I'm a Sjogren's gimp (mine is severe, systemic, and accompanied by a slew of other autoimmune issues) with 3 years of med school behind my broken back, so... this is just my opinion as a med geek but even moreso as a sufferer that has had all kinds of Sjogren's problems.

I agree that you definitely don't want to overdo the sprays... rhinocort, pulmicort, etc... if you use too much for very long, your body gets tolerant and stops producing its own corticosteroids, so... careful and conservative with that and prednisone!! Even the nasal spray will deliver some to your bloodstream, just like injections of it at the joints (which I've had)...

Mucinex=good stuff. If you have Sjogren's, I recommend taking it every day-it is good preventative medicine for Sjogren's, allergies, and even smoke exposure (first or second hand) as it keeps the mucous thin and less likely to get infected... depending on how much you're already taking, 4 a day of them is perfectly normal, and honestly, you can go really high for it-they give megadoses for fibromyalgia, for example, with very few people having side effects aside from a runny drippy nose, which you'd probably kiss the ground in New York City to have right now.

Try Theratears nutrition--it's a supplement made by the same people whose eye drops my eye docs swear by (and they're big on the supplement, too)-very highly controlled marine lipid oil, flaxseed oil, vitamin E... good for eyes, nose, throat... BUT only take 1 a day, not the 3-you don't want to overdo the vitamin E in particular.

If you are taking supplements by means of vitamins, they could be causing problems... even Vitamin C pills are a big bad no-no (I teach college Nutrition classes... while vitamin C in JUICE is great-it's an antioxidant etc-in pill form, it's actually a pro-oxidant that can do a lot of harm). Folic acid, on the other hand, I would recommend...

If you have Sjogren's (I can't tell from this post whether you do or whether it's just a possibility), a couple more things could help: Plaquenil (an antimalarial DMARD) and Evoxac (which stimulates the parasympathetic glands, causing spit and to lesser extents tears and mucous to be produced in better levels). If the prednisone is chronic, please, for your bones' sake, taper the level down. If it's just a dosepack, 20mg is alright. You don't want to stay on that for long at all if you can help it, though 5mg/day is an okay amount in the long run to prevent more problems...

Sorry this is so disjointed; I'm having a bad flare-up and very distracted by my digestive tract being kind of ... upset... today, so I'm typing in a hurry so I can race to the bathroom in case it (again) catches me off guard.

Feel free to email me if you have questions about anything related to autoimmune illnesses.

Oh yeah, I'd also be really interested in knowing the kind of full span of your issues-do you have vertigo type things going on along with this? Reason being my sister went to a fabulous ENT that made her realize her own sinus and ear issues were from 2 different things-one she takes rhinocort for, the other she has to do exercises for to shift these yucky granules in her ears around until they get flushed out. With Sjogren's, the granule type things is a common side problem, so I thought I'd see what is going on in your head besides just this little snippet my google alert linked me to!

Hope you feel better pronto!!