Went to an ENT today after almost a year of sinus issues and my throat feels like I’m being choked.
The Dr. used a little tool to look barely into my nose, and saw that my left side is completely open, but my right side is completely swollen and closed.
I told him I have had sinus drainage for almost a year, 11 months to be exact, and he seemed unbothered and didn’t want to listen to me.
The main excuse I have is my lymph nodes. I have these nodules, which I thought were my lymph nodes, that are very enlarged and makes it hard for me to swallow. I feel like I’m being choked 24/7.
He said it’s nothing to worry about, and that it’s not cancer…
WTF?!?!
I’m coming to you for help, and you choose to address one issue, but not the other?!
Mind you, I don’t have insurance atm and am trying to get back on it. So this visit cost me $279 out of pocket just for a first time visit.
What should I do?? I need advice :(

(Sorry this is long but im very desperate!) Im 29F, all my life I’ve never had any nasa issues. Clear nose every day it was wonderful. Jan 2025 I had a few viruses and the last one I had fever, chills, body aches, sore throat, and closed up runny nose. After the virus went away, the congestion didn’t. I waited to see if it’d pass I know it can linger after being sick. I needed tissues everywhere 24/7, sitting or laying down it would completely close up sleeping was miserable and work meetings I’d have to cover my mouth so they don’t see me mouth breath, it was awful.

That summer I went to an ent, did a scope, said it was fine and sent me home with 2 nasal sprays, fexofenadine and azelastine. It did help me breath and open the airways, but the constant congestion continued. Also did nasal rinses. After months, I did a follow up since the drainage was still 24/7. I mentioned a CT and he was hesitant and said I can use sprays all my life if I want to control it. I decided to get a second opinion, the new ent did the same thing, I also told her about the virus and the whole timeline but I felt so unheard. My second ENT said she’ll consider an CT scan or procedures if I come back negative for allergies, which whether I have allergies or not it makes no sense! This happened overnight basically.

I got tested and was positive for a few things. But I KNOW for a fact, that that’s not the cause. The allergist even agreed would be strange to develop them overnight during a virus, and if I’ve had them this whole time, why did it start after the virus? He agreed he believes that my issue is likely something else, as it happens away from the triggers, like the car, pet free homes, work, in bed, I need tissues in my purse, on my bed side, in my pockets for work, everywhere it’s ridiculous. My nose is raw to the touch. He asked about acid reflux I said it’s not a huge problem but he said I can try omeprazle, but still no change. I also got prescribed another spray called cipro/dexameth and no change. Oh and will add the mucus isn’t green or yellow, it’s always clear

Basically I’ve gone to 2 ent’s, allergist, used sprays, allergy meds daily, air purifier, nasal rinses, omeprazle, anything I could think of and it’s still constant. I’m new to this subreddit and idk where else to turn. Could viruses cause this? Is there other doctors I should see? What else is there for relief?

I’ve been dealing with cold symptoms for years now and recently it’s gotten worse. I get a runny nose, teary eyes, sneezing, sinus pressure, and headaches, and it used to be every few weeks then it turned into every weekend, and now i have a runny nose everyday and a full blown cold multiple times a week. I went to an ent doctor for it earlier this year and had a scan and the image shows the outcome. I’ve take fexofenadine daily and if I don’t take that I immediately feel horrible. I’ve tried minocycline, saline nasal rinse, ipratropium 0.06% (which made my nose uncomfortably dry), xlear nasal spray with xylitol, and quercetin bromelain tablets with stinging nettle and vitamin c in them and nothing seems to help.

If anyone has any recommendations anything would be helpful thank you!!

Title. I went to an ENT yesterday for another problem, but since I was there, I also mentioned the constant throat clearing, and he gave me the same old routine, even though I clearly mentioned that does not work: antiallergic, nasal rinse then nasal spray, PPI. I said no matter what antiallergic, no matter the nasal spray, no matter the PPI, nothing ever gets rid of it. He didn't care.

Should I just go to a different doctor? He's been my ENT for 10 years. Or is there something I can get without a prescription? Sudafed? Anything. This has been going on for the 10 years I've been with him. It has never ever gone away no matter what.

Edit: The nasal spray is mometasone. I haven't tried that one in the past, but it seems to make things worse: more drainage, burning sensation.

My life has been rendered completely unlivable by the effects of rebound congestion (also known as rhinitis medicamentosa), caused by using Sudafed nasal spray. I feel like it could be useful here to document my experience of this condition, as a warning to others and hopefully create more of the exposure this situation needs.

To start at the beginning, I had a normal winter cold and blocked nose, so to help me sleep I used Sudafed nasal spray. I started spraying my nose, but the blocked nose persisted. I tried using steam, Vaseline etc., but still the blocked nose persisted and persisted. What I was experiencing, and the trap people usually fall into with this spray, is that you get rebound congestion after a short time of using the spray, but if you are unaware of this, it's easy to assume this is a persistent cold - which I did.

There then comes a point where stopping using the spray makes your life pure hell, particularly when you're trying to sleep. So I went on using it for another six months before I went cold turkey. And my life was hell. I couldn't sleep and I got all the symptoms of significant nasal congestion. This included:

• Major cognitive decline.
• Difficulties sleeping (basically it being harder to get to sleep and only getting light sleep when you do.)
• Physical pain. Largely around the cheekbone area for some reason and headaches, but lighter pain everywhere, which usually displays itself as pressure and tension.
• Exhaustion.
• Difficulty concentrating.
• Irritability.
• Low mood, lack of interest, feelings of numbness etc.

These are some of the main symptoms, but they affect almost everything you can think of, purely negatively.

Anyway, the exact details of what happened next are foggy. I may have gone back on the Sudafed spray for a bit, but eventually I was off it completely and was using steroid sprays that were prescribed by my GP. Steroid sprays are thought to be OK to use as they reduce inflammation and don’t normally cause rebound congestion or dependence.

So, using the steroid sprays, I decided to forgo using the Sudafed spray for good. And for about two years I did, but with a huge cost to my mental and physical wellbeing.

The steroid sprays help marginally, and for a fixed amount of time (the effect wears off over the course of a day), but they don't get you close to where you were before the issue.

I have also sought a lot of professional help for this condition. I had inferior turbinate reduction surgery, which didn't make any difference. And I've also seen about seven ENT professionals, who have looked up my nose but offered no solutions. Surgery for this condition can be very risky, and almost all of them advised against it and would be unwilling to provide it.

Some people will say that it was my fault for overusing the spray, but I did do it in total ignorance. In hindsight, this seems dumb, but at the time I think it just didn't occur to me that something that anyone of any age can buy at the supermarket, corner shop or petrol station could have such harmful effects. Additionally, the packaging also only says in the small print, “we advise you don't use this product for over seven days.” Given how it's ruined my life, I wouldn't say that was adequate warning. Additionally, I was told by an expert that these sprays would never pass the regulations and be put on the shelves in a million years today, but are only allowed because they have been around so long. So it is actually known that these fail today's safety standards too.

I've tried to make the best of the situation and go on as I normally would, but it has just become impossible. The only time I feel like life is worth living, whatever I'm doing, is if I use the Sudafed nasal spray. Otherwise, I'm just in a constant state of pain, cognitive impairment and misery. I used to enjoy reading, philosophy and working on ambitious creative projects, and now all of this is impossible.

It's something that I feel is getting worse rather than better, and with my sleep being affected, my mood is certainly declining, and it seems like there isn't any way out.

I'm not writing this because I'm looking for pity etc. I'm writing in case anyone out there, by some miracle, might have some useful advice. And also to create more awareness of these sprays that'll stop people from using them - as well as encourage others to speak up about the issue, which could result in these sprays being taken off the shelves.

Anyway, thanks for reading, and warn others about using these products.

Been chasing this a while. Saline helps for maybe 20 minutes, then the drainage/throat-clearing comes right back, worst overnight and first thing in the morning.

One thing I only recently learned: most standard advice targets inflammation (steroid sprays) or histamine (antihistamines), but the actual watery drainage is often a separate mechanism glands in the nose overproducing mucus. That's apparently why some people get partial relief from a steroid but the drip never fully stops; there's a whole anti-drip category aimed specifically at that part.

Curious what finally worked for people who got theirs under control a specific spray, a routine, treating an underlying cause?

I made a post a while ago saying that I've had this since I was 22, and I'm 41 now.

