Pushing A Rock, Pushing A Rock...

[poppetkazutaka]

I get to go to Dr. Salmon this Friday for the Chronic Sinus Infections again, yay~! I had this problem a couple years ago, when they took my tonsils and -his words- "they disintegrated" in his hands because they were so infected. So I have no idea why my head is so stuffed up with infection this time. As if I didn't have enough to deal with, with all the POTS stuff going on.

But oddly enough, when my body has to fight off an infection\cold\virus\something, it manages not to hurt all over or be as sick as usual, so I have to think that perhaps some of my issues are autoimmune related, because I have a heck of a lot more energy and get more done when I'm sick than when not. Even if I feel like utter poo under a car tire while doing it, I feel /better/ than when I'm well.

Go figure. So!

Here I am. At work. My nose is stuffy and hurting from all the tissues. My chest is beginning to hurt from the coughing and dripping into it, and my body is just dragged out from the inability to sleep from not breathing at night. But. I am not dizzy, I am not sore all over, and I am feeling more alert under the cold medicine than usual.

Hey, maybe I should get infected more often. XD

[erik]

I do think there is some natural cortisol response to illness & stress. Just one of the big players that's involved amid what I assume are thousands of other possibilities and body processes. Once for what appeared to be a persistent sinus thingy, I was prescribed antibiotics, cortisol/similar, and claritin. Ironic because taking an exogenous glucocorticoid tends to suppress the immune system hard so you're kind of manually taking over for the process. Took a while, but I felt pretty strong afterward, then crashed hard at the end and ended up in an urgent care clinic! A "mild Addisons" (if such a thing existed) could explain most of my POTS symptoms in general.

[futurehope]

Erik,

I agree that when under stress, including illness, the body tends to produce more stress hormone (cortisol). There can be a "crash" after the illness, though. That can mean feeling weaker than usual for a while.

As for "mild Addison's", I had an insulin tolerance test which did show a below normal response of my adrenals to the stress of low blood glucose. I tried a low dose of hydrocortisone for a month or two ( 5 - 15 mg/day), but found myself getting fatter with no other added benefits.

End of experiment!

[erik]

Yeah, I felt really good then had crash episode of panic, dissociation, inability to spell simple words, etc. I think if I had managed the end of that treatment better I could have avoided the problem part. But I felt so darn good I didn't think about it (corticosteroids can on occasion cause delusion but that wasn't it... I just felt good). As messed up as I felt during the crash, it was actually a brief "window" of feeling healthy in a different way. It seems like often we're never totally well and that the problem shifts around just like Ms. Poppet describes. For me, it was a momentary glimmer that made me think there might actually be "a healthy" out there somewhere for me (I had long given up prior, like 20 years of "given up").

That course of treatment ended my sinus infection that had lasted more than a month! My doc described the combo of antibiotics, corticosteroid, and claritin in a way that made it sound kind of "standard" for that, even if it's suspected of being viral. Stuff like that has its risks but it might be something that could help. I'd hate to recommend something that ended up causing a worse problem, so I include the whole story (including my subsequent crash). Has anyone else had luck with that combo for a sinus infection problem? Is it standard?

Also, I sometimes take cold medicines when I'm not sick because I tend to feel better from them too.