The three-month headache I whined about in my BayToday.ca column a few weeks ago has been diagnosed following a CT scan as “chronic sinusitis”.
Now I feel really bad because we could have saved the health care system an unnecessary visit had I listened to my neighbour Kurt. My house at the hacienda is kept bone dry, because the old bones prefer it that way, but everybody tells me some humidity is healthier. I don’t listen to common sense sometimes. Kurt swears by that nostril lubricant Sacaris, as he went through this sinusitis issue long ago.
I suppose having a bit of moisture in the intake valve helps trap some of viruses that otherwise find a home in the sinus cavity.
The issue for me, though, didn’t start until after a weird sickness in early December – intense headache and body ache, very similar to the COVID I battled through in September. The difference was no cough, sneezing, throat or running nose the second time. Just headache and sore all over for a few days, with the headache staying behind. The only change was that the pain migrated from the entire top of the skull to the right side and back. It did lessen as far as intensity, a bit less after sleep yet I noticed bending over was a deal breaker, felt like the right side of the cue ball was inflating under stress. The RAPID tests were negative for COVID, by the way.
Blood pressure at the doc’s office was near perfect. I got blood work done as well but no results shared yet.
Also a bit weird, there was no indication of sinus issue, face pain, eye pressure, nothing like that at all. That is why I didn’t think Kurt’s sinus diagnosis was correct. I don’t look forward to telling him he is right, if you know how it is with good friends. He can rub it in now and I will have to take it.
It is a relief to know what it is, though, because the neck nerve issue and tumour “Dr. Google speculation fears were going to cost more money and time to get under control. I am sure it is very annoying and an extremely inconvenient thing to have your skull drilled open.
Different world these days though. Doc’s prognosis came through the secretary via telephone and I was advised to just go to a pharmacy and ask for advice. Ministry of Health rules have changed because prior to this I’d have to go to his office and get something scribbled on a napkin-like leaf of paper and then hope the pharmacist read it right. I can see this being more efficient, depending on the circumstances.
The pharmacist took all the info and helped find an appropriate treatment option. She was polite enough to ask if I was covered by benefits or on ODSP, as the topic of my artificial hip and grim disposition pointed that direction. No, just a poor entrepreneur paying out of pocket. I’m sure there were some high-end products in the database, as her nose crinkled at the cost. We found some reasonable over the counter options to do the job, or at least it’s a cheaper start to figure out if the treatment is going in the right direction after a couple weeks.
It’s not fun having a headache most of the day, and even when it dissipates, there’s still a nagging thought on your mind that something isn’t right. Chronic anything wears you down and I’m already a grump when the atrophied leg howls. Don’t take me for a poor-me type, I realize all these minor things are far from the heart and many people have much worse troubles out there.
For the sinus thing, I have the luxury of picking away at getting better, no need for expensive drugs at this point.
The Sacaris is good to prevent it from recurring, she said, offering Sinufed as a symptom reliever and Flonase nasal spray, a type of steroid, to calm the inflammation a bit.
Yesterday was my first day of treatment. Guess we’ll see how it goes.
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Writer, photographer and proud father. My mom’s family is from the Soo with its Algoma Highlands, dad hailed from Cobden in the Ottawa Valley and I spent my teen years in Capreol. Summers were at the beach on the Vermillion River and winters at ‘The Rink.’ Born in East York but Toronto never was my thing. Ever since a kid looking out the window on long trips, I imagined living on the highway in a little house with a big yard and trees growing all around me.
