BS: Nasal polyps anyone? :-)

Subject: BS: Nasal polyps anyone? :-)
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 15 Nov 03 - 10:07 AM

I have just had the little beasies evicted for the second time in 5 years. Not a difficult op but not something you would do for fun on a Friday night either! I am going to try my best to ensure they don't re-occur.

Ordered the barrier bedding to help with the dust allergy. Going to avoid smokey environments (toying with some nasal filters for the folk club). Doc says diet should not affect it too much as I have no allergic reation to most foods (Odd exceptions - Thai food and smoked mackeral. Weird or what?) Flexonase (sp) drops seem to be in favour at the mo so he is recommending those as a regular medication.

Any catters out there with similar problems? How do you cope with it? For a fuller picture btw I am a classic case for nasal polyps with both perrenial allergic rhinitis and asthma to go with them:-(

Any contribution gratefully accepted. Serious ones may be acted upon. Silly ones should at least be funny. And I will be the judge of that...

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: Nasal polyps anyone? :-)
From: Rapparee
Date: 15 Nov 03 - 10:12 AM

Thanks, no. My last colonoscopy removed two of the other kind, and...no, no, I don't think I like any. But thanks anyway.

Subject: RE: BS: Nasal polyps anyone? :-)
From: John Routledge
Date: 15 Nov 03 - 10:45 AM

Hi Dave

Mine flare up when subjected to smokey atmospheres.

Not always but unfortunately more frequently as time marches on.

Takes up to a week for them to settle down.

Avoidance Strategy - Unless I REALLY want to go to a smokey venue for a specific reason I DON'T GO

Not complaining though as the rights of smokers must be repected :0)

Subject: RE: BS: Nasal polyps anyone? :-)
From: Alice
Date: 15 Nov 03 - 11:08 AM

Test your home for mold spores. You can get the culture and kit from labs online who will then analyze the results. I have three different molds I found after culturing the air in my bedroom, all allergens that can lead to asthma and emphysema. Take out all carpeting, any plants in your bedroom (mold in the soil) and wash surfaces down with a mild bleach solution. Remove all wall to wall carpeting in your house if you can. Good luck!

Alice

Subject: RE: BS: Nasal polyps anyone? :-)
From: Helen
Date: 15 Nov 03 - 03:18 PM

Dave,

My first thought about the Thai food/smoked mackerel is that it could be the fish sauce in many Thai dishes. I think the fish sauce is fermented. The other reason - I have just found out via a Google search - could be peanuts.

I don't have nasal polyps, but I do have a chronic condition of swollen nasal mucous membranes. One negative - among many - from this is that I snore very loudly and sometimes wake up breathless. I kind of take it for granted that I will always have nasal congestion. I try not to take too many anti-histamines, but sometimes I have to do that to relieve it.

So, I can relate to your condition, most definitely.

Helen

Subject: RE: BS: Nasal polyps anyone? :-)
From: Don Firth
Date: 15 Nov 03 - 04:43 PM

I had the gran'daddy of nasal polyp collections up until eight years ago.

I'm not sure what brought them on, but for years I smoked like a battleship. You always knew when I was approaching because of the plume of smoke before I appeared over the horizon. This started giving me occasional problems with singing (a couple of bad bouts with acute laryngitis), and I finally quit smoking in 1978.

But at the time, I was working in a closed office building in which almost everybody recycled each other's colds or other plagues. The building was later declared "sick" and the air conditioning system had to be thoroughly decontaminated of bacterial deposits, mold spores, and other things too fierce to mention. I never had allergies until I worked in that building, and since then, I've had fairly constant rhinitis (manifests itself in post-nasal drip and constantly having to cough or clear my throat). I seem to be allergic to this planet's atmosphere.

My nose was almost constantly plugged up. I became, literally, a mouth-breather. Finally, one day when my wife and I were out in the car, my nose was so plugged and my mouth was so dry from breathing through it that I felt like I couldn't breathe at all. I had a panic attack. Barbara drove me to the emergency room of a nearby hospital. The doctor peered up my bugle and told me that it was no wonder I couldn't breathe; my nasal passages were wall-to-wall polyps. He referred me to a specialist (an otorhinolaryngologist) at the Northwest Nasal Sinus Center in north Seattle (how's that for alliteration?). A couple of weeks later, the specialist operated (I was out at the time). Endoscopy, no external incisions. When I woke up in the recovery room, I was told that they had never seen a set of sinuses so thorough stuffed with polyps. I was quite probably some kind of record. But even though I was packed here and there with wads of cotton, I could breathe! Through my nose! There were several follow-up visits, prescription nasal sprays, rinsing my sinuses out with saline solutions by the pint a couple of times a day (now that's a million giggles! He had me using a Water-Pik with a special snoot attachment). And in the final exam many months later, he declared me polyp-free. The operation was in November of 1995. Since then, my regular quack looks up my schnozzle with each exam, and so far, so good. No recurrence. And I can breathe freely.

But apparently I still have rhinitis or something like it. The occasional monumental sneezing fit (allergies, I presume—I'm especially allergic to the ink in the TV Guide), I still have to cough or clear my throat often, and sometimes my nose will start to run at the damnedest times (buy stock in Kleenex).

Not an experience I care to repeat.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Nasal polyps anyone? :-)
From: GUEST,Melvin Moose
Date: 15 Nov 03 - 06:18 PM

Hi. I am a moose from near Kirkland Lake, Ontario, eh? I range around between, like, Iroquois Falls and over to the Quebec line and south to Englehart and west to as far as South Porcupine. Once I did a midnight stroll through Matachewan, but there wasn't no one up as far as I could see, so it was a cakewalk, eh? I ain't seen any hunters yet this year, touch wood!

So, I am, like, really, really ticked that you would be so insensitive as to bring up this nasal polyp thing! You oughta know that most mature moose are greatly troubled by nasal polyps, and we don't like being reminded, eh? So, like, stop talkin' about it!

Do I get on the Net and talk about jock itch? No, I don't. You follow? Capiche? Have a little consideration, eh?

Subject: RE: BS: Nasal polyps anyone? :-)
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 15 Nov 03 - 07:17 PM

I've got a Canadian cookbook somewhere which gives recipes for dishes you can make with moose nose. Moose Nose Jelly for example.

Subject: RE: BS: Nasal polyps anyone? :-)
From: Rapparee
Date: 15 Nov 03 - 07:19 PM

Hey, Melvin! Didn't my buddy Scott shoot one of your friends a couple years back?

I snore, I breathe through my mouth at time and I'm on medications for chronic rhinitis, etc. When I first came to this high desert country, I had rather frequent, but not very bad, nosebleeds. Gradually I'm acclimatizing. But it ain't fun!! I still have sleep disturbances.

Subject: RE: BS: Nasal polyps anyone? :-)
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 16 Nov 03 - 06:01 AM

Thanks all - Good advice.

I have ordered some nasal filters to help cope with smoke at the folk club. Damned if I will be driven away from the folk club I run by a bunch of drug addicts! Anyone interested can find details here. I will let you know if they are any good.

Melvin. We don't get jock itch in the UK. We are not so crude. But 10/10 for the humour:-)

Don - You give me hope! I only got severe problems when I gave up smoking about 10 years ago. If I keep up with the barriers, drops and washes I may even get a sense of smell back! Should make people happy. They keep telling me I smell very badly...

Cheers

DtG