlinkNOSPAM.net
> Remove the NOSPAM before replying to me.

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truehawk - 11 Feb 2008 04:14 GMT

On Feb 10, 9:10 pm, marlac...@hotmail.com wrote:

> Steven:
> The drip ranges from clear but has a lot of green and yellow pieces. A
[quoted text clipped - 40 lines]
> > Email: sdlit...@earthlinkNOSPAM.net
> > Remove the NOSPAM before replying to me.

Marla:

Is Bactroban ointment available over the counter there?

I ask because the clear strong ropey mucus, which makes you ill when
swallowed, is characteristic of the fibrin mucus staph produces from
blood. The staph along with other species of bacterial anchor
themselves in a sort of drilling rig attached to the surface where
cilia have been killed. Since they are protected from the bloodstream
by a goo barrier immune cells have a hard time reaching them, and the
bacteria are a 100 times more resistant to antibotics once the film
up. So you have to attack them from both underneath and on the
surface. Staph also produces a toxin which causes nausea.
Look down below at the discussions of tannin tea washes. These could
be even more effective with the Bactroban.
I also use Prilosec for the nausea, and it seems to make the other
medicines more effective.

Isn't McGill University in your city?
You are lucky!
They seem to have the done a good deal of work on biofilms, so I would
try to see an ENT
associated with McGU, not an option for most of us.

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marlacomm@hotmail.com - 11 Feb 2008 15:06 GMT

truehawk (sorry, I don't know your actual name):

Unfortunately, we can't get Bactroban over the counter here.

Thanks for the info about the Staph. Are those chewing gum consistency
pieces also biofilm? I forgot to mention this before, but the mucus
has been tasting extremely salty since I started with this chronic
sinusitis, much saltier than normal nasal discharge. Swallowing this
mucus is also like drinking salt water, which they say can cause upset
stomachs (people who are short of water are advised not to drink sea
water because of the salt). What causes the mucus to have a higher
salt concentration?

One more question. Could something have killed the sinus cilia when I
had that original bad cold?

We do have McGill university here. M. Desrosiers, the ENT who worked
on the biofilm research, is here, but people who want appointments
have to wait months. These doctors are also reluctant to take new
cases because their practices are full.

If I lived in New York, I'd try to see Dr. Tichenor, who seems to be
really up on the latest minimally invasive treatments.

I would also like to get a nebulizer and try the inhaled antibiotic
therapy, but don't know where I can buy one without an MD
prescription.
-Marla

> Marla:
>
[quoted text clipped - 21 lines]
>
> - Show quoted text -

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truehawk - 12 Feb 2008 00:02 GMT

On Feb 11, 10:06 am, marlac...@hotmail.com wrote:

> truehawk (sorry, I don't know your actual name):
>
[quoted text clipped - 50 lines]
>
> > - Show quoted text

The chewing gum consistency pieces are pieces of biofilm. The
bacteria make an extracelluar polysacride which is most often
alginate, the same stuff used to make gummybears. The source of salt
in the salty mucus is the blood that the staph is using to make the
mucus.
The flu kills the cilia, leaving the area open to infection by staph
and other "normal flora" who happen to be around..
The flu is self-limiting, but the subsequent bacterial infection is
not. It may presist for years and become a pest, or less often I
think, it may be killed off by other bacteria or phages.
Keifer and yogurt containing live cultures, or even a strong cheese of
the non-blue variety seem to help, but the thing that has helped me
the most is the center membrane from between the nutmeats of pecans. A
full discription of the preparation and use is in some of the earlier
threads. I have tried everything from toothpaste, to Listerine to EDTA
to Crystal lite Lemonade to cut the gunk out of the back of my throat
opposite my soft palate, and as an irrigation medium, and by far the
most gentle and effective is holding a pecan center membrane in my
mouth while I sleep, and making up the hypertonic tannin tea as a
wash.

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