The sinus infection that never went away

After years of dealing with what I thought was mild hay fever and then getting acquainted with a fatal food allergy, I figured I was finally under control. In February 2005 I "became aware" of the fact that I suffered from a stuffy nose almost all the time, or at least while indoors.

Given the time of year, I dismissed it as being a cold, but after a few weeks, the "cold" didn't pass as colds usually do. Being the stubborn person that I am, I tried my best to ignore it as long as I could and dealt with the fact that I would be congested for an indefinite period of time, hoping it would go away come spring. It did not. I turned to drugs. Not of the illegal type, sort of - though after a while I have to admit fearing that pharmacists might look at me as a potential target for the 'meth watch' program that has been put in place to nail those who convert off the shelf drugs that contain pseudoephedrine into meth amphetamines - or crystal meth. I say that not because of the quantities of the drug I'd buy (I would stick to one package at a time, getting a new one when it would empty), but because I'd be back every two to four weeks to buy more.

Weeks turned into months. Spring came and went, summer did as well. The glorious drugs kept me relatively stuffy nose-free during the day at work or on the golf course. At some point late in the year I started thinking out loud - or seeking sympathy from people around me, hoping they would feel sorry for me or (more likely!!) offer me advice as to what I should do. A trip to the doctor proved fruitless. While antibiotics for a perceived sinus infection did clear things up for a few precious weeks, the infamous stuffy nose came right back, just like the legendary cat.

I joked with my boss and fiancee that my chronic sinus infection and I were about to celebrate our first anniversary together. Everyone around me started to pester me to try the physician route one more time to take care of the problem once and for all. Instead of celebrating one year having passed, I headed off to my GP to see how I could kill my new "friend".

Given that the previous treatment did not "take", she speculated that I might be suffering from some sort of allergy. Great. Another one. She advised me to make another appointment with the allergist who confirmed my pine nut problem a while back in the hopes that he would come up with an answer to the question of what had been causing my nose and sinuses to be plugged up for the better part of a year.

He did.

The diagnosis? A confirmation of all the hay fever/pet/dust/pollen, etc. diagnosis from what, almost twenty years earlier? This time, however, the severity meter had been cranked up to the point that he told me that other than living in a bubble, I would live with this problem all my life because for all intents and purposes, I am allergic to everything. Everything.

I love my parents' dog. He's bad for me. My affection grew for my fiancee's cat, Mr. Patches who adopted me as his father when he moved to Ottawa with his "mom". He was bad for me. I play golf and don't always stick to the fairway. All the growth in the rough/fescue/trees/forests is bad for me. Grass (!) is bad for me. Anything environmental? Bad for me. All these things and everything else conspire daily to attack my immune system and apparently my defense to all this is my sinuses boarding themselves up to resist the constant attacks!!

Fortunately there was a solution that both my allergist and general practitioner agreed upon. I was prescribed a drug (I guess) called Nasonex. I was told to use it twice a day for a week or two and then once a day after that - into perpetuity! Within a month the symptoms were gone - or under control I suppose.

I have come to understand why our provincial government has been working hard to force schizophrenia patients to take their drugs. After a while, you start feeling normal and then do not think you need to take the drugs anymore. Even to this day, I'll take it for a while and then stop. I'll start taking it again for a while, perhaps using it two or three times a week as a "maintenance dose" and then stop. As I write, I'm not stuffed up like I once way but I am aware that my sinuses are not as happy as they could be. I guess the prescribing doctor nose (hehe) best!

Accordingly, and despite the fact I'm not one to engage in the annual "new year's resolution" ritual as so many of us do, I am resolving to refill my prescription next week and start taking it as prescribed. If my father can take his pills every day to make sure he's running smoothly, I owe it to myself (and my poor sinuses!) to do the same.

Another mystery solved - though I have to say it's really starting to get on my nerves. Will I ever end up like some of those hyper-allergic people who say they go down for the count for days and/or weeks after sharing an elevator with someone who uses perfume? I hope not. I still think those people are nuts, but I once thought that these food allergies were all a load of unadulterated crap. After all, 80% of all lunches when I was in elementary school in the early 1980's was peanut butter sandwiches! Now you can't bring a peanut within 500km of a school. Well, as you know, I have the pine nut allergy that will kill me.

What's going on out there?