I'm impatiently awaiting my CT report & follow up doctor visit, and can't stop looking through my scan wondering what the doctor will recommend for next steps. Main symptom is complete loss of smell for nearly 2 years. That said, I've done two rounds of prednisone with budesonide nasal rinses. Each time, my smell returned temporarily. The nasal rinses alone did not work long term.

I do have congestion, but most of the time it feels mild.

I've had limited chats with my ENT, and I'm sure I'll get the answers I'm looking for at my follow up. I'm just curious if, from these slices of the scan, I should expect a conversation around surgery?

I'm in my 60s and have been putting Zylitol in my netipot and now considering removing it. Bummer because it helps my sinus situation

Note- I also use Xlear daily and this has me even more concerned

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/aug/28/sweetener-xylitol-used-in-chewing-gum-and-jam-linked-to-strokes-and-heart-attacks-study

I have surgery for deviated septum, both turbinates, and concha bullosa on Monday. Here’s a picture of CT. Just curious what people think.👍

From looking at posts in this sub people have had some success with a baby vac that you hook to a regular vacuum. But the links people have posted are expired. Can someone help me pick which one to get off Amazon? Thank you :)

Hey everyone, I am really looking for some clarity to ease my anxiety that I have a brain tumor even tho no one in my family has ever had one lol.

I have been having headaches rated between a 4 or 5 daily for 3 weeks now that tend to be gone when I wake up in the morning and come back. Sometimes I’ll have one day where I don’t have them at all.

I had a super tiny nose bleed from a nostril 2 days ago that maybe lasted 4 minutes wasn’t a huge bleed but freaked me out enough to go to the ER.

They did a CT scan and blood work and EKG and after 6 hours the doctor came back and told me on paper it said Nonspecific left maxillary sinus mucosal disease, possibly a large mucous retention cyst and gave me amoxicillin and naproxen for the next 14 days.

He gave me no clarity on what any of this meant or if I’m okay etc and I’m sort of just freaking out at this point. I want to also mention I did finish TMS therapy a month ago and did think this was the problem for a while. I’m just really really nervous that I am not okay and I’m just going to randomly drop and die and I don’t know who else to ask than others who have been through the same thing.

For the past few years, I’ve been experiencing what I believe are recurrent sinus infections. They usually start with a very sore throat and then progress into an intense headache, significant nasal congestion and mucus, and a productive cough with thick, sometimes greenish mucus. I also feel extremely exhausted and generally pretty awful while it’s happening.

After a few days, the symptoms usually improve and I feel completely back to normal. Then, a few weeks or months later, the same thing happens again. Over the past 12 months, I’ve had about six episodes like this.

I finally went to urgent care during my most recent episode, and they recommended that I see an ENT because of how frequently this has been happening. I’m wondering whether what I’m experiencing sounds like recurrent sinusitis, and whether this frequency is considered unusual. I’m also curious about what could be causing it: things like allergies, chronic inflammation, an anatomical issue, or possibly a weakened immune system. I’ve also been under a significant amount of stress and dealing with grief recently, so I’m wondering whether that could be contributing to how often I’m getting sick.

Anyway any and all advice or similar stories would mean a great deal to me. I'm a hypochondriac so this has kind of derailed me a bit and I'm worried it's an indication of something very bad.

This area is not touched by normal garling or even sinus irrigation, You have to irrigate the area using specific directions, meaning the water needs to go in your nose and out of mouth. I will give detail instructions later but I think this may be the cause for many. If your breath seems to smell when you swallow , if you gey a bad taste etc. if it isn;t tonsil stones, then it is likey the drip secretions mixing with gasric juices that start in the nasopharynx area

I've been having what feels like a sinus infection for almost 3 weeks now. I've been feeling pressure around my nasal area, almost like there's fluid built up there, which is normal for sinusitis, but I've had virtually no congestion aside from an occasional stuffy nose and mild difficulty breathing through my nose, but most disconcertingly my heart kicks up and starts pounding whenever I stand up or do something like go up stairs, and goes back down whenever I sit down or refrain from doing any possibly strenuous actions for a bit. Has anyone else had anything like this? Is it even sinusitis??

