Need advice re: sinus infection & ear infection

[jlove]

Hi everyone,

I'm on my third week of antibiotics, Levaquin specifically, and I still have one more left. I started with a sinus infection in the beginning of June and did 1 week of antibiotics per my Rheum but then I flew to St. John and the flight messed with my ears. I came back and saw my ENT and she said my sinus infection was fairly advanced (my upper sinuses were infected as well as the lower ones). She also told me I had fluid and an infection in my right ear. I have had some hearing loss and hearing distortion in my right ear since that so I saw another ENT who specializes in ears. I was nervous about the hearing loss and my primary care physician said it might be a perforated ear drum but the ENT said it wasn't perforated but it just looked infected and fluid-filled. He said with time and finishing my course of antibiotics it would get better.

I also told him I'm flying to San Francisco on Friday (from Philadelphia so ~6 hours in the air) and he said it would not be fun for me and that I have a higher risk of perforating my ear drum but otherwise it was okay for me to go. I felt like I was getting better on these antibiotics for awhile but now I don't even know. Today is a particularly bad day because my face all around hurts and my nose feels very swollen. Plus, my hearing is off so I just feel like a total basket case. I'm Darth Vader breathing all over the place and it's so loud in my right ear.

I realize that I probably will have to wait out this infection and focus on getting better but I feel like I don't have enough time to rest and not being able to breathe well is extremely frustrating for me. I'm 24 and I can barely handle two flights of stairs right now. I have tracheal stenosis and, although it's under control now, it doesn't help my breathing at all. On Monday, my ENT said my nose looked like a mess. I'm very self-conscious about how loud my breathing is, because of comments made to me in the past, but right now it's especially bad. I work full time and I'm wondering if it's too much for me. I don't feel like I'm getting better and work is very stressful for me right now due to some things happening in my office.

So now for my question:

Does anybody have any advice for helping me breathe through my nose? I do saline rinses 3-4 times a day and use lanolin to keep my nose from getting dry but I think I need more help. I'm wondering if a nasal steroid might help me out? I really don't want to miss out on my vacation and I would like to feