Post nasal drip is making me feel constantly ill

[bacon]

What can be done? I'm 40 now and can remember it starting when I was about 19, seemed to got worse in my 30's. My head is constantly giving me gip! I'm either clearing my throat, sore dry throat, bad breath, stuffiness, my head is banging or throbing over the bridge of my nose, sharp pains under my ears etc. In the morning I wake up feeling yuck, nausea, and a feeling of trapped phlegm in my lower throat area.

I read that the membrances get inflammed hence more mucus produced. which in turn is giving me coughs and feel rubbish even though health wise I am very well but my head ENT problems are taking over my life.

GP's are pretty hopeless with this as years ago they kept giving my anti-boitics.

ANyone overcome this problem or tried alternatives. Do I assume then until my nose tissues calm down nothing can be done? I must add I dont seem to have an allergy, no hayfever, no sneezing but sensitive nose.

Have you ever had a steroid nasal spray for this? It cleared dh's pnd (LOL ) within a week or two.

Have you tried any asthma therapies for it?

Have you ever tried taking antihistamines for it? It could still be an allergy. You might need to try several different antihistamines, taking each for a couple of weeks, then a 3-4 weeks break before trying a different one. If you find you respond well to any of them it may be worth asking to be refered for allergy testing.

Antihistamines may also help even if it's not allergy-related, as some of them are decongestant.

Have you ever tried eliminating food groups, eg dairy, wheat, or eggs?

I would try with the nasel sprays, and you could test to see if its allergy yourself, take a non drowsy antihistamine at night, for a month , as it needs to build up to have an effect, and see if your symptoms improve.

if it does work, then consider anti allergy bedding in case dustmites , one of the most common enviromental allergen btw are the cause.

if you think food is a issue, i am sure other symptoms would have made you aware of this connection.

Oh - I have had this problem (for years, though not as long as you) and I can tell you exactly how I fixed it!

1. Saline nasal spray every morning and evening.
2. Use an antihistamine nasal spray (after the saline spray) every evening.

I usually use beconase antihistamine spray, but there's another one in orange packaging I always forget the name of - it also works.

You can't "overdose" on the saline spray, so you can use it throughout the day if it helps (I do when my hayfever flares - which is rarely now, thank goodness).

The antihistaine sprays - they say 1-2 sprays per nostil. I started off with 2 sprays each side, then weaned myself off it over about 3 months. I still use it occasionally when my hayfever flares up really badly.

I started doing this about 2 years ago and recently have become much more relaxed about using the saline spray (haven't regularly used the antihistamine spray since about 20 months ago) - I no longer use it in the mornings and sometimes not even every day. I probably could have relaxed my regime sooner but once I'd found something that worked, I stuck with it!

Hope this helps. I found a noticeable improvement after a week - a lot less "sniffing" if you know what I mean!

Good luck.

Hi Bacon

I'm 47 and have suffered from post nasal drip since I was about 19 as well! Have tried all sort of steroid sprays etc but found now that the one thing that works for me is nasal flushing (aka nasal irrigation. Sounds dreadful but basically i wash out my nasal passages using a sea salt solution using a neti pot.

Prior to this I was constantly clearing my throat, had bad breath, stuffy nose and a feeling of phlegm trapped at the back of my throat; also got tonsil stones which stank!

Made a massive difference; I do it morning and evening and can tell if I've missed a day due to being idle bugger or unwell.

have a google

I use a nasal spray every night , it's called flixonase .
I get it on prescription ( so it's free as I live in Wales ) probably able to buy it over the counter. A similar one , I think , is called beconase.

Thanks, nice to know I'm not the only one sniffing and coughing up!

I have had nasal sprays but not finding much success now. My condition has got worse since having children and on my second pregnancy I was so blocked up I couldnt breath.

Pudden I have been doing the irrigation thing but a bit ad-hoc so mybe do it strictly now. I also have those nasty tonsil stones and sometimes a horrendous acid stuff comes from my tonsil area.

I'm not sure whether the condition and addition of these sprays makes my sinsus throb and sore and its horrible when the inside of my nose feels very dry and bloody. But I need the sprays as I get so blocked up and start to feel panicy.

Not sure too whether I have a touch of bruixum as my face is so painful and wonder if all this is tried up?

Came across this article which is pretty good.

www.thegodsplinter.btinternet.co.uk/TwilightZone/PostNasalDrip.htm

Last night was bad I had lots of phelgm building up in my throat, terrible pain in base of throat, throat tickling, snoring and this morning just feel weak and ill.

some form of allergy test would help because I cant pinpoint any trigger apart from my lovely children!!!! The sad thing seems to be that they have inherrited this from me.

I suffered from post nasal drip for about a year. A friend suggested cutting out dairy foods, I googled this and found that lots of people find this helps. I cut out all dairy foods for a couple of months and the post nasal drip gradually stopped. I now do eat dairy but in reduced amounts. Could be worth a try.

It might be worth discussing the possibility of a steroid spray with your GP. I had similar problems to you - waking up all night because my nose was so stuffed up - really miserable. I had inflamed turbonates (I think that's what they are called - part of the nose anyway). I was put on Nasonex spray which cleared it up almost instantly. It comes back if I stop taking the spray, but the consultant says it's not a problem to be on it long-term. There is also an operation in which they shave the turbonates , but as he's happy to continue the steroid spray I haven't had it - seems a bit extreme for me atm.