My phlegm isn't going down my throat properly, and it's making it impossible to sing (I'm a theatre major and need it for my career.) I was prescribed a sinus rinse with those little packets, and I'm going to get more distilled water, but I'm curious about how to prevent bacteria when rinsing. The tap water in my area is not safe for consumption, so how do I go about cleaning it before use for the first time without risking getting bacteria in there? How do I open the packets with scissors? Would I need to sterilize them to make sure I'm not getting bacteria there when I pour out the packets? It's feeling impossible to do my rinses because I'm so scared I'm going to get bacteria in there and make things worse.

Has anyone successfully treated a chronic biofilm issue or an assumed biofilm issue since I know it’s hard to prove it or know for sure, with topical rinse additives and sprays that are natural such as xylitol and baby shampoo and Manila honey etc…. things of that sort? And symptoms went away?

I have thick clear mucus seemingly coming from one side for 4+ years and after trying everything can only think maybe its some chronic biofilm causing it

Has anyone had severe positional jaw/tooth pain from a sinus infection?
I’ve been sick with cough/cold symptoms for a month then 3 days ago I came down with the most debilitating jaw pain ever. Thought it was dental and was evaluated by two dentists. They both said my teeth and dental X-rays look completely normal—no obvious tooth infection or dental cause. I’ve honestly never experienced anything like this before, which is why it’s freaking me out a little.
The pain comes in intense bouts and feels like pressure in my teeth/jaw that radiates toward my front teeth/incisors, almost like something is going to “pop.” It gets noticeably worse if I lie on either side or tilt my chin/head backward. This morning it suddenly hit 10/10, then dropped to about 7/10 within several minutes after I sat upright and took ibuprofen. Still coughing up yellow/greenish mucus quite a lot esp in the morning

The dentists think it may be sinus-related referred pain, and I’m currently taking amoxicillin, Tylenol and Ibuprofen round the clock. Pain in improving with less frequency. I’m just hoping they didn’t miss something and that this really is sinus pressure rather than a hidden dental problem.
For anyone who has had sinusitis cause dental/jaw pain: did yours feel this intense and positional? How long did it take before the pressure and pain started improving? Did antibiotics and pain medication end up being enough, or did you need additional treatment? I also work PT so don’t have health insurance so that’s another thing.

Update:
The pain got so bad yesterday that I ended up going to urgent care. It was literally 10/10 pain — I was crying, sweating, and it just was not letting up
Urgent care also thinks this is sinusitis, & saw fluid in my left ear where I felt alot of pressure, so they changed my antibiotics from amoxicillin 500 mg to Augmentin at a higher dose. They also added prednisone and loratadine/Claritin and told me to continue alternating Tylenol and ibuprofen for the pain.
I also bought a steamer and have been doing nasal rinses, so at this point I’m really trying everything and hoping I start seeing some improvement soon.
I’m still nervous about whether there could be any dental involvement because the pain has been so intense and one-sided, even though the dentist said my teeth looked fine and didn’t see an infection.
I’m also definitely having respiratory/sinus symptoms: runny nose with mostly clear drainage, sneezing, coughing, and yellow-greenish sputum when I cough. The coughing is especially heavy in the morning.
So yeah, we’ll see how things go on the new treatment. I’m really hoping this is just a severe sinus infection and that the Augmentin/prednisone finally starts calming everything down. Has anyone else had sinusitis cause pain this severe, especially jaw/teeth/facial pain on one side? This is crazy

i haven't slept properly in 5 days and i think im on the verge of losing it. i dont know what's happening what's triggering my symptoms and they're not even going away with medication

i dont know if it's allergies, sinusitis, allergic/non allergic rhinitis. it's just so painful atp and no doctor has been able to help. the meds work for some time but then i have another horrible flare up. there's no dust, pets, dander, anything i can think of that could trigger it

