My latest health update: When my sinus doc took swabs during my last infection, one month ago, the lab found organisms they are calling "acid fast".
Apparently, these are extremely hard to grow out, and Quest and Mayo have been trying to grow them for a month. They aren't growing, my doc says, because I had so many other bacteria that keep killing them off. So Mayo is sending them to someone in Texas who seems especially skilled at growing them.

Meanwhile, my sinus guy gave me a long talk on this. Even though they only saw a few of these, he says, it's very significant. There shouldn't be ANY. He's seen this in 30 patients, and all but one ended up being treated with THREE ANTIOBIOTICS. He's talking with a bunch of other experts, and so far they're all saying the same thing; THREE. Even though I'm actually feeling fairly well, sinus wise. I mean, for me.

He says this could have been the cause of all the infections I've had---that this could have been there 10 or more years, inflaming the mucosa just enough for other organisms to find a better home.

Anyway, one of the antibiotics is Cipro, which gives me neuro symptoms. Without a quinolone, he'd recommend intravenous. All this seems to me from outer space. So I asked him to call my neuro to see if there's any quinolone that would be less neurotoxic. In the meantime, I'm still on the Ceftin I've been on for 4 weeks already, which has helped a lot.

He says this is NOT tuberculosis, so I don't have to worry about that.

Yah. Just want I want, more exotica.

G'night Folk.

I've never heard of anything like this. Will research when feeling better. My husband brought home what we thought was an allergy, turned out it's a viral upper respritory infection. Really difficult to deal with when you have Sjogren's. Meantime maybe Mrs. D will have some suggestions for the antibiotics.

Do you think perhaps when you get this straightened out, you will feel much better? I'm sure hoping so. You need some good news for a change.

I'm really surprised that Texas is ahead of the big names in growing this stuff. We haven't been ahead in anything yet.


Billye

Its certainly time for a change of luck for you, i do hope the Texas people can get on top of this, geez, 3 antibiotics to knock it, sounds pretty nasty stuff.
I hope they can give you something that is not neuro toxic but still does a good job.
good luck with it anyway,
Brian

Ya know, there are times when it's cool to be exotic, but this is NOT one of them. Does your ENT have any idea why you got to be the "lucky" people to have this?

I am prone to chronic "exotic" fungal infections of the sinuses and mouth. My ENT would actually show me off (with my permission, of course) to interns and visiting docs who had never seen stuff like what I had except in medical journals. In my case, it was a vicious cycle of dryness from Sjogren's and an immune system too out of whack to kill off the resulting infections.

I do hope they are able to knock the infection out once and for all without exacerbating anything else.

fanfaire

I have no idea what to make of this one. My neuro says that probably thousands of people, millions, carry this and nobody ever knows; but then again, who's to say if i get sinus infections? My sinus guy says he's seen 30. And, MRS D!! I'm wondering if this is in tap water, and from irrigating....you never did like the idea.

But I'm not at all sure I'll do the treatment; I need to learn a lot more.

about shoving stuff up into a cavity that is not meant to be explored. Non Sterile stuff at that.

But then go back to microbiology lab. We cultured our throats , and
then had to identify what grew out. The most amazing horrible things were
discovered in my lab. Pneumococcus, Strep, Staph, Pseudomonas, etc.
None of us were sick. The explanation? Is that these things are in everyone,
and normally don't cause illness because of your immune system, the mucous layer protecting, other more benign organisms keeping them down, etc.

So the answer is keeping the immune system healthy, keeping the mucous membranes intact (EFAs, oral zinc), and not removing normal secretions which contain interferons, and staying hydrated.

So yes, I do not like this netti pot craze we are in. I would imagine if you were in a fire, or sand storm and got crap up your nose, one rinse could be helpful, a sterile rinse, that is. I also don't colonics, so don't get me started there either.

Also not all bacteria are virulent under normal circumstances. But you whack at them with 3 antibiotics and probably do more damage in the end. So I would consider it carefully. In the meantime I would do Mucinex or Humbid every day for several weeks...to get things normalized. Mucinex works best for me when I have any congestion. It unblocks my ears, etc. Take your vitamins/ and zinc. And stay away from fancy schmacy doctors with eager procedures etc.