To Use or to Avoid Antibiotics

In the past I had lots of problems with sinusitis, and it was not unusual for me to come down with three or four sinus infections in a year. Most of the time I would go to the doctor and get an antibiotic. I later learned that taking too many antibiotics can be harmful, as bacteria can become resistant to the medications. I subsequently tried to avoid taking antibiotics if at all possible.

I eventually had two sinus surgeries because I was desperate to get my sinus problems “fixed”. What I learned the hard way is that many sinus surgeries don’t help much, or if they do, the problems return after a while. It turns out that there are many different causes of sinusitis, and what is effective treatment for one person might not work at all for someone else. My problem might stem from certain allergies, while your issues might be from polyps or from reactions to certain fungal material. So it is very hard to effectively treat sinus problems in everyone.

After my second surgery I was still coming down with sinus infections from time to time, and I read some books about how pulsating nasal irrigation was helpful for some people. For me it turned out to be a life saver. With daily nasal irrigation I can hold off most sinus infections. I do use some other medications along with it, like a nasal spray before bed each night. If an infection feels imminent I will take a little prednisone. I try to keep the prednisone to a bare minimum because it has side effects. Normally this takes care of my problems and I don’t have to live for another two weeks with a sinus infection.

At the start of this winter I felt a sinus infection coming on, and I began my normal treatment routine. I usually don’t bother going to the doctor anymore because I have been treated so many times and know what to do on my own. I knew I had a slight infection because I had to blow my nose a lot, and the mucus was rather thick and cloudy. It wasn’t too bad, however, because I didn’t have sinus headaches and was able to function normally. This lasted about a week and I felt good again.

About a month later the problem returned, and I went through the same thing a second time. This time was a bit worse, as I had a very scratchy throat and was coughing a lot, especially at first. And then after feeling normal for a couple of weeks, I had a third occurrence of the problem. I woke up in the morning feeling a bit off, and by bedtime I knew I was sick. This situation is not usual for me any more, especially since I started doing nasal irrigation every day. So this time I had to give up and went to my primary care physician. He said I was doing most of the right things, but he also prescribed an antibiotic.

It only took about two days for the antibiotic to kick in, but needless to say I had to finish the bottle of pills. This is always necessary with antibiotics because if all the bacteria are not killed, some will develop resistance to them. This is the problem with taking too many antibiotics in the first place. Sometimes, however, antibiotics are necessary, and had I seen my doctor and taken this medication to begin with, I would have probably avoided the second two bouts of sinus issues.