Any sensible suggestions will be appreciated

[Butterfly0160]

I am 52 years of age and have cystic fibrosis.  I am also a insulin dependant diabetic.  I have also had a double lung transplant in 2002.  In July 2011, I needed surgery on my left wrist to treat de quervains disease.  After this surgery I found that I had lost all smell and taste.  After  a couple of months of asking my doctor what was wrong with me, he finally suggested a CT scan on my head.  The CT scan showed that I had chronic pansinusitus.  In April 2012 I had surgery on my sinuses and they said it could make my sinus worse.  I have never suffered from sinus or been treated in my hole CF life.  The only symptoms that I have had was the loss of smell and taste after my hand surgery.  Since the sinus surgery I still cannot smell or taste.  This is quite dangerous as I am immunosupressed and if food is spoilt I could not tell, I have been very cautious since my transplant as it is important not to have food poisoning.  If anyone has some ideas it would be appreciated.

[Butterfly0160]

Thank you for your thoughts on nettle leaf I will check with my pharmacist and see if if would be okay to try.  Greatly appreciated.

[friggy]

Hi Butterfly.  What happens when you get chronic sinus infection is that a mass of infected mucus lodges in your sinus cavities.  The mass becomes impenetrable by your body's microbial defenses, and the toxin from your defenses battling the outside of this infected mass irritates your sinuses.

In your upper sinuses, this mass blocks access to your olfactory nerves, and if you can't smell, your sense of taste is extremely diminished. (Yes, I have experienced that).

Surgery often removes the infected mucus mass, but often it doesn't get everything, and the remaining microbes grow back.

My invention, the Flip-Turn Sinus Flush, removes the infected mucus mass with hypotonic saline.

http://www.medhelp.org/user_journals/show/2322

The Flip-Turn Sinus Flush is mildly risky, because you have to bend over to do it, preferably in a shower, but you can also do it outside on soft ground, or you can kneel down and lean over a bathtub, or perhaps a plastic basin or tub, with the shower running for steam.

The major difference between the flip-turn and regular saline irrigation (such as the Neilmed Sinus Rinse, which is used by millions now) is it's highly improbable that you can squirt saline all the way up into your upper sinuses (where your smell nerves are) because of gravity.  You have to get your head upside-down with saline in it to get the saltwater there, using gravity)

The flip-turn is even more risky, given your medical condition, but as you note, no smell is riskier than that.

I'd also recommend nettle leaf capsules, as the magnesium content may lessen any possible allergies that may have caused the sinuses to get infected in the first place, and there are no side-effects for nettle leaf.

Good luck.