Sinus infection???

[Lucy]

If you have them, do they just start out with chills and hot flashes with sweats, and nothing more?
That's the way mine tend to come on.
This time, I was sneezing with a little more feeling (ha) every once in a while, but nothing serious, so in the rush to get all the work done prior to the evacuation, guess I just didn't bother to take any prophalactic medication. Mild sneeze with THAT feeling again during our stay in Ft. Worth, and then, it came back after we were home, so these things take forever for me to put the symptoms together, particularly when I'm distracted.

Other than the occasional sneeze, and now a rare sort of dry cough, and once or twice awakening with a slight full feeling in the area of the bridge of my noise, the only other respiratory symptom I've had is a feeling that there's a lesion or something moving in the area between the bridge of my nose and my eye.

I've noticed that any exertion whatsoever will bring on the hot flashes with sweats, particularly around my face and the back of my neck at the hairline, and if I drink a coke with ice in it, that will trigger a cold chill or maybe if the room temp gets a little too low.

As soon as I put a wet wash cloth on the parts that are perspiring the hot flashes stop fairly quickly, and as soon as I cover myself with something, the chills disappear as quickly as they arrived. I only took one Tylenol on the first day I realized that I was really, and slept very hard afterwards, so I know the starting and stopping of the hot to cold to hot bit isn't related to any medication.

In the beginning, I took just one of the plain guafinacin (sp) tablets just to see if the sinuses would drain (my nose was never stuffy or runny like a cold at all) from high up. I really didn't notice anything significant, but seemed to get better for a short time afterwards.

Other stuff I'm taking includes a spray steroid that I take once per day, and a new antihistimine that I've been taking once a day. I really should've called the compound pharmacist to see if these things are ok on the diet for my food reactions -- perhaps I'll get a chance and feel like calling tomorrow. Sure hope they're ok to take.

OK, anyone else not have any respiratory symptoms until they're running a fever, and notice hot and cold spells as the first sign that they are ill?

I'm hoping that it won't be necessary to resort to antibiotics to get rid of this stuff, but I've got to take something to keep the sinuses way up there drained so that things up there can heal.

Something else I forgot to mention is that I sleep VERY hard with this stuff, and when I awaken, am a bit foggy in the brain, and my balance is terrible -- no sense of the direction of the floor then, and to a lesser extent at other times. Do you suppose it's just the inner ear getting involved with the infection?

Good night!
Yours, Luce

[annie oakley]

Luce...my doc gave me flonase to losen all that crap up there in the nose. It really helped me to breathe better...but is is RX. I hate Antibiotics also but sometimes we need them. I hope that you get better soon. You could try what my Mom used to make us do as kids.......Put Eucalyptus oil in a bowl of steamy water and a towel over our head and breathe deeply. I use about 4 drops to a 2qt bowl. If it's too strong use less oil. It will open up the sinuses. Great before bedtime. Love Oma

[Matthew]

Lucy

My symptoms of a sinus infection are similar but not quite as severe. Since it has been a while since I have had sinus problems I would have to say that the major symptoms were pressure under the eyes, green discharge with flecks of blood and a general feeling of being out of whack and off balance. I can’t remember having chills or fever but it seems to me entirely possible in a bad case.

I work in an environment where wood dust is always a problem. This can result in chronic sinus problems if one is not paying attention. I work with the problem by having good dust extraction, by wearing a variety of dust or chemical masks depending on what I am doing and by devoting the end of the day to cleaning the shop. Even then my sinuses can be a problem, particularly in the winter when the shop is closed up and the city is dry, windy and dusty. A regular program of flushing out my sinuses has prevented any problems for many years

Polly in an earlier post recommended cleaning the sinuses with a saline solution, a technique I have used for years with great success, even if I feel like an infection has started or is full blown. HaHa that a pretty good pun. I origninally found this very effective flushing system on Dr. Weil’s site. Dr. Weil explains the particulars in this link.

http://www.drweil.com/u/QA/QA326609/

I have never tried the astragalus since the flushing works so well for me and I am afraid of what it might do to my digestion.

I hope you try it for a while. It can be pretty gross if you have a lot of build up but I guess by now we are all pretty used to gross thing coming out of us.

My best

Matthew

[Lucy]

Thanks, Oma and Matthew,

I've about decided that I have some sort of virus. It feels like a flu shot can sometimes make you feel only several times worse. I now think that I don't have a sinus infection or else I would've had more drainage or more head discomfort. Basically, I just have the hot flash sweats, feel that jittery feeling inside like I always feel when I have a virus and sometimes after the vaccine, and I've had the wind knocked out of my sails for quite a while lately. Whenever I inhale deeply, I get a quick, spontaneous dry cough right away, but only cough one time and not loudly.

I'd like to be having my flu vaccine soon, but now (if they've arrived yet) I'll have to wait til I'm free of fever a few days, not that I've actually gotten out a thermometer. Ha!

Matthew, do you feel like you're living on the North Pole all of a sudden? We had quite a temperature drop yesterday -- front wasn't quite supposed to make it this far but it did.
Think it was gone by today. Anyway, stay warm and well.

Thanks again.
Yours, Luce