Urgent Plea - Extreme Sinus Pain - Please Help!

[Stixx]

For a year now I have had intense sinus pain - feel every tooth, pressure in cheek bones and nose, and upper nose/eyebrow area with headaches.  I have no discharge and I am not stuffy at all.  I also am very tired, have a loss of energy and sometimes feel like I have a cold with muscle aches - but no cold really develops.  But most of all, I just can't take this kind of pain anymore and need some relief!!!  

Dr. treated me with various antibiotics with nasal sprays and rinses and it temporarily relieves some pain, but not completely.  I was also on heart meds for cardiomyopathy and noticed one (bisoprolol) can cause sinus issues so I came off of that - agian some relief but not completely.  Dr. now says she thinks it is allergies but allergist says its not - and all allergy meds have offered no relief.  The xray was negative and the CT scan showed just a bit of mucus.  When I am able to get some drainage, the discharge is thick but clear or slightly yellow.  I did have breast cancer 7 years ago and worry there could be a tumor but am told that sinus tumors are rare (so was breast cancer at age 29 so hopefully rare doesn't happen twice).  I just don't know what to do next!!!  I cannot see the ENT for another 6-7 months due to their waitlist, despite repeated calls for any cancellations.  

I just really need some help!!!  The pain in unbearable and I have two little kids and work full time.  Please, Please, Please I welcome any ideas!!!

[Stixx]

Thank you for your quick replies!  I have been putting up with this so long and was loosing strength to keep on fighting!  I do feel ill all the time and then with the pain added in, I am losing all ability to function.  It is comforting to know I am not alone and not crazy!!!  Your support has helped so much and brought me the first glimmer of hope!  Also glad to hear the ENT really will be able to find some answers and liked the tips on getting the best images - I feel better prepared on what to check for!  Now if I can just get in to see him!

[TallGirl41]

I agree with Victoireh. An ENT is who you need to see. I was just diagnosed today with Stenotrophomonas Maltophilia which is a bacterial pseudomonas infection which I picked up while being intubated (I guess) during my trans-sphenoidal surgery to remove a pituitary tumor in April of this year. After 4 months of intense congestion, headaches, sinus pain etc., the ENT took a culture on 9/2/09 and an MRI on 9/3/09 showed a massive infection in my sphenoid sinus. The gunk coming out of my nose wasn't necessarily the green you have with an infection, it was mostly yellow, brown and white, but I knew there was something wrong. The ENT scoped my nose about 3 times since my surgery and the incision was infected all 3 times. The ENT is the doc to know what kinds of remedies to try etc. A culture and an MRI WITH CONTRAST would be very important in seeing your sinuses and exactly what is going on. Like you, over the months, I had CT Scans etc and they didn't show anything. I think the Contrast is an important tool in helping the docs see what is really there. It is how they found my tumor.

Good luck to you!! I hope you are able to get in with an ENT as soon as possible to end your misery.

[Victoireh]

Your best bet is the ENT doc. Been there, except I was chronically infected in the sinuses. x-ray, Ct-scans all showed clear. It wasn't until I underwent surgery that my sinus tissue were full of infection. And the only reason I managed to get this far was because my pulmonary specialist complained that the sinus problems were affecting my quality of life badly. I have asthma. On top of it, I saw one allergist who declared I have no allergies, and therefore must have non-allergic rhinitis. How is that for diagnosing. Then I was sent to a second allergist, who observed that my skin doesn't even react to the "control" histamine. But did see a number of small raised bumps, and asked if my skin was itchy. And yes it was very itchy. He put a small sample under my skin of the molds and the next day I had a welt the size of one of our Canadian Toonies (I guess a good inch in diameter).  So in the end I do have a number of allergies afterall and a deviated septum that caused all the sinus infections. Oh, and the deviated septum was only observed during my first sinus surgery and had to be corrected in the second one

I saw another sinus specialist later on who uses fibre optic technology instead and it is amazing, as you can see every detail in colour. The standard endoscope they use doesn't show good imaging, as I was informed by this specialist. And he explained that is why these things are often missed, even surgeries can be botched, as in my case, due to lack of good imaging. Too much of my turbinator tissue was surgically removed, and now I have no natural moisturizing effect in my nose/sinuses anymore. Hopefully your surgeon has up to date technology, it will eliminate a lot of misery. I too had to wait many months to see this ENT specialist as you can only get to him through other specialists. He's kind of like the Guru of sinus doctors.

I hope this bit of information helped. Just persisit, because sinus headaches suck and with chronic infection you feel ill all the time. I also had a number of acute sinus infection flare ups over top of the chronic level. That was the only time I had proof something was going on.