The initial infections that prompted my earlier post on infections have almost all cleared up. I started back on a healthy probiotic, very high in helpful bacterias. I’ve been slowly migrating my diet back to a healthier one, along with drinking more water. I had a major deadline last week, which caused me to start slamming back two energy drinks (decently ‘healthy’ ones) per day. Now that deadline is over I’m back down to no more than one a day. But during deadline week I contracted a nice sinus infection.

If I was the only one with the sinus infection I would blame it on allergies, but one of my close friends came down with it around the same time I did, her symptoms were less severe than mine, but a very similar timeline. I expect that it’ll take at least another week to clear this infection up. It is not helping that pollen is so severe there’s a warning not to go outside. I have serious pollen allergies and springtime has triggered sinus infections since I was a child.

The sinus infection itself has been mild, aches, clogged sinuses and sinus headaches, chills late in the day as I wear down, post nasal drip, etc. At first I made the mistake of treating this infection with Sinex nasal spray. I was stressed and exhausted from work and only cared about getting enough sleep to function the next work day. After a few days on Sinex, it stopped working, then I began to suffer rebound effects.

It has been a few days since my last spray of Sinex, my sinuses are feeling better each day, but prone to inflammation and becoming clogged, especially at night while asleep. I’ve tried a couple of decongestants and an antihistamine, but the sinuses are stubborn. They wake me up every couple of hours, sometimes clogged, sometimes draining. Each night a little less severe than the last, but each day I’m a bit more worn out.

There’s a home sinus treatment I used to make with apple cider vinegar, I need to make time to run out and buy some ACV so that I can make it again, plus it’s time for me to find my humidifier and see if that helps. I monitor my heart rate and whenever I get sick it rises by 5-10 bpm. When the infection starts to clear up the heart rate will begin to drop. My heart rate appears to have peaked yesterday, and should be going back down now. If the pattern holds true I expect this infection to last at least another week. In the meantime I’ll find some combination of home or pharmacy remedies that will help.