Brain Fog from Sinus infection and inflammation

When I was off work in September, my gp tested me for Lyme disease, did bloodwork, urinalysis and chest x ray

I’ve had sinusitis all of my life.

My doctor did say that I would have some inflammation and had prescribed OxyCodone, I think, some kind of opiod

@sdgoddard10
How long was your history with this ENT?
And how long was your ongoing sinus inflammation?

Environmental stress, emotional stress, blood pressure, migraine headache, hormonal changes are just some of the many things that present in the sinus tissue.

Did you see an allergist first to discuss inflammatory responses?
You also had nasal airway opening. How was your nasal breathing before this and how is it now?

How far out are you from your surgery?

I am not a proponent of nasal/sinus surgeries, as I know too much about them.

@sdgoddard10

All surgeries to the body result in inflammation, so every person is given pain medication after to get through this process.

Issue with nasal/sinus surgery is this area naturally has an inflammatory response ready 24/7 to protect us. Even a sneeze is a quick inflammatory response.

So sometimes these surgeries can Mount an ongoing inflammatory response in someone who already had ongoing low level inflammation. If you had sinusitis all your life. This was part of your body’s natural running response.

Your body is still going to do what it has always been doing . It now just has altered airflow dynamics and wider sinus openings. This on its own can cause dryness, headaches and a new type of inflammation.

I have attached a link you might find helpful…

I’ve been seeing this doctor since November 2021: I have not seen allergist to discuss responses: my nasal breathing prior to surgery was not very good, a lot of mouth breathing; my surgery was on January 19 2022: why are you opposed to sinus surgery?

@sdgoddard10- if you saw this ENT for the first time in Nov and you had surgery in Jan, then this surgeon gave you a total of about 4 to 6 weeks under his/her care to exhaust all medical therapy management and book surgery that quickly?
All people with ongoing sinus inflammation need to have allergy work up or test before any surgery is recommended. That is part of the standard care in the ENT algorithm.

I had sinus surgery performed myself. It wasn’t until after the procedure that I started suffering headaches, breathing issues etc…

ENTs do not know anything about the inflammation/immune response. That is not their job. They are surgeons. They look through the scope of cutting and removing.

If you had ongoing sinus inflammation “chronic sinusitis” I’m curious what was ever addressed systemically?

You say you had sinus inflammation? Did this result in a lot of infected thick yellow mucous?
I have learned too much now from ENTs themselves. These FESS surgeries have high failure rates, and revision rates, due to the fact that they should have never been done in the first place.
There is only a very small percentage of people who will ever need sinus/nasal surgery from an ENT.

While can’t speak specifically to your mouth breathing. There are also many other reasons for mouth breathing.

You are still early on in your recovery process. What was your after care instructions for a positive recovery?

Also-the description of your procedure is aggressive surgery. These are often referred to as “minimally invasive”. This is absolutely invasive as most of your organ system was cut into and parts of it removed.
When people have lung inflammation doctors don’t go in and remove portions of the lung. They address the inflammatory response. That’s why these surgeries make zero sense.

I had been to several walk in clinics prior to this because I was constantly getting sinus infections; I was missing several days of work and in September I took 5 days off due to sinusitis.. I went to Wisconsin for a week and when I came back I was diagnosed with sinusitis. I’ve had several courses of antibiotics, x rays on my chest, blood tests urine tests, Lyme disease test....quite a few tests...this led my doctor to refer me to an ent...
The ent put me on two courses of antibiotics and nothing helped...then finally ct scan and surgery...the main problem I’m having is a constant pressure over my left eye and it can be very bothersome to the point ofwanting to bang my head against the wall...

Sorry got being long winded but this has been going on for a long time...it’s just starting to lower my quality of life to the point I’ve been a hermit and that is notnormal

My after care instructions have been follow up visits 2 nd ct scan, prednisone, another follow up visit April 11