my visit with the sinus specialist!

Most people close to me know that I've had serious ongoing problems with my sinuses. Basically I've had a bad sinus infection that hasn't gone away in years, and it causes me a lot of misery! My sinuses are always inflamed and lately it's gotten so that the pain NEVER goes away.

The problems first started when I moved to Fresno eight years ago, and I figured the increased pollution in the city was the cause for it. I would get on a round of antibiotics or two and it would eventually get better and go away. Then the infections just never went away and I was in a lot of pain. I had sinus surgery (which is a last resort) in Spring 2006 where they repaired my deviated septum and removed several polyps which had grown. I was so hopeful that the surgery would fix everything, as I'm sure anyone who goes through surgery hopes. Why go through all of that unless there's a really good chance that it will fix everything?

About a year after the surgery, that nagging pain began to return. I remember I was driving when I felt that familiar twinge again for the first time, and my heart sank. Oh no, I thought, it's all starting again!

My doctor who did the surgery had told me to begin therapy for allergies because since my sinus passageways were larger now, allergens could get in much more easily. So I began seeing an allergist and got on regular allergy medications and also began immunotherapy (allergy shots) twice a week. Allergy shots are tricky because they're meant to gradually make you immune to whatever you're allergic to, which in my case is cats, grasses native to the Valley, and olive and walnut trees.

The allergy treatment seemed to help a bit. My cats have been a big controversy in all this, though I'm careful to wash my hands after petting them and they don't go in the bedroom. I knew that giving up my cats was never an option, even though I thought the constant exposure to them might be causing things to get worse. Then I remembered that the problems began long before I ever had an indoor cat.

Over the past year, the sinus pain has become unbearable, and seeing me with an ice pack to my face has become a common occurrence. I've started researching every possible cause for my pain, including chronic sinusitis, inflammatory reaction to a fungus found only here in the San Joaquin Valley and a few other isolated areas, polyps, cancer, you name it. I had several theories of my own but wanted to see a specialist and find out for sure. Most people who know me know that I've had an insatiable desire to pluck myself out of this miserable Valley and land over on the coast, where I always feel great.

Primary physicians really can do little in the way of treating chronic conditions, and the more I go to the doctor, the more I realize how little they actually know. I have known more about my condition than any doctor I've seen. I was tired of being on antibiotics constantly, and in the past year I've only been off of them for about a month or so.

Around December, my best friend Ericka told me I needed to see the sinus specialist that she works with at Central California Ear, Nose and Throat, Dr. Sherman. She told me he is the BEST and he could figure out what was wrong with me once and for all.

Since December, I was counting the days till I was able to get in and see him. I finally got to meet the famous Dr. Sherman today. He was the first doctor who didn't minimize my misery and pain, and actually understood and realized how awful I've been feeling. He asked me all sorts of questions which I had plenty of answers to! I've already tried everything, including my daily sinus rinses (which is a horrible process in which you squirt sterile saltwater into your nasal passages and sinuses, much like getting ocean water up your nose).

He did the nasal scope and found that yes, my sinuses are very inflamed and yes, I did have at least one polyp growing back. He told me that your passageways are actually alive, and millions of tiny fingers called cilia work in concert and move all sorts of mucus and other nasties out of your sinus passageways. Sometimes the cilia get damaged from being dry (such as from desert air like here in the Valley) and they die off and mucus can't get removed and it just sits in your sinuses and causes pain. He told me that by rinsing with saltwater more frequently, I can actually begin to repair them and that will decrease inflammation.

He also told me that some people simply cannot tolerate the high level of particulate matter here in our air, and that I'm one of them. The San Joaquin Valley is essentially a large, irrigated desert in which air sits stagnant for much of the time. Due to the high agriculture here, there is a lot of pollution from diesel vehicles which also just hangs in the air. This is part of what's causing my misery, much as I had suspected. He told me that yes, indeed, being at the coast would be a whole lot better for me since I just can't tolerate the air here.

So there you have it, I have doctors' orders to move to the coast. It's pretty much what I've suspected all along, too. For now I'm rinsing more, and I have a CT scan scheduled to make sure there's nothing else going on in there. I'll keep you updated. Thanks for checking in!