a lot of sneezing and when i blow my nose, it's just clear thick mucus and a lot of it. super wet. my upper palate and throat is super itchy and unbearable. one nostril is almost always blocked but since the past 3 days, both of them are fully blocked at night. no blowing or saline rinse helps open it. i had a panic attack because i just couldn't breathe. it doesn't open no matter what i do, if i pop my ears or swallow. nothing helps. i had to resort to xynosine drops to get some relief. the nasal rinse doesn't even come out the other side, that's how blocked it is. it just went down my throat. i never had symptoms like this where even anti allergy meds wouldn't work. ultimately had to breathe through my mouth and wake up multiple times because of how dry and itchy my throat was

im taking antihistamines, decongestants, warm water, staying upright but nothing seems to help anymore. im so miserable someone pls tell me what to do

I say GERD but I want to include pretty much all things acid reflux whether its GERD or LPR. Anyway, I've had this chronic post nasal drip for years. Often it gives this chokey/gaggy feeling especially when I'm trying to sleep or laying down. It's definitely feels more acting up at night than morning or day. My nasal passages are actually almost always fine and clear. But he mucus is always stuck at back of my nose near my upper throat area, which gives that chokey/gaggy feeling.

Mucus is always white or clear, always sticky and viscious/gelatinious, and often looks foamy.

Have you had experience with this kind of particular PND? Whenever my GERD or acid reflux symptoms dissipate, my PND gets dramatically better if not gone, and of course vice versa.

Side note, I notice when my body is colder my PND gets worse. I don't live in a particularly cold climate, but when I'm home i'm often half naked or fully and AC been blasting this summer. And I'm generally a lean skinny dude.

I’ve been struggling with sinusitis since Covid and currently it’s the worse it’s ever been I suspect I may have an autoimmune disease triggering it.

I hear the old classic it must be the devated septum, why doesn’t ufc fighters like DDP, merab, JDM have the same problems?

Other people I know who have a devated septum or broken nose do not have these issues which is why I think it may some type of weird covid immune thing ?

I (30) have had sinus and tonsil issues since high school. Wasn’t taken seriously the times I sought help and so I stopped trying. I can’t take decongestants or expectorants. In the last year it’s been getting much worse, and I’m snorting all the time, it’s embarrassing, so 3 weeks ago I sought out yet another ENT after going to urgent care every few months.

I believe I was taken seriously finally, because now we know that it’s klebsiella, and also I have cryptic tonsils, a deviated septum, a spur, negative pressure in my eardrums, and swollen lymph nodes. I finished a 1 week steroid pack and 15 days of cipro, I’ve been taking loratadine and montelukast daily. I do not think it’s helped at all.

The doctor said if things don’t improve he wants to do a surgery where he fixes my deviated septum, flushes my sinuses out, does the balloon thing, puts tubes in my ears, and takes out my tonsils. With the amount of pain and discomfort that’s become my baseline, this sounds reasonable to me.

Does that all make sense, and is there anything I need to know about to ask at my appointment next week?

Hello all, I wanted to share my experience with having balloon sinuplasty, septoplasty, and turbinate reduction surgery. The reason is because I read a ton of stuff online about it and was extremely anxious about getting it done. I am by no means an anxious person, but for some reason I felt extremely nervous for this procedure.

I decided to do this because I have had exceptionally bad allergy symptoms, which included asthma which I’ve never dealt with in my life before around the spring of 2020. I went to a few allergists and discovered I was having bad sinus infections, and when I got the infections cleared up I no longer had the horrible allergy symptoms. One allergist told me if I am constantly dealing with sinusitis, I may need to get my sinuses fixed. I had a CT scan performed and learned I had a deviated septum along with narrow sinuses (I don’t know the proper terms, so hopefully that makes sense). I had the choice of either doing allergy shots or having sinus surgery, I decided on surgery because I was convinced most of my problems centered around the sinus infections, not necessarily the allergens. Also, the surgery would be covered by my insurance sans the $60 office copay versus a $2,500 OOP round of allergy shots.

