Possible sinusitis??

Feb 19, 2009
I am a 30 year old female. Please take the time to read the journal regarding severe sinus problem. (I suspect)
I started noticing symptoms Oct. 08. I moved into a 3 bedroom condo, top floor, vault ceilings, thick carpet throughout. Open space. I’ve always lived in apartments but none with carpet.
1st complaint was that we didn’t get enough cool air in the back bedroom. So we shut off most all valves so more would push through. I considered having them check for an obstruction in the duct. The filter needed to be changed quite often.
I didn’t vacuum much because I hated my vacuum. This was a brand new place with new carpet. Not used to the carpet situation. We also sweat at night in this place as well.

Then I realized that the air was quite dry because I started feeling like I was stuffy for a while. I had no insurance so I had to endure it but the congestion got significantly worse. With a foul odor and I noticed that I often times had these white balls in the back of my throat that would be coughed up. Only because I felt something lodged in the back of my throat a lot. I thought I may need my tonsils taken out. Sometimes these balls would come often and then sometimes none at all. It was weird. I started to wonder if my breath smelled like these foul smelling collections in my throat. Because I also had dry mouth.

So, congestion didn’t really improve too much even over the summer. And as the fall came the congestion was accompanied with thick green really sticky mucus in my nose. I was always blowing and scraping to clear the very thick and tacky mucus away. Then after a while, the mucus was less tacky and just lined the interior of my nose. It would harden over night and when I would blow in the morning it would be dried green particles, and when I used a Kleenex the whole side of the interior would come out in a thin sheet of mucus, that was lining the inside. So weird. I just remember being so dried out at night only. During the day I felt like a growth or obstruction was inside my nose. I used the neti pot sometimes, I ended up blowing clear slimey mucus. I wasn’t sure if it was working. I bought over the counter saline spray, that burnt really bad. And when I was outside and the wind blew I breathed it in and it immediately burned the back of my throat through my inhaling in my nose. It was like the air didn’t even pass up in my sinuses and then down to my throat. Like a strait shot. Sometimes in the morning I would blow and there would be little blood spots (epistaxis?) I remember as a child and through high school and college I would often have random nose bleeds out of my left nostril only. Never the right. That has stopped and now I just have this that I’m describing.

I decided that I was tired of looking every symptom up on the internet. So I called a doctor and had a consult. I was given an antibiotic for the congestion and was sent home with Nasacort to use twice a day. After the treatment of congestion, it helped and I followed up in 2 weeks. I still continued to have problems mostly complaining of dry air. I was asked about my allergies. I went to get tested and it turns out I was allergic to dust mites, both kinds. But I believe only mildly.
I often wondered if all this came about because since about 1998 I had been using an over the counter Visine-A for allergy visine each day sometimes twice, to have really white eyes. Probably from make-up and random allergies in season (cats, dogs, pollen).
So later I learned that it has atropine in it and I wondered if that is what eventually led to the dryness since I used it for so long.  Never had tear duct problems though. Still don’t. Mostly I have just linked it to dry air and have been dealing and complaining and God knows I’ve been blowing for a year and ½ now.
I have believed it was this condo because it’s the only change I made that was different. I bought dust mite mattress and pillow casings, and saw no difference. I used the nasonex like explained and no difference. I took an allergy pill at bedtime and no difference. I bought a dyson allergy vacuum and I vacuumed atleast once a week. No difference. So I don’t believe it’s allergy related. Most recently I bought a humidifier and I have that going at night. It blows near my face from the floor by my bed. I purchased a hygrometer to test the humidity in this place. It ranged from 28-34 mostly this winter. It stays about 37. But at night I can close my door and it will turn to about 46% in here with the humidifier going. I get some, but very little relief from that.  
I know that I just wake up each morning and I feel like my nose is going to crack. It hurts. I wash my face or get in the bath and I have instant satisfaction. But not to the point of complete relief. I mostly feel like there is something obstructing and when I feel inside my nose it is completely dry. I feel like it could be dry all along the interior of my sinuses. It burns when cold air is breathed in. It makes my head hurt a lot now. And I feel like it makes me have dark under eye circles, like it’s zapping the moisture out of my skin too. I feel like I have to breathe harder and I feel my heartbeat because I struggle for direct airflow. I don’t breath through my mouth at night or mostly.
I guess I only notice that I don’t when I’m in bed and lying down. All I know is that I am plagued daily with this issue and I seriously need some help. I’m going to blow my ear drums out and my boyfriend is going to shoot me if I don’t quit complaining or don’t quit trying to diagnose myself on the internet. Please help me.
I have been told the condition is called a concha bullosa. Are these the correct symptoms for this?
I do NOT have sneezing, coughing, no itchy throat, or watery, red eyes. I quit the Visine 3 months ago. I’m currently not congested. That is usually not the issue, it’s just the dryness and the lining and feeling of blockage interfering with clear and easy breathing. And I’m still hot at night in bed. I change the filter on schedule each month now. I used to put bacitracine in the nose to help. It did somewhat. Some fatigue that I can’t pinpoint if is related. And a good amount of dry mouth. I have over the past month increased my water intake significantly and I don’t have dry mouth as much. I’m scared my nose isn’t working well for protecting my lungs and germs. I heard anything less than 50% humidity is not good for nose. Swollen inside.
I just need some treatment. I cannot continue to manage this on my own on a daily basis. Please tell me there is a procedure that can take it away. If it sounds like the place I’m living at I will gladly move. I just need to rule out some causes.
It is totally chronic at this point.