I Think I'll Survive for Now

Although I have lots of aches and pains, I don't get ill very often, but I did this weekend, an acute sinus infection. It started out with scratchiness and a sore throat on Friday evening, and by Saturday morning I felt like warmed over death. Yesterday I felt a little better, and today I feel somewhat human again.

I've been getting sinus infections for over ten years. They are extremely unpleasant, causing headaches, super congestion, ear problems, and general achiness and ickiness. In the early days, the doctor would hit it with an antibiotic: amoxicillin, cipro, augmentum, whatever. But the antibiotics caused their own problems like yeast infections and the like.

I stopped using the antibiotics several years ago. My doctor doesn't like it and tells me that I could get into some serious trouble, and I don't doubt that at all. On the other hand, I've discovered that treating the symptoms of sinus infection are usually sufficient to bring me back to the world of the living, and in just about the same amount of time as the antibiotics.

Use Sudafed during the day for congestion. Use Afrin at night. Take an antihistamine like Claritin, and supplement it throughout the day with Benadryl. Use ibuprofen for headaches. Of course, you should probably do what your doctor tells you to do, like drink lots of liquids. It's been great for my diet, too, because I can hardly stand to eat anything.

Every cloud has a silver lining.