Nose Breathtaking problem
Posted , 5 users are following.
Hello im shoaib Ahmed
I have had a blocked nose for over a year now, some days only one side, either the left or right is block and on others its both. I have trouble sleeping at night as I keep waking up out of breathe or with an extremely dry, sticky mouth (this often leads to sore throats and on many ocasions tonsilitis). I have tried vics and steam and stuff but it just iritates it. When ever i go to blow my nose no air gose through the blocked side(s) and i often pop my ears trying. I also have tryed home daining, but the water wont go through (i have tried every posible angle).
This is realy bothering me and i am a little scared to ask a doctor face to face (I suffer extreme discumfort in situations i am unprepared for or do not understand), can some one please help me by:
1. telling me what may be wrong (if it is more that a blocked sinus)
2. telling me what a doctor will ask me or do.
Thank you so much for any help you give me.
P.s Spicy food causes a very small runny nose, but it dose not fix the problem as my nose feels even more blocked after. (I have tried this many times with all kinds of spicyfoods, in all kinds of quantity and frequency).
0 likes, 11 replies
mary74153 shoaib6001
Posted
The first thing you should do is see a ear nose and throat doctor who can examine you and determine what is causing this.
shoaib6001 mary74153
Posted
I'm afraid he may be suggests surgery and I'm so much afraid of surgery does it hurt I never had one I'm nervous and confused
yeep63334 shoaib6001
Posted
Shoaib,
i agree with Mary, you have to go see an ENT. I have had surgery done some 7 weeks ago and I am on road to recovery. There was no pain during the surgery but the recovery takes time. It took me some 6weeks to recover.
Also, i just discovered that my congested nose is likely due to allergy to dust mites so having taken action to reduce exposure, I can breathe much better now.
I don't know how you managed to live a year of blocked nose. I put up with it for 8 weeks and I couldn't take it anymore and decided on surgery. With a little hindsight, I think it would have been better if I had an allergy test before surgery to ascertain root cause. But after trying meds, sprays for 8 weeks and nothing worked, surgery was the option I went for.
Dont let your fear of doc stop you from solving your issue. At least hear what doc says.
shoaib6001 yeep63334
Posted
Yeep can you give me some answers
1: did they put you on sleep before surgery or just awake...
2: Does it hurt anything during the surgery I mean when he cuts open etc...
3: after surgery how does it feel can we breath normal as always and after you wake up what your nose reacts you you said it take 6 weeks to recover means it gives you some pain or something.....
Please don't mind I'm confused but please reply me the questions that I asked thank you...
yeep63334 shoaib6001
Posted
Hi Shoaib,
no worries. I give you as much details as needed.
1. I am based out of Singapore. The surgery I did was a combination of turbinate reduction and maxillary sinus endoscopy (ie. clearing out gunk from my sinus). If it was merely turbinate reduction using radio frequency, it could have been done in the clinic. A simple 10-15min procedure. But because my sinus needed cleaning out, I was put under GA and was put to sleep. Therefore I felt nothing during surgery. I was fast asleep.
2. There was no cutting. All work was done through the nostrils.
3. After surgery, for me there was no pain. However, I had packing in one nostril. Also, as expected, there was swelling inside nose after surgery so breathing wasn't too good right after surgery. The first week, you would feel congestion but it seems to me it's something that you are already living with. Next few weeks thereafter, you breathe better but still somewhat congested due to forming of scabs. By 4th week, I breathed better but I had allergies that still caused some swelling. I only discovered my allergy in week 6 and doc has given me allergy meds to take to help symptoms. With me also making changes at home, plus the meds I can now breathe well. These same meds were given me before surgery but didn't work because my turbinates were just too swollen and my sinus was infected.
Healing in these 6 weeks was not painful, but rather uncomfortable with slight facial pressure. The surgery made a huge difference for me; from not being able to get any air through my nose to now breathing well.
Hope this helps. You still first need to hear from doctor what is the cause for your issue. It may not be the same as mine. So do bear this in mind as you read about my experience.
Cheers
shoaib6001 yeep63334
Posted
Thanks for everything man but my English is not so good there is something I can't explain to you but I will try my best so you know inside my nose meat it's unbalanced so at nighs I couldn't sleep properly when I turn to right my right side gets blocks when I turn to left then left sides blocks so tell me does my surgeon have to cut the unbalanced part or something else
care4health shoaib6001
Posted
I suffered from blocked nose for 2 years! Just like you I had trouble sleeping, and had sore throat as a result of that.
So as others mentioned you should see a specialist and an allergist, - for me it was done at the same time at the same place.
There are a few thing which could cause blocked nose. ENT will send you for a CT scan, you might have polyps, or deviated septum. If that the case, surgery might be helpful, though make sure you get 2nd and even 3rd opinion! I had seen quite a few ENTs and they couldn't even agree if my septum was deviated or not!