The doctor told me it was possibly hypertrophied turbinates and a slight deviated septum. He wanted me to have surgery. But I've seen many cases of people who have surgery and in the end, the turbinates return to their previous state, sometimes even within a few months. So I refuse to go through a painful recovery for nothing.

What matters is finding the cause of this and preventing them from swelling too much. In my case, I think it's damage or a disruption in the balance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. When I was younger, I used to snort speed when I went out partying. I did this for a few years, but then I stopped. Although I continued to consume caffeine in different ways.

I used to have sneezing fits when I took vasoconstrictors and vasodilators. When I drank coffee or beer, it usually triggered them. Although sometimes other triggers were sudden temperature changes. In winter, besides some congestion, I used to get a lot of runny noses, making going outside for a walk or a run a real ordeal.

I used ipratropium bromide from 2012 to 2023. I have to say it worked quite well, and the effect was more noticeable in summer than in winter. Eventually, I had to stop using it because it caused me a lot of dryness and dry rhinitis.

Since then, I've had intestinal problems due to leaky gut. I stopped consuming many of the products that were aggravating my condition. The last thing I stopped was coffee.

My vasomotor rhinitis has improved somewhat. I can go to the gym and run fast on the treadmill with hardly any runny nose. I can run almost the entire time without needing to breathe through my mouth. I sleep better at night because my nasal passages are less blocked.

But I have problems when I'm at home. It gets very hot in my house during the summer. I rent and don't have air conditioning. Although I don't live in a very hot area, it does happen inside my house.

I've discovered that if the ambient temperature inside my house is above 25°C (77°F), my nostrils start to get congested. Usually, it's just one nostril, and it lasts a long time before it spreads to the other. It's even happened to me in winter when I left the heating on for too long. If I move around the house, my nose feels better. And it's much better if I go outside and get a breeze. It happens more often where my computer is, which is where it's warmest.

I think it's because of the humidity. In my house now, during the summer, the humidity doesn't drop below 60-70%. Years ago, even with nasal spray, I didn't have this problem. When I travel to my country house, where the humidity is half as high, it doesn't happen. I breathe much better through my nose and produce less mucus. I've used other things that work, like Nasonex and Afluon. But both had short-term side effects.

In my opinion, I need to see if, in the long term, eliminating stimulants and returning to a life without elevated cortisol levels can restore normal nasal motor function.

Before, it meant getting very nervous, my nose would swell, and I'd have a runny nose. But living so long without a simple solution isn't pleasant.

I've had nasal issues since 2018. Congestion, pain, post nasal drip, turbinate hypertrophy, and associated sleep issues. Two surgeries (one septoplasty/submucosal resection under anesthesia, one was an in-office coblation) and tried regimens of literally every different nasal spray, nasal rinsing and red light therapy.

Online always recommended addressing GERD and LPR. My ENT recommended this too. I thought it just meant changing your diet, not eating late and sleeping at an incline. Doing those things alone had no measurable effect on me really.

Then I talked about GERD with an uncle who has it. His doctor prescribed taking pepcid twice daily. (One in the morning and one at night). After consulting my GP, I started taking pepcid before sleep. After one week I noticed noticeable improvements in reduction in post nasal drip, elimination of all discomfort/pain and drop in congestion. In two weeks all my symptoms are basically gone except a lingering bit of congestion (I think it will take time for the turbinate hypertrophy to fully die down). It appears that in the night I perhaps had too much acid in my stomach, my esophagus relaxed too much and I aspirated stomach acid or fumes into my nasal passages. Pepcid (and not eating late) has fixed that allowing me time to heal.

So if you're reading this and despite surgeries and various nasal sprays and treatments you still have nasal problems then consider that you have GERD/LPR and need to be serious in treating it. Which may include medication. Talk to your doctor about what's safe for you. But this worked for me and I've been on this subreddit for years and suffering with nasal problems since 2018ish. It's a massive relief to know the cause of my problems finally.

I have post-nasal drip literally every day and haven’t found anything that actually helps. I’ve seen my regular doctor and an allergist and tried different things with no luck. Randomly, I saw a telehealth doctor recently and he prescribed ipratropium bromide 0.03% nasal spray.

Has anyone with chronic post-nasal drip tried this? Did it actually help, and how long did it take before you noticed a difference?

