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Re: VERY FRUSTRATED!!! My nose is still stuffy!


Posted by Cue Miller on July 25, 2000 at 12:57:32:

In Reply to: VERY FRUSTRATED!!! My nose is still stuffy! posted by Carla on July 25, 2000 at 10:33:42:

As others have posted, it can take quite a while to recover from the so-called Afrin "addiction." A doctor can help you with this, however, if you are a really bad case. Years ago I used Afrin many times a day (like, 20 or more times) for over a year. I sure did a job on my nose, and it took me several miserable weeks to recover.

More recently, I developed very severe stuffiness all the time, day and night, and went to several doctors, including an ENT. Each one tried to cure me with various medications, but none of them worked. Over the counter Sudafed worked best, but it still wasn't even close to dealing with the chronic stuffiness.

Finally my sleep doctor took a look and sent me to an ENT who specialized in sinus problems and nasal surgery. As predicted by my sleep doc, I had nasal polyps. Once I had them removed and my deviated septum fixed, I've breathed like I've never breathed before. While waiting for the surgery, by the way, I used Afrin like a junkie. Then the week before the surgery my doc gave me prednisone. Boy does THAT cure your stuffiness (but you cannot take it for long -- a week or so).

Sounds to me like you have reached the end of self-medication and purely medical treatments, and it's time to find out if you need nasal and/or sinus surgery. You want an ENT who is a specialist in sinuses.

The surgery is not bad at all, by the way, and has a very high success rate. It is messy but not very painful. I was back at work in my home office in two days, although with a big bandage under my nose.

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