Would you fly with a horrible sinusitis?

[VeryInteresting12]

I have a cold- I’ve tested for Covid daily for a few days and it’s negative.
i lost my voice earlier in the week and now I have a streaming nose and my sinuses are very painful.
i am really not well today.

I am going on holiday on Sunday- flight is around 2hrs.

Somebody I was chatting with just mentioned that she wouldn’t fly with a sinusitis - and that made me wonder. Would you fly with inflamed sinuses?

I would wear a mask on the plane to protect my fellow passengers from the cold

Would sudofed nasal spray or something similar help for the flight?

Did it once as I had no choice. Excruciatingly painful. Like being stabbed with hot needles over my eyes on landing. Went dead in one ear for about a day. If you have to, I recommend facial massage, steam and Sudafed.
Sorry!

I have recurrent sinusitis and have flown with it before! Tbh it wasn't the most amazing experience but not as horrific as I thought it would be.

I dosed up on all the medication I was able to, did a sinus flush and did sinus massages for the few days before hand, I feel like it helped!

I did when I was pregnant. Worst thing ever . Ended up in bed for five days. Worst thing ever but I was pregnant so it may have been a different reaction.
Hopefully you’ll feel better by Sunday 🧡

What happened to put you into bed?

I've flown with sinusitis once, for a job interview. Not a fun experience- stuffed sinuses prevent proper air pressure equalization in your ears. If you absolutely can't avoid flying, make sure to dose up on decongestant spray before take-off and landing, and also pack some heavy-duty painkillers.

Go and find an acupuncturist that can treat it. Its quite fabulous for it!

Most of the decongestants have adrenaline like ingredients and I have a weirded reaction to them.
So it’s going to be hard to do that.

when you have talked about steam- you can’t do that in the plane can you?

i was hoping you would all say- yeah, no problems.

But I do remember a flight years ago with my friend who had no idea he had inflamed sinuses. And he got excruciating pain on landing. I could see his face and he was in absolute agony, poor bloke. He didn’t look like himself and he was crying.

hmm.
I need to check if I’ve insured this holiday.

I've done it often, chronic sinusitis and frequent 5-6 day headaches and infections.
It's unpredictable tbh. Sometimes I've felt like my head was going to explode, and the pain has lasted for days, other times with similar symptoms, not had an issue.
I'd not cancel though.
Keep doing steam inhalation, neti pot rinses, saline, massages and whatever drugs you can beforehand.

Yes I would fly but take painkillers before hand and just accept you might get vertigo and pain and things.

Either sudafed, but start taking them now, or actifed about half an hour before the flight plus a couple of paracetamol immediately before the off.

I can’t take Sudafed or arrived. They have stuff that affects my heart.

Sorry, but this will be extremely uncomfortable unless you can get your sinuses at least partially unblocked. Any problems will likely persist for hours if not days after the flight. I wouldn't do it unless I absolutely had to.

I would try to get in to an Urgent Care to get the sinusitis treated.

Flying with sinusitis is not just painful - if the sinusitis is severe enough, a flight can cause a ruptured eardrum.

I once flew when I had what I thought was a very bad cold but my sinuses must have been blocked as well. Descent was awful, like my head was in a vice, and I went almost completely deaf for about 24 hours. My hearing gradually returned but it took months, I must have done some minor damage! Not sure if insurance would cover it, might be worth contacting them to check.

What do you mean treated? Anti biotics? That will only have an effect for bacterial infections not a virus and ultimately sinusitis has to just go away.

If it clears with sudafed nasal spray then I would. In fact I did a few weeks ago, it wasn't sinusitis but just a blocked nose. Cleared with sudafed so sprayed just before we boarded and was fine!

Neilmed sinus rinse seems to be the best saline one out there, squeeze the bottle and omg see what comes down your nose... omg. So much!

Treated means treated!

You can have a bacterial sinusitis!

I wouldn't like to risk it if I couldn't fill up on medication so I could then do the sinus rinses, ice packs screaming into pillows wishing for death painkillers and more ice packs that might allow some relief before the lower pressure comes in to make it all so much worse again.

YMMV. Maybe an ice pack will shrink the blood vessels down enough that you can rinse religiously until you go (and then do it throughout your holiday as well). But I think it was the most debilitating pain I've ever experienced, even at sea level, and would rather lose money than risk it happening ever again.

I know you can have bacterial infections, my point was it might be, it might not and even if you have antibiotics it will treat the infection, the inflammation will continue until it stops

I am a martyr to my sinuses, I have steriod nasal sprays that Im on for life, Ive had them cleared out and may need it again, Ive got sinusitis again this week. The symptoms can be managed at best for long term sufferers, but you dont just rock up to urgent care and within days its gone. It doesnt work like that

Get some of the special earplugs like Earplanes which help with the pressure. They'll save you from the worst of the pain.

I flew a few years ago not realising I had sinusitis and the pain in my ears and across my cheekbones was excruciating.

However, I went to a holiday walk-in centre, the doctor gave me an injection in my bum, advised me to get a few boxes of tissues and not go out much for the next 10 hours. About 25 minutes later, you would not believe the amount of stuff that poured out of me. I think it was the first time in my life I'd felt 100% catarrh free and been able to hear clearly.

I'm currently fine, but we're going back to the same place again this summer, and I'm almost tempted to ask for another injection. It was so amazing!

I can't think of any other decongestants in afraid. May be better to skip the flight.

This wasn’t as reassuring as I’d hoped tbh
but thanks for your responses!