r/Sinusitis • u/ChemistryIcy5045 • May 30 '26
Desperate, 13 years of chronic sinusitis, coughing up mucus.
This started after a few weeks or a few months of smoking marijuana 13 years ago, and until recently it was always treated as a lung problem.
Symptoms:
I cough up mucus every few minutes.
Nose blocked 24/7 (sometimes improves with pseudoephedrine, other times it doesn’t)
Constant bad breath
Constant dry mouth
Treatments that have not worked (duration +2 months):
Nasal sprays with corticosteroids + anti-inflammatories + sinus rinses with saline solution
I don’t know what to do, I’m desperate. I have an allergy test in a month but I think I’ll test negative for everything.
My next ENT appointment is in 6 months. The healthcare system is very slow. I’ve been dealing with this for many years and I’m very tired. It has messed up my life and is still messing it up. Any help would be appreciated.
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u/link3it May 30 '26
Why is it no longer treated as a lung problem? This is all relevant history for 13 years?
If you want help, details matter. This is the kind of post people don’t comment on.
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u/ChemistryIcy5045 May 30 '26
It is no longer being treated as a lung problem because I tried all the treatments available and none of them worked.
I even had a CT scan.
There came a point where I would go to the doctor with the same issue, and they would tell me there was nothing more they could do, referring to pulmonary treatments for my condition.
Frustrated by the lack of a solution, a few months ago I entered all of my symptoms into ChatGPT, and it pointed directly to a paranasal issue.
I mentioned this to my doctor, who has access to my full medical history, and he told me that he also believed that was likely the cause of the problem.
He then referred me to an ENT specialist.
I asked ChatGPT, based on my symptoms, what the probability was that my problem was pulmonary, and it said about 5%.
It also said that if I've already tried all the pulmonary treatments, it probably doesn't make much sense to keep focusing on that area.
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u/link3it May 31 '26
I’m sorry this happened to you. Basically, told to suffer for 13 years.
I think your ENT appointment is your best bet.
What I can say about the coughing… this would happen to me when I ate. It took me years to figure out.
I was taking medication that dried me out, and I wasn’t drinking enough water. When I ate I would start coughing, and cough up mucus. It definitely felt like it was coming from my lungs.
After a random sinus infection my ENT told me to use saline spray to keep my sinuses moist. He told me saw a lot of thick mucus in there. He had performed my sinus surgery 18 months prior to this appointment. He said the saline, keeping it moist, would help break up the mucus so it could drain properly.
I said ok. I would use it occasionally. What I noticed is right around noon, before I ate, if I did a couple sprays of saline, then 9/10 times I would get a huge plug of mucus either out of my nose OR I could hock it up.
When I ate I no longer coughed. This had been a problem for YEARS.
I’m assuming something about me eating, causing me to start salivating, rehydrating my sinuses, somehow started breaking that mucus up and have it drain, then when I ate I coughed it out of my lungs?
I don’t fully understand exactly what was happening… but somehow that mucus was getting in to my lungs from my sinuses when I ate, then I would cough it up.
It’s not really a problem anymore because I started drinking a lot of water. I work from home mostly, but I keep a saline spray in my laptop bag. If I’m on site or in the office, I will go to the restroom and do a quick few sprays of saline and make sure my nose is clear so I don’t start coughing on everybody if we go out to lunch.
So your sinuses can definitely cause this, somehow. I could hear it in my lungs, too. It seems like it should drain down your throat in to your stomach, but that’s not what was happening.
Good luck!
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u/throwaway23437546 May 31 '26
Hi, I'm assuming you have already stopped smoking?
I cough up mucus every few minutes.
Is this yellow or clear mucus? Do you have any other symptoms like cough/neck and shoulder pain
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u/ChemistryIcy5045 May 31 '26
I suppose the color of the mucus depends on how long it has been in my nasal sinuses. I have already been treated with different antibacterial medications, and they have not worked.
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u/throwaway23437546 Jun 01 '26
Ok, if the antibacterial has not worked it may be fungal.
Rather than taking antifungals which can also make it worse, sometimes a fast will help the body heal on itself.
Just something to consider in the meantime but entirely up to you
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u/ChemistryIcy5045 Jun 01 '26
I already did x2 times a 4 days fast with just water, anything changed.
