Lingering dry nasal passageways

How are you now? Hope you see this.

I have a very dry nose and a pharmacist recommended a product called Secaris, it’s a lubricating moisture gel that comes in a tube…I apply it inside the nostrils with a cotton swab, very long lasting relief, hopefully it will help you with at least one problem, good luck.

I see I am not alone. I got Covid in early Dec of 2023. Extremely healthy prior - not even a cold for about 15-20 years. I am 52 years old. Within 2 days of covid, right ear was 100% blocked. Turned into ear infection and I was put on 7 days of Amoxicillin which helped with the pressure but not the blocking. 2 wks later pain was back and I was put on 7 days of Cipro. Cipro really helped and it took some time (total of 2 months) but my ear cleared. I found that eustachian tube messages were very helpful. You can find these on Youtube - I found the lymph drainage with Heather to be the most beneficial. I hope this helps some of you dealing with a blocked ear - it's extremely unpleasant.

Unfortunately, while my ear was getting better, my nose became extremely dry and inflamed restricting my breathing. I saw an ENT who put me on Mupricin cream 2x/day. This does help a lot with the crusting and dry blood and some of the dryness feeling but I still have thick white rubbery mucus that I have to clean out with a Qtip daily. I have tried to reduce the frequency that I use the cream but every time I do it, I regret it because my original symptoms come back (*for about 4 weeks straight though when I first started the cream, I had no breathing issues). I am currently dealing with inflammation, congestion and dryness but the inflammation and congestion come and go during the day. Haven't figured out the trigger yet. I am seeing an allergist in a couple weeks. I do use a humidifier and try to get the Humidity to 45. I also do Neti Pots if my nose is extremely blocked. It gives me temporary relief.

The last symptom I have is with my mouth - extreme drymouth and my tongue is pretty white. Thought it was thrush but culture came back negative and I was put on 3 antifungals which really didn't help. I still feel that maybe COVID caused some type of fungus infection but doctors keep disregarding it.

My GP has tested my bloodwork including autoimmune testing. I thought maybe I had Sjogren's syndrome but all my blood levels look good.

If anyone has any success with their nose or dry mouth - please please post. Good luck to everyone.

Very grateful to have found this interest area among post-COVID patients, because through this, I am finally approaching certainty that the severe dryness I still experience 4 months post-onset of a mild case of COVID (with a quick Paxlovid rebound) does stem from my COVID infection. Like so many here, I have tried an endless parade of palliatives and seen more than one ENT doctor, and nothing has yet emerged like a clear solution for how to get well from this. I will say, though, that like others here, I suspect that how I manifest long COVID has a lot to do with my pre-COVID vulnerabilities, among which is what one of my doctors believes to be a dysautonomia that emerged when I was still a toddler (long, long ago). So for now, I am taking a 2-pronged approach to my nose (which is painfully dry most of the time and, whatś worse, also often ¨blocked¨ on one side (airflow is impeded for reasons that do not appear to be structural). I am going to start supplementing with the well known OTC supplements available today for boosting immunity, and I am about to try a safe, conservative daily dose of thiamine to see if I can begin to turn around the dysregulation of my nervous system that has always flooded me excessively with histamines and probably contributed to long episodes of sicca (excessive dryness) in my eyes. On the way to this tentative plan, I discovered a popular OTC European patented herbal product (Sinupret in blister packets)) that has surprised me with its ability to get me some long hours of clear breathing, at times. It seems to kick in, moreover, by moistening my nose briefly, which is pleasant for as long as it lasts. Among my immunity boosters will be some of the ingredients of a compound favorably reviewed for long-COVID fatigue (after a small clinical trial) in 2021 in a European pharmacology journal, which compound contains low doses of specified B, C, and D vitamins and some acetyl-L-carnitine and hydroxytyrosol (an olive oil derivative). And Iḿ not yet sure what my thiamine replacement regimen (for my lifelong dysautonomia) will be, but I may follow the relatively low-dose program used by many Parkinsonś patients these days (inspired, in part, by the work of retired Cleveland Clinic physician Dr. Derrick Lonsdale). There will still be lots of palliatives in the picture, too, because I try (struggle, at times) to stay functional each day and need lots of help with that, and among these palliatives will be an Rx of hydroxyzine that my functional-medicine doctor prescribed for me (I was impressed and made hopeful by her thinking there!) a few days ago. Still haven´t tried ANY of the things I have mentioned here, except for Sinupret, but people like us, who share ideas, really do get closer and closer to solutions for ourselves the longer we persist and keep learning. I strongly suspect that each of us who has the disabling dry nose and airflow resistance after COVID will find relief and recovery in a unique way. .We all bring different health pictures to our bouts with COVID, and so that stands to reason.

no it hasn't only thing that helps is AFRIN. and AFRIN is not good to use for more than 3 days .. i have been using for 6 months 1/2 spray in each nostril once at night

Blakelexy, your reference to Sjogrenś got my attention, because increasingly, I believe that my own very long history with ocular sicca syndrome (negative, also, for Sjogrenś antibodies) provides a clue as to why I may have been susceptible to long COVID manifesting as severe nasal dryness on the same side as that of my blocked nostril and associated obstructive airflow.

This week, I learned that patients with persistent nasal staph infections have been using Manuka honey ointment (spray or gel) to attack their nasal infections that have failed to respond to topical and systemic antibiotics, and some report real success, which has surprised them. Some have used mupricin before resorting to Manuka honey, and claimed that the honey resolved their infections after mupricin failed to do so (attesting to negative scraping test results post-honey use).

I am vegan, and it pains me to be advocating a product sourced in bee exploitation (however humanely this exploitation is claimed to be), but because I compromised my own values, a few years ago, to try ophthalmic Manuka honey for my disabling dry eye, and was impressed by the results, I want to share this info. with you, because your suffering is clearly immense, as is the suffering of so many of us struggling with very stubborn nasal symptoms post-COVID.

Interestingly, when Manuka is used in the eye, the objective is antimicrobial action only when a contributor to the dry eye is presumed to be low-grade staph infection in the eyelid glands, BUT many doctors who recommend ophthalmic Manuka for their refractory dry eye patients insist that this product often improves patients who do not necessarily have meibomian gland infections.

In any case, I now believe that itś very likely that our post-COVID nose symptoms tend to involve some phase of secondary bacterial or fungal (or non-COVID viral) infection, and thatś why I may soon try Manuka myself for my nose.

That said, after baffling multiple ENT doctors who clearly pegged me for a malingerer (ugh), and now viewing an upcoming allergy/immunology appt. with real trepidation, I am placing LOTS of stock in the thiamine replacement protocol (for my underlying dysautonomia) that I just started, which, if I am VERY lucky, may reach the root of why I got what is apparently long COVID in the first place.

I don´t know if you may fit the profile of a patient with an underlying dysautonomia (and, btw, dry eye is now readily understood to involve vagus nerve dysfunction -- to wit the newer nasal spray that delivers varenicline), but if thereś any chance that you do, how about trying some of the safe/harmless remedies/protocols out there for dysautonomia at the same time as you continue to seek infection control and symptom palliation for the nose, in particular?

Pls forgive if anything I´ve said here is presumptuous or otherwise misses the point. Godspeed, in any case, and keep up the important work of NOT giving up. And try, if possible, to be optimistic. That is VERY hard, but fortunately for very-anxious me, for example, if my thiamine supplement program works, it is going to reduce my anxiety and help me to keep going on this journey.

Oops: Correction: Meant to say that my nasal airflow block is on the same side as that of my driER eye...