If you don't have any physical evidence on the CT, that means you have severe allergies.
Ask for a skin prick test. They will test the most common allergens. (not everything)
What you can do about it, it's a matter of trying different things. You say that steam irritates you, that was the case for me too! So nasal rinse probably won't help you either, let alone make it worse. If your nose is badly blocked do NOT use nasal rinse, you can blow up your ears! I did it, very painful!!!!
I had very sever allergy which I developed a few years after we moved to a hot tropical place. There were also sugar cane fields everywhere so what I think is that the combination of humidity and dust cause this horrible sinus congestion.
I went to see a specialist who told me I needed turbinate reduction and I would need to use costeroid sprays for the rest of my life. I trusted him, didn't ask for a 2nd opinion, so went ahead with the surgery. It took only 20 min, and recovery took a few weeks. But the surgery did not improve my sinuses, not one bit. I had blocked nose, 24/7. Went to see my ENT every few weeks, he kept prescribing me different nasal sprays, not one of them made any difference! I even tried immunotherapy for 6 month! It was for dust mites as my allergy skin prick test showed I had severe allergy to dust mites, which I new by the way! So, why the immunotherapy didn't help? Because the cause of my constant blocked nose had nothing to do with dust mites! It was due to just pure dust and humidity which made things 100x worse! It took me 2 years to figure it out.
I noticed when I went away for holiday for 2 weeks or so, that slowly my nose started to clear up. Than I decided to test it more thoroughly and we went away for 2 month. And guess what! Yes, my nose cleared up nicely! Not straight away, and not 100%, but it was a clear sigh, that the place where we lived had something which cause my sinuses, blood vessels to swell up.
So we decided to pack up and move for good. Over 2 years now we live in much drier climate, away from the coast. My sinuses are perfect during the day, and at night I still experience one side blockage, but I can breath ok though the other nostril. I also noticed when it's really windy, I still get blocked nose. But once in a while using decongestant is fine.
So this is my experience, hope it will help you to make the right decision. Don't jump into surgery like me, it should be the very last resort!
BTW I don't use any costeroid spray as my ENT suggested!!!!!!!
I had other specialists who told me to do further surgeries, inferior turbinate reduction, I didn't do it! And I'm so glad I didn't!!!!!!
yeep63334 care4health
Posted
Hi,
can you share if there is a way to determine allergy to humidity and dust? Any tests to show that up? I am going to get my allergy blood test done and I notice on hotter days, my nose tends to clog up a little more. Wonder if that has to do with humidity. I can't move to a drier cooler climate so I have to find a solution in tropical climate. Thanks.
care4health yeep63334
Posted
No, there is no test for humidity, dust I'm not sure. I know that I am allergic to dust 100%, a little dusting or vacuum stuffs up my nose, so I usually wear a mask. Humidity I guess makes it worse, because dust becomes thicker and heavier, and clogs up the nose even more.
If there are lots of trees, fields around wind would be the ultimate recipe for misery.
ENT told me that dust mites - I am allergic to - thrive in hot humid climate, which could be true, however it doesn't explain why on earth was my nose all blocked up even when I was outside, or on a ship in the middle of the ocean, where there are no dust mites at all! Once we travelled overnight on a ferry, my nose got all blocked up, but as soon as we got out my nose started to clear up. So it's highly unlikely that the bed on the ferry was full of dust mites, isn't it?!
Dust mites live in homes, in furniture, carpets, curtains and old matresses, not outside!
I'm lucky I could travel a fair bit and could figure it out, but It took me 2 damn years!
Blood test for allergies is not as accurate as the skin prick test.
Hope you find some solution.
yeep63334 care4health
Posted
Thanks
this really helps. I'm on anti-histamine now so I can't do the skin-prick test. I'm doing the blood test soon and hopefully get a full answer. I am fortunate that my surgery really did help me but I still need to get to the bottom of what really irritates my nose.
Cheers
yeep63334 shoaib6001
Posted
Dear Shoaib,
there is a natural nasal cycle where each side of nose takes turn to swell a little. You can check this on Wikipedia under nasal cycle. However, the swelling of this nasal cycle is often not noticeable as it doesn't swell up enough to impede breathing. When we start noticing it, it means there is more than normal swelling.
Therefore Care4health's suggestion for you to see an allergist is a good one. Some ENTs are also allergists. I wished I had seen an allergist first but my nose was so clogged I was desperate for relief. Fortunate for me the surgery worked and helped but I still need to solve the underlying allergy issue. Dont yet assume you need surgery. Go see the allergist or ENT/allergist. And agree with Care4health, get a few opinions.