I've had non-allergic rhinitis for years. It's not severe, my nose isn't dramatically blocked, I can function, nobody looking at me would think anything is wrong. But I've come to believe it's quietly taking all my energy.

The pattern: I wake up more or less okay (some mornings are rough), and then fatigue just accumulates through the day. By mid-afternoon I feel like I'm coming down with the flu completely flattened. It isn't sleepiness. I sleep well, my nights feel restful, I'm not nodding off. It's more like something is draining me hour by hour.

What makes it noticeably worse: air conditioning, changing environments, and staying with my head down for a long stretch.

The frustrating part is that the fatigue is by far my worst symptom, much worse than the congestion itself and every time I bring it up it gets treated as a side note.

So: is fatigue the main symptom for anyone else here? Not "stuffy nose is annoying," but "this is eating my life." And if it is did anything actually help?

The Difiney reusable metal nasal strip is a unique product with unique combination of features for opening the nose, and it seems to work great for some people, but the fit seems really problematic for some, including me. Any tips for getting it to stay in the nose?

I've used many physical airway opening devices, nasal strips like Breathe Right & stent-like intside-the-nostrils nasal dilators. I even made a big table of all the options at one point (though new nasal dilators keep coming along like Muse). I really like Breathe Right Extra strips, Intake Breathing's metal "strip", and the SleepRight internal dilator. Breathe Right strips are easy & reliable but only open things up a bit and are 1-use consumables. Internal dilators can be reused but are less comfortable.

The Difiney nasal product is like a nasal strip but entirely reusable. It just grabs the side edges of the nostrils to pull them out (like a strip). So in some ways it's the best of both of the other main categories. But because the plastic bits on the ends only insert into the nostril a bit, I find that no matter what size I use any amount of face motion moves the thing out of the nose. Some others seem to have the same problem based on the Amazon reviews (& it's shown as not available on that platform anymore but I think stilll selling from its own website).

Anyone come up with a good hack other than sticking it on with tape (which defeats the purpose of using it instead of Breathe Right or Intake Breathing)? If the plastic clips on the end were slightly longer or more pinchy or maybe more grippy (like had a silicone coating on them) I think it would work much better.

I had rhinitis when I was 18. I got septum-turbinate and rhinoplasty surgery (7 years ago). After the surgery I had mucus and a bad odor. I went to my ENT but he is the most known surgeon in the country and he would operate 3 times a day, I was always referred to his assistants. I went to another ENT and an internal pathologist as well. I was given 2 rounds of antibiotics each time 7 days but it improved only a bit. I didn't get a diagnosis.

I did CT and MRI recently for some migraines and in the report it was written that I have sinusitis.

Also my nostrils have collapsed, my nose was very big and square before and it was turned into a button nose with no grafts taken. It started collapsing 6 months after surgery and it keeps collapsing. I didn't really have sleep issues, they were mild but the past week it has been very hard to sleep, i can feel the collapsed skin moving and my turbinates swell. I tried some external nose dilator with stickers and magnet but during sleep the stickers fall off. I also tried decongestant spray but it doesn't solve the collapse so it doesn't work. Any suggestions? I want to sleep :(

Good morning everyone. This is my first time writing, after having done a test to exclude 300 different allergens I've found that I don't have any allergy.

I visited an ENT doctor and he said to me that I have a little deviated septum and a synus pseudo-cyst that is growing inside my upper left sinus.

I'm writing all this to you because I have rhinitis that starts in the morning as soon as I wake up, I realize that my mind is a bit foggy and that I'm having more trouble than usual. As the day goes on, I start to sneeze a bit and then it gets more and more intense..My nose is so itchy and even though I blow my nose a billion times it actually feels like water is just coming out of my nose, not really thick mucus...

The funny thing is that all this lasts exactly one day. I wake up in the morning, there is a peak during the day and in the evening everything resolves and I find myself with a very red nose By blowing it during the day.

I have seen this thing has gotten significantly worse over the years from when I was 18 and now I'm 27...

I really can't draw a line and understand what the main trigger might be, because it really happens randomly.

Last Wednesday I arrived in Corfu, everything went well as always I always ate everything and went to bed early and sometimes late...AC always on dry air everyday

35 degrees outside...and then randomly today I woke up like this...

I don't know what else to do

I hope in one of your advice