I’m all about the placebo type effect

I second all the comments about nasal irrigation. For much of my life, I had awful sinus infections on a semi-regular basis - especially in the fall. I seemed to be off and on antibiotics all the time, and several years had the big slug'o steroids shot in the butt.

I started doing the sinus rinse over 10 years ago, and haven't had a single sinus infection since. I use the NeilMed brand (bottle, saline packets) available most anywhere. I do this once per day year round, and twice per day during bad allergy times.

I can't vouch for the awful smoke and what that is like. The worst we get is in spring when the farmers in Kansas are burning their fields off and the smokes drifts north into Nebraska - but nothing like the wildfire smoke....

I hope you feel better soon. It surely won't hurt to start doing the saline rinse!

Antibiotics may not help and you may end up being worse in a few weeks since it will wipe out your gut flora. If it is indeed a bacterial infection, echinacea may help, but some are sensitive to it. THis sinus may also be the result of you breathing the smoke which will have parts of all the plants that are burning and you may be sensitive to whats in the smoke. IN other words, you have all the symptoms of an infection, but your immune system is reacting to something other than bacteria.

I never take antibiotics. Never need to. USe alternative methods without the side effects.

I've never gotten a lift, so to speak, from antibiotics unless they're steroids or have steroids in them. Steroids, if taken for too long or in unsafe amounts, can result in aggressive behavior. A smaller steroid dosage, which is sometimes present in some antibiotics, can make you feel a bit more confident, give you a bit more 'get up and go'/let's go out and conquer the day kind of feeling. You might want to check if there are any steroids in your antibiotic. I was once given a steroid shot in the butt when I was having an allergic reaction to a particular bug spray (the reaction had nothing to do with my butt; that's just standard operating procedure when a nurse gives you a steroid shot) and I felt very confident and up the rest of the day. Went to work and felt like I'd conquered the world. That's what steroids will do to you.

Doctors over prescribing antibiotics are one of the reasons we have resistant bacteria today.

I think that's called the placebo effect!

I take a lot of pills and there are a few that make a difference if I forget them. Antibiotics usually work and I am glad they do. Hope you just get over your ailment, I have been feeling bad, stomach flu, for the past week, I cannot get rid of it fast enough. Feel good.

Ol' Dr. Don (retired) has prescribed maybe 2000 courses of antibiotics for sinusitis, rhinitis and bronchitis in my 35,000 patient visits. Too many, frankly. Patients demand them. Structural solutions, some listed below, are probably a better first option. Our bodies have remarkable abilities to fight infection without using antibiotics, so long as the immune system is not compromised. It is also important that the antibiotic is effective against whatever bacteria is present. A culture is important, even in this age of "broad spectrum" antibiotics. Many clinicians will automatically start a patient on Bactrim or Amoxicillan without knowing whether the bacteria is resistant. And more and more bacteria are developing resistance. Don't hesitate to go back to your clinician, or find a second clinician, if you are not getting over this episode. And, honestly, keeping a positive attitude is half the battle. Sounds like you are doing that. I normally require payment at the time of service, but this one is on the house. Now get better. That's an order!

No. I really dislike taking AB's, unless there truly is no other option. They totally upset ones good bacteria - sometimes for months after.

Certainly it's good they exist, as some conditions cannot be stopped any other way, but at this point they've been so over-prescribed , we have too many resistant organisms now.

Feel better ...

More of a relief until the side effects of the antibiotics start...diarrhea, stomach ache, thrush/yeast infection, constipation. I would rather not but sometimes you just gotta take it.

I have experienced the same but attributed the emotional response to be a placebo effect of believing the antibiotics will make me healthy. Hope your journey back to health is short and productive.

No, though I have not been sick enough to need medicine (excluding injury surgery) in 20+ years.

Getting well lifts the spirit.

I'm always nervous when I have to take them. I had a bad reaction that was severe for about 3 months and didn't completely go away for more than a year. It cost me my job.

Until I finally went through with the dreaded sinus surgery last October, I was in and out of sinus infections. Antibiotics + Medrol Dosepacks will make you feel a lot better almost immediately, but the sinus infections kept coming back. If you live through the surgery you will feel a lot better permanently. It just depends on what is causing the infections, whether it be allergies, poloyps or whatever. Anyway, I have not had to take antibiotics for an infection since the surgery. I'm taking allergy shots and doing my sinus rinses with salt solution (very beneficial, but uncomfortable to do) and am breathing and feeling a lot better.

Yes!

Wishing you quick, prompt recovery.

Must be a helluva SI. I lost 10 yrs of my life as a zombie either having a SI or getting over one.
Finally I got sick of it & of my own accord, not any GP's suggestion(!!!), decided to be allergy tested.
Between that & thyroid Rx my life did a 180. I'm still angry at never having been guided to see an allergist. I went like religion for 2 yrs.
One antibiotic prescribed to me, Avelox, scared me so badly when i looked it up just suffered through one. The gp YELLED at me for being scared of it(he's a fucking asshole anyway). FF years and some antibiotics implicated in tendon damage.

Hope you feel better Kathleen.