Fungal infection?

[roster]

Good luck tomorrow morning. And if they don't have those lab results, do as momma used to say, "Scream bloody murder"!

[Auricula]

James, is it possible that something in your environment has and is continuing to infect you with a fungus? I know of a girl who cannot attend her local school because something there makes her ill. A fungus lodged in her sinus cavities and she has had several surgeries. When her doctor says she has recovered and she goes back to school she immediately becomes reinfected. I am very sorry for what you are enduring. It must be terribly stressful.

[jskinner]

Just got back from the doctors. The culture results came back negative. However he still seems to think that funqus might be the issue because he didn't take the swap until a week _after_ he had put me on the antifungal. (Why he didn't do that before I can't understand )

He thinks the swelling has gone down a bit in my left nostril. Because of that reduction he said he could now see swelling farther back. He has decided to send me for a CT scan of the sinus. More waiting I guess...

[Sigurd]

Sounds like a simply rotten situation. I hope you get some relief.

Sigurd

[jskinner]

If you are taking antibiotics and especially if you are experiencing "tummy" distress, adding probiotics would be a good idea but check with doc first.

I spoke too soon by saying no, now I am having mild stomach distress (just since the second round of antibiotics.

Are you irrigating your nostrils with a non-iodized salt water solution?

Yep been using Sinus Rinse since shortly after starting CPAP

[jskinner]

James, is it possible that something in your environment has and is continuing to infect you with a fungus?

Yes thats possible and one i have thought about quite a bit. When this all started happening back in early November I thought it was an allergic reaction to something in my apartment. I went to my allergist and he suggested that I should get rid of my carpets since I have cat allergies and used to have a cat. (Here is a pic of my much loved cat that I had to get ride of due to breathing difficulty http://james.istop.com/pictures/Important/Belle.jpg) At that time within 20-30 minutes of coming into my apartment my nose would start feeling congested. I actually stayed with friends for a couple of weeks before christmas to get some relief. Although I had the same reaction in one friends house (who had a mold issue).

I removed the carpets myself and it stirred up an unbelievable amount of dust doing that. After seeing that dirt I will never have carpets again, it was gross. Anyway, I wonder if I got something during that. After the carpets where gone the allergic reaction seemed to stop but the nasal problems continued and just got worse.

Another point that maybe of significance is that our building had a significant mold problem back 5-6 years go. They spent over a million dollars tearing out walls and replacing pipes. I've wondered quite a bit if that has been a factor somehow?

[Catnapper]

I have been reading this thread with a lot of sympathy because I went through a similar ordeal with mold and sinuses. I ended up with sinus surgery, and allergy desensitization that took years.

It is very difficult to get rid of mold, and then hard to be sure it does not come back. There are companies that can study the building to see if the mold persists. If the owner of the building refuses to have that done because of expense, you might try buying some small cultures to put around your area. That would not be too expensive. I think you can find them on the internet. It would answer that question for you.

Mold can cause allergy problems and also fungal problems. It can also be deadly if the mold is of a particular variety.

Is there any way you could stay someplace else for a month or so?

I wish you the best.

Catnapper

[roster]

The best way to get your probiotics is with some dairy products. Here are my two favorites:

http://breyersyogurt.com/products/light/index.asp

http://www.danactive.com/

I love the vanilla flavored DanActive. Of course the Breyer's strawberry yogurt is good also.

The dairy product protects the probiotics from the highly acidic conditions in the stomach. More of the probiotics will survive to make it into the lower intestine.

Here I find either product cheaper than capsule or tablet probiotics.

I hope the docs get something done quickly for your nasal problem.

[Lyza]

Just got back from the doctors. The culture results came back negative.

Bullshit... You still have white patches?? They are not scabs, open sores, puss-filled sores or anything like that? Thats yeast. They didn't swab you properly. Hell that Dr. could pick off some of the white patch put in under the microscope and tell if its yeast right now, no culture needed..

Sorry, this bullshit you are going thru is getting me irrate. I hope the Dr. figures it out soon, so you can get better.

[JeffH]

Just got back from the doctors. The culture results came back negative.

Bullshit... You still have white patches?? They are not scabs, open sores, puss-filled sores or anything like that? Thats yeast. They didn't swab you properly. Hell that Dr. could pick off some of the white patch put in under the microscope and tell if its yeast right now, no culture needed..

Sorry, this bullshit you are going thru is getting me irrate. I hope the Dr. figures it out soon, so you can get better.

You just gotta love us Okies....so soft spoken....LOL

[Lyza]

LOL! Yup, and I even had to censor it and rethink what I was going to type so it wouldn't be to redneckish as well..

[Guest]

if you are doing the rhino rinse using the rubber ear aspirator, that thing can allow mold/fungus or bacteria to grow inside it very easy. To clean it, you have to add a teaspoon of chlorine bleach in quart container and rinse the aspirator with all the solution to kill any thing that would cause you a problem.

I would add the baking soda to the solution, that helps flush out any thick mucosa.

Since you are having fungus like problems I would clean everything with that solution anyway even if it is a netti pot.

[Auricula]

rooster wrote about eating dairy products for probiotics. Today I got some capsules my internist recommended for an infection for which I am awaiting diagnosis pending a culture -- Culturelle with Lactobacillus GG. I paid $14.99 at Target for 30 capsules, a one-month supply. I enjoy eating yogurt with probiotics as well as kefir. I also like the idea of having something to use when I am away from home and don't want to worry about carrying or finding yogurt and keeping it refrigerated.

According to information in the product literature and on the website http://www.culturelle.com, LGG survives stomach acid and intestinal bile and makes it into the intestinal tract, where it's needed, unlike many other probiotic strains which will not adhere to the walls and form colonies; it provides a minimum of 10 billion live cells at time of usage, the amount most often recommended in medical research; it is endorsed by Andrew Weil; Time ranks it "among the most promising and most thoroughly researched probiotics"; and Lactobacillus GG is a better barrier to bad bacteria than L. acidophilus. Relatively new in the U.S., LGG has been used by millions of Europeans of all ages for the last 20 years.

[jskinner]

Bullshit... You still have white patches??

The white patches have pretty much gone away now. They started a couple of days after starting the antifungal and lasted for about 5 days.

They are not scabs, open sores, puss-filled sores or anything like that?

Nope.

They didn't swab you properly.

I suspect you are correct. In fact at the time he took the swab he said to me do you think I got it? I said I don't know cause I lost the feeling in my nose weeks ago. I felt like saying aren't you the doctor here?

Someone sent me a good article on fungus infections today (thanks). It said to get a reliable fungus culture you have to take the swab from the sinus and not the nostril...

Hell that Dr. could pick off some of the white patch put in under the microscope and tell if its yeast right now, no culture needed..

I'm pretty sure my doctor doesn't own a microscope

[jskinner]

if you are doing the rhino rinse using the rubber ear aspirator

I'm using the Sinus Rinse bottle http://www.sinusrinse.com/