My first ENT visit

As if Christmas coming wasn't exciting enough, today I had my first visit with an ENT (ear, nose, throat) doctor.

For several years, I've gotten sinus infections from almost every cold I catch and they go on for weeks at a time. And I'm very grumpy and irritable for that whole time. It's not happy times when mama's sick around here. Every now and then, I give up and go get an antibiotic to clear it up, but inevitably, here it comes around again.

So, I decided enough was enough. I'll see if there's something wrong with my anatomy that's making the ick stick around. Hence, today's visit.

After looking in my ears and at my throat, he sprayed an anesthetic nasal spray up my nose and ran a thin little scope all through the nasal passages and sinus areas.

The conclusion for now: my nose is C-shaped, and my right sinus is not draining properly because of that. He thought it looked like my nose had been broken in the past. I know I've always had a crooked nose, but I don't recall it ever being broken. I was almost a month late being born, so maybe my nose got squished up in the womb or something :)

Anywho, he sucked some of the ick out with a neat little vacuum thing (they DO have nose vaccuums..now where to get one?) and is sending it off for culture. He says he'd like to see if he can target some antibiotics specifically for whatever bacteria is lurking in there. Then, if that doesn't help, I'll be back for a CT scan to see if surgery might be an option.

So, in the meantime, he wants me to rinse out my nose with a Neti pot or the sinus rinse bottle and see if that will get some relief. And, then I guess it's back to more antibiotics...sheesh. Hopefully we'll get the right one this time. Wish me luck!

Oh, and my nose is and upper front teeth are numb from the anesthetic spray. Wierd!