Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2007 8:37 pm
James, I'm fairly new to this board so I'm not familiar with your history, but in reading just this thread, I'm again reminded just how much life has changed in our house since my husband found out what was causing his sinus trouble. Please forgive me if this possibility has already been discussed.
Larry had sinus problems for years and would keep a sinus infection for months despite numerous antibiotics. He would literally have a sinus infection 9 months out of 12. He'd finally have sinus surgery which would leave him infection free for a couple of months and then the cycle would begin again. He had 5 sinus surgeries in all over the course of 6-8 years. We went to several different doctors including a highly regarded specialist at the University of Virginia Medical Center, who was not able to give us any new insight. Larry is also diabetic which, of course, made the whole process that much harder. It was a real struggle for him to just do routine tasks. Many days he would come home from work and just lay down on the couch until time for bed. He felt awful more days than not.
About 6 years ago, our 19 year old daughter started having chronic sinus problems and we were told she needed surgery. We desperately did not want her to start on the same merry go round and decided, as a last resort, to see a nutritionist. She put Meg on an elimination diet to see if food allergies might be part of the problem. Larry decided to do the elimination diet with her to see if it helped him. After about 2-3 weeks Larry started feeling better. He found out he has numerous food allergies (wheat and corn at the top of the list) but he was thrilled with the news! He has only had 2 sinus infections in the last 6 years and both of those responded quickly to antibiotics. If he eats drinks a coke (sweetened with corn syrup), he can feel his sinuses getting thick and painful almost immediately.
Larry had previously had skin tests for allergies that did not show up either wheat or corn. For reasons I won't bore you with, the elimination diet is much more accurate than the skin tests.
The big question to us is, why was this not even mentioned by anyone as a possibility?? To say that this changed his life in a BIG way is no exaggeration. And it's all about what he eats!! He could have avoided all those surgeries and had a normal life for all those years! Just by not eating certain foods! This should be the very first thing the doctors suggest!
Our daughter also found out she had food allergies. She's allergic to red meat! Four days after cutting that out of her diet, she was headache free for the first time in close to 6 months.
Okay - I know this is probably more information than you ever wanted to know, but if it can make the same difference to someone else that it has made to Larry, I'll shout it from my roof!
Interesting side note-Anyone familiar with J.J. Redick, the college basketball superstar? Our nutritionist is his mom!
Larry had sinus problems for years and would keep a sinus infection for months despite numerous antibiotics. He would literally have a sinus infection 9 months out of 12. He'd finally have sinus surgery which would leave him infection free for a couple of months and then the cycle would begin again. He had 5 sinus surgeries in all over the course of 6-8 years. We went to several different doctors including a highly regarded specialist at the University of Virginia Medical Center, who was not able to give us any new insight. Larry is also diabetic which, of course, made the whole process that much harder. It was a real struggle for him to just do routine tasks. Many days he would come home from work and just lay down on the couch until time for bed. He felt awful more days than not.
About 6 years ago, our 19 year old daughter started having chronic sinus problems and we were told she needed surgery. We desperately did not want her to start on the same merry go round and decided, as a last resort, to see a nutritionist. She put Meg on an elimination diet to see if food allergies might be part of the problem. Larry decided to do the elimination diet with her to see if it helped him. After about 2-3 weeks Larry started feeling better. He found out he has numerous food allergies (wheat and corn at the top of the list) but he was thrilled with the news! He has only had 2 sinus infections in the last 6 years and both of those responded quickly to antibiotics. If he eats drinks a coke (sweetened with corn syrup), he can feel his sinuses getting thick and painful almost immediately.
Larry had previously had skin tests for allergies that did not show up either wheat or corn. For reasons I won't bore you with, the elimination diet is much more accurate than the skin tests.
The big question to us is, why was this not even mentioned by anyone as a possibility?? To say that this changed his life in a BIG way is no exaggeration. And it's all about what he eats!! He could have avoided all those surgeries and had a normal life for all those years! Just by not eating certain foods! This should be the very first thing the doctors suggest!
Our daughter also found out she had food allergies. She's allergic to red meat! Four days after cutting that out of her diet, she was headache free for the first time in close to 6 months.
Okay - I know this is probably more information than you ever wanted to know, but if it can make the same difference to someone else that it has made to Larry, I'll shout it from my roof!
Interesting side note-Anyone familiar with J.J. Redick, the college basketball superstar? Our nutritionist is his mom!