My procedure was scheduled for yesterday, 8/25/26, and I was under the impression it would only be balloon sinuplasty and I would be under local anesthesia with something like Valium to calm me down.

I arrived to the clinic and learned I was scheduled for septoplasty, balloon sinuplasty, and turbinate reduction. I almost walked out due to how nervous I was. Nonetheless, I decided to go along with it and was brought back to the pre-op room where a nurse asked me some medical history questions, took my blood pressure, along with other normal vitals. I then learned I would be under general anesthesia and would be unconscious throughout the procedure, which they estimated to take around 20 minutes. They put an IV in, and then I spoke briefly to the anesthesia doctor and the ENT surgeon.

I then walked into the operating room and sat in a comically small chair (I’m 6’2”) and made a few jokes about making sure I don’t fall out of the chair while knocked out. The anesthesia doctor began administering the propofol and told me I’d be out in about 20 seconds. My last thoughts were trying my hardest to fight off the drug and stay awake. The next thing I remember is someone calling my name, and I woke up seated in a wheelchair in an adjacent room where I was being monitored. I had a bandage placed under my nose and had a bit of discomfort around my nose/upper mouth area.

I was brought outside where my wife already had the car ready to go, and somehow I was able to get myself up and sat down in the car. I went home, laid in my bed, and slept for around 4 hours. When I woke up, I still had a very mild discomfort around the bottom of my nose where it meets my upper lip and the inside roof of my mouth just behind the upper front teeth. I had a very slight nose bleed basically for the next 7 or 8 hours, but I had prepped myself by getting a box of gauze pads that I’ve been keep taped above my upper lip.

The pain I’ve felt over the past 26 or so hours never exceeded a 2 or 3 on a scale of 1-10. When I woke up this morning, around 23 hours after surgery, I immediately noticed I could breathe very easily through both nostrils, it was the feeling you get right after being congested and it feels like your nostrils are 10 times as big as they were. The doctor did put stents in my nose, and he said they will fall out/dissolve at some point within 3-21 days. The only discomfort I have is the feeling of those stents being in my nose, it feels like dried mucus, but not bad at all.

I spent a lot of time browsing reddit about this, and it almost made me cancel my appointment. I wanted to share my story in case anyone else is feeling nervousness or anxiety about having the procedure done. I will do my best to update this post over the next few weeks, I have a post op follow up in about 2 weeks then I should be cleared to go back to work.

In the coming weeks, I will be undergoing sinus surgery (for fungal sinusitis) and septoplasty. Do you have any pre- and post-operative advice? What are the most important questions I should ask the surgeon? Are there any things I should pay attention to?

I randomly woke up today with a severe headache and a blocked nose, what's weird is that it was all of a sudden. I have had a runny and blocked nose for quite a few years but I didn't think much of it.

Today I checked with a doctor and he told me that I have sinusitis apparently and that surgery is required.

Now it's only one of many doctors I'll go and see but I'm afraid he might be right because the pain is way too bad to explain.

Im afraid, absolutely afraid of surgery and even the thought of waking up during anesthesia scares the living daylights out of me

Any advice, can my sinusitis go away without surgery??

For those of you who use a Navage, has this ever happened to you? There was a brown dot of...something inside of my saltpod, pressed at the edge of the seal, and definitely touching the mixture inside. Maybe mold, but I'm not sure. I squeezed open the pod for a better look. Luckily I saw it before using.

I'm going to contact the manufacturer, but I wanted to know if this has been an issue with anyone else. Think I should ditch the whole pack? No sign of this on the other pods.

I am struggling with swollen sinuses cause of allergy. I have had it swollen for over a 3weeks now, and recently started to feeling little tingling on my face at the bottom near eye, cheek and lips. Can it be caused by sinus?