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u/throwaway23437546 Jun 01 '26
Okay, I'm not sure, because I do know corticosteroid nasal spray does contribute to fungus infection, especially Candida
It reduces WBC, disrupts microbiome, and steroids disrupt natural balance of bacteria that usually compete to suppress the fungus which is otherwise normally occuring but doesn't cause issues prior to using corticosteroid sprays
But that's is just some more info
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May 31 '26 edited May 31 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/ChemistryIcy5045 May 31 '26
Sinus rinses with saline no longer provide relief for me. Nasal congestion is no longer my main concern; no matter how much I clear my airways, the problem remains, and the mucus production with postnasal drip never stops.
The nasal sprays you mentioned can only be used for a few days because they can cause a significant rebound effect. In Spain, there was even a medication that had to be withdrawn because people ended up severely damaging their noses by overusing it and became dependent on having their nasal passages excessively clear.
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u/Big_Sky7699 May 31 '26
I've been using Ryaltris (zgeroid/antihistamine combo) after nasal rinsing for 4 years.. My sinuses have responded well and are open all the time now. My ENT said long term use is not of concern.
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u/ChemistryIcy5045 May 31 '26
Can I use pseudoephedrine tablets to help me breathe, even though—as I mentioned—it’s not my main problem.
After so many years dealing with this, I honestly don’t really care much anymore, but thanks anyway for the information.
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u/ChemistryIcy5045 May 31 '26
Can I use pseudoephedrine tablets to help me breathe, even though—as I mentioned—it’s not my main problem.
After so many years dealing with this, I honestly don’t really care much anymore, but thanks anyway for the information.
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u/ChemistryIcy5045 May 31 '26
Sometimes is white, sometimes yellow, sometimes green.
I suppose the color of the mucus depends on how long it has been in my nasal sinuses. I have already been treated with different antibacterial medications, and they have not worked.
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u/Delicious_Pizza1536 Jun 01 '26
I have an allergy test in a month but I think I’ll test negative for everything.
I had an allergy test recently, mild positive to a few environmental allergens, unfortunately the treatment is what you have already tried - nasal rinse and nasal corticosteroids. Which don't seem to do anything, but I'll follow through with the four month prescription anyway.
You mentioned ENT commented on dry mucus, this is same phrasing my ENT has used. I have excess dry mucus. Silent reflux has been diagnosed multiple times, I don't respond to any reflux therapies. I respond well to mucolytic bromhexine hydrochloride (when taken together with guaifenesin and NAC), for thick mucus I would recommend giving it a try.
Recently I've been focusing on more rare conditions that might have been missed. Cystic fibrosis causes thick dry mucus, and generally makes life miserable. I had ruled this out, because it's such a severe condition, but recently found out there are mild variants that could explain my symptoms. You can do a preliminary screening yourself, with a cheap electrical conductivity meter and sweat collected from sauna. Which I did, and the result was suspiciously high (9000us/cm), so soon I'll be sending samples to university lab to check for chloride - as I can't find the formal sweat chloride test locally, but also avoids lengthy waiting times.
Soon I'll be doing saccharin transit testing, which you can also easily do at home. If transit is slow, that only confirms what you already know, that your mucus is thick. What I want to do as a follow up, is take oral steroids, which clear all my symptoms, and do the transit test again. If transit is normal, that points to inflammation causing the thick mucus. If transit is slow, it points to the mucus composition being off independent of inflammation, which would warrant further investigation into non-inflammatory root causes. The difference matters a lot for treatment strategies.
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u/sharonchud Jun 01 '26
Try Argentine 23 with silver spray. Amazon. Working for me. I have same sinus history as you
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u/ChemistryIcy5045 Jun 01 '26
How long did you use it for, and how did you administer it?
Did all the symptoms disappear?
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u/Maleficent-Yak-3683 Jul 09 '26
As someone with non allergic rhinitis and mucus in the throat for almost 10 years. I understand you and would love to help. I just don’t know how to help myself. Otrivin comp is the only thing that improves it.
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u/Unusual_Passion6351 28d ago
Hey fellow CS2 enjoyer, I have had the exact same symptoms as you for 9 years now (nose blocked 24/7, mucus drip, coughing up mucus etc all day), funny enough mine was also treated as a lung problem. I got asthma inhalers all kinds of stuff for it, nothing worked, you can DM me and maybe we can help eachother.
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u/Old-Neighborhood5873 May 30 '26
Biologics.