Hey there, along with my lower back pain I have had a sinus infection for months now. I am scheduled for surgery on the on the 17th of this month where they are planning on opening up my sinus (I think they have to drill into this area).

This situation turned serious when over Thanksgiving i was put in the hospital for two day. They though I had menengitus at first, but now they think it was this infection. If anyone knows about this issue please respond and give me your experience or knowledge. Oh, and I have been on strong antibiotics for months now and I'm dealing with headaches, vertigo, fatigue, ear throbbing and an overall bad attitude at this point.

ty, Mitch

Mitch, this has been a rough ride for your buddy...I can't imagine how awful you must be feeling. Sounds like there is an end to this trouble with your sinus...I will send you positive healing energy....Hang in there

I had an infection in my sphenoid sinus! Antibiotics do not work. I was on them forever. I got mine after pituitary surgery and the sinus closed up before everything had drained. It smelled awful. Hard to get away from a smell in your nose.

I hope a pituitary guy or someone with an endoscope is doing your surgery as they can see.

These were my instructions - yours may differ.

After the surgery, I had to keep the area cleaned out. It was er, not fun. I had to keep going back to the ENT for debridement. At home, I had to use a water pik with saline to shoot the saline up the nostril to get it way up there and clean things out. I did this by leaning over the tub as it was very mess and some giant things come out. They may fall out later (ugh) so carry around tissues. I was also using saline to keep my nose moist.

My husband says he has fond memories of the ENT taking a trip to the center of the earth so to speak... You may want someone to drive you to the ENT as the debridements can be painful - please consider taking pain pills beforehand. You should rest afterwards for at least a little bit. They reach in with long tools and pull out what they can. They do numb you as best they can but the tugging and all sometimes can give you a headache.

I go in for surgery on next tuesday the 17th. I have been dealing with this since late october and I am ready to be done. My surgeon doesnt think my symptoms are due to this infecton, but it has to be, I never felt like this before this sinus infection.

What symptoms did you have prior to surgery, did you have any of the vertigo, ear throbbing and extreme fatgigue?

thanks,

mitch

Ah - they never think there are any symptoms!!! I had mostly smell (it is very rank), I was tired... my WBC never went up... I had only a low grade fever from time to time. My ears are wonky so cannot equate it to the infection (I have menieres).

How did you get an infection way up there?

Hey there,

This all started with a simple sinus infection back in october 08, that wasnt treated long enough with antibiotic and came back. I did have a really bad smell in my nose for weeks when this first started, but havent had this in months.

Like I said I am getting surgery to get what looks like infection out of my sphenoid sinus. My ENT doc dosnt think my syptoms are caused by this and menieres disease is one of the possible things thrown out there. As I read about this disease, I have just about all the symptoms of it. The only thing is I had a 103 fever for a couple of days with this when i had a really bad eppisode. I dont think menieres would do that.

Anyhow, just thought I would keep this thread going to get anymore info or insight. thanks again,.............Mitch

Dear Mitch, I also had those symptoms a few years ago and I was terrified when they told me that there was an infection in my sphenois sinus that would require surgery. I had terrible migraine headaches, fatigue, ear throbbing and was on very strong medications to prevent menengitus. The surgeries went fine. I had one surgery on the left side, felt fantastic, then the headaches once again appeared within 6 weeks, only to find out that I had another sinus spot on the right side, about the size of an olive and once again had the surgery. Headaches are gone. Please have this taken care of, life is too short not to have it done. I had mine done down in Nashville, Tenn. at Vanderbilt where I lived at the time. Hope this helps!

Its so crazy, my ENT doc and surgeon acted as if they had never heard of this causing ear throbbing. For the most part I am all better, I still get all of the symptoms, but now very manageable. I had very bad headaches that started a week or two after surgery. These headaches were only treatable with migraine meds, but after a couple of weeks of this they have gone away for the most part.

From now on I will treat sinus congestion as a serious matter and treat with sinus rinse every time I get this. Thanks for all the posts on this subject and for the lady who recently got the sinus surgery, how are you doing now? (sorry, I forgot your name and I dont know how to go to your post without deleting this).

Hello, I have the same symptoms you did. This is very depressing and scary to deal with! Tried augmentin for 10 days then had a flare of symptoms. Currently on cipro now, halfway through my 20 day dosing. My ct only showed a tiny amount of fluid in my rt sphenoid, but I have the same symptoms as people with a completely blocked sphenoid sinus. It started 5 weeks ago with dizziness and headache. I can almost feel that sinus being closed and pressurized behind my rt eye and pain and pressure in rt ear and rt side of head. What did your ct show? Did you have a lot if fluid that prompted your ENT to do surgery? Mine does not think i look like a candidate because of the small amount of fluid. I know it's been years ago for you to deal with this, and I hope you healed well and are happy and healthy now! Any advice would be appreciated!

Thank you,
Kendra