Antibiotics and Sinusitis

Today, the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology linked to a study recently published by physicians at the Washington University School of Medicine. I'm sure the study will cause a lot of hubbub among doctors and patients because it essentially recommends just symptomatic treatment for most sinusitis, siding with a recent CDC panel's recommendations.

I, for one, am glad to see that serious work is being done to discuss what works and what doesn't for the average patient with sinusitis. Overusing antibiotics puts patients with chronic problems at higher risk for complications from antibiotic resistant bugs. Further, I think that most people go running to the primary care doctor for antibiotics at the first signs of discomfort. I think physicians should be much quicker to recommend symptom relief and much slower to dispense antibiotics. It would be better for people in the long run. People should also realize that it takes time for their immune response to fully kick in and remove the pathogens. In this study, patients treated with amoxicillin and patients treated with placebo had the same results 10 days out.

The study's authors were careful to exclude those with chronic sinusitis, ear infections, chest infections, and other complications to get a better picture of what the average person with a normal immune system and normal sinus presentations would experience. I am hopeful that the next stages of the investigators' work will yield some positive outcomes and treatment procedures for those with sinus infections... hopefully, they'll be antibiotic free.

Sinus Complications

Today I had IVIG. I also have another sinus infection. At least that's what seems to be happening. I have a prescription for Cipro that I am to fill and start taking on Wednesday if I'm not feeling better.

The doctor and I discussed the increased infections I've been having, and we've come to the conclusion that there is more testing in my future. Basically, we'll treat this infection then see how long it takes for me to get another one. When I get the next one, especially if it is soon after stopping antibiotics, I will go in for an x-ray of my sinuses so we can see if there's anything structural that could be causing my issues. If there is that possibility, we'll go from there as to what happens next. I'm over all this and wish I could just fix it. Quickly and permanently. I'm tired of being sick.