Scary sinus problem



M

Mb

Guest
I seem to have a nasty sinus infection, mostly in the upper sinus (ethymoid--sp).

I feel lousy and have a sore throat. Anyway, I'm getting lots of yellow gook. My problem is that I'm
bleeding a lot too. It seems I have no problems blowing out the gook (which provides quite a bit of
relief) but over the last few days the bleeding has increased. Basically, every time I blow my nose,
half the stuff is yellow **** and now half seems to be fresh blood. I'm trying to blow gently, but
if I blow just enough to get everything out, the blood comes too. (It started out as just a little
blood but as I said it's more now). It also get in my throat and I cough up blood (but clearly from
a little bit of back nasal drip).

I haven't seen any reference to bleeding in the sinusitis descriptions. Is this unusual?? Or is it
just a typical symptom?

My concern/fear of course is something more serious, like cancer.

Mel
 
On 2004-02-13 13:21:40 -0500, "MB" <[email protected]> said:

It sounds like you have a cold along with a nosebleed. The common cold is indeed common this time of
year. Cancer presenting in this manner would be decidedly uncommon. I wouldn't lose any sleep over
that at this point, certainly. Dry winter air causes the lining of your nose (and the tiny blood
vessels within) to become more easily damaged by blowing your nose, etc. You don't have to blow
"hard" to cause a little bleeding. In some cases, the blood can drain into your throat and thus your
stomach, causing some confusion, especially if someone throws up and sees blood in their vomitus.

Many people who think they have a "sinus infection" merely have a cold, which is a viral illness and
not treatable with antibiotics. If your symptoms have persisted for 10 days or more, or they are
associated with a fever, facial *pain* (not merely pressure), or shortness of breath, then you may
have something that warrants a visit to the doctor. Otherwise, simply try to keep things out of your
nose, use a bit of vaseline petroleum jelly (applied gently with a q-tip) to the area just inside
your nose near the middle part of the nose - the septum - which will coat the area that is most
likely to bleed. Saline (salt water) nasal spray) can also be used by virtually anyone to help break
up nasal mucus, but use it gently so as not to disloge any clots and restart the annoying nosebleed.

> I seem to have a nasty sinus infection, mostly in the upper sinus (ethymoid--sp).
>
> I feel lousy and have a sore throat. Anyway, I'm getting lots of yellow gook. My problem is that
> I'm bleeding a lot too. It seems I have no problems blowing out the gook (which provides quite a
> bit of relief) but over the last few days the bleeding has increased. Basically, every time I blow
> my nose, half the stuff is yellow **** and now half seems to be fresh blood. I'm trying to blow
> gently, but if I blow just enough to get everything out, the blood comes too. (It started out as
> just a little blood but as I said it's more now). It also get in my throat and I cough up blood
> (but clearly from a little bit of back nasal drip).
>
> I haven't seen any reference to bleeding in the sinusitis descriptions. Is this unusual?? Or is it
> just a typical symptom?
>
> My concern/fear of course is something more serious, like cancer.
 
anon wrote:

> On 2004-02-13 13:21:40 -0500, "MB" <[email protected]> said:
>
> It sounds like you have a cold along with a nosebleed. The common cold is indeed common this time
> of year.

You should go see an ENT specialist. I had the same problem which was remedied by antibitics applied
to the nasal passage. Sometimes the blood vessels in the nose become very susceptible to bleeding.
Do you notice any scabing in the nose, or hard blood patches when you blow your nose? You can try an
OTC cream like polysporin, 3x daily to see if the bleeding subsides.
 
On 2004-02-14 11:10:07 -0500, Tom Burns <[email protected]> said:

> anon wrote:
>
>> On 2004-02-13 13:21:40 -0500, "MB" <[email protected]> said:
>>
>> It sounds like you have a cold along with a nosebleed. The common cold is indeed common this time
>> of year.
>
> You should go see an ENT specialist.

An ENT specialist? You've got to be kidding me. You probably don't even need to see a family
practitioner, let alone a surgical subspecialist. It never ceases to amaze me that people think they
need a specialist for every litle problem, yet these same people will turn around and accuse doctors
of not treating "the whole patient". Get yourself a good family doctor, and learn when it's really
necessary to see him/her and when it's not. Then let them worry about when you need to see a
specialist. You'll save yourself a lot of time and aggravation, not to mention money.
 
Anon:

Thanks for your encouraging post. I did see my family doctor. He did look in my nose and found a
couple of spots (as you predicted, in the septum) where is appears to be bleeding. I am also pretty
sure it is bleeding elsewhere higher up in the sinuses.

It is not like the usual gushing nosebleed. It;s just that the mucous has a lot of blood in it. The
mucous is also quite yellow.

He gave me a prescription for antibiotics, but we agreed that I should try the salt water stuff and
just see if I can't get it to resolve in about a week. If not, we go with the antbiotics. Frankly, I
am still concerned. The bleeding is just unnerving, I guess! In addition to the bleeding, I keep
getting a slight headache between the eyes and also a feeling of eye discomfort (kind of like I'm
squinting, but I'm not -- perhaps it is pressure). From what I can read, all of these symptoms
appear to be very consistent with a sinus infection. I'm sure it is more than a cold. "anon"
<[email protected]> wrote in message news:2004021413281575249%anon@anoncom...
> On 2004-02-14 11:10:07 -0500, Tom Burns <[email protected]> said:
>
> > anon wrote:
> >
> >> On 2004-02-13 13:21:40 -0500, "MB" <[email protected]> said:
> >>
> >> It sounds like you have a cold along with a nosebleed. The common cold is indeed common this
> >> time of year.
> >
> > You should go see an ENT specialist.
>
> An ENT specialist? You've got to be kidding me. You probably don't even need to see a family
> practitioner, let alone a surgical subspecialist. It never ceases to amaze me that people think
> they need a specialist for every litle problem, yet these same people will turn around and accuse
> doctors of not treating "the whole patient". Get yourself a good family doctor, and learn when
> it's really necessary to see him/her and when it's not. Then let them worry about when you need to
> see a specialist. You'll save yourself a lot of time and aggravation, not to mention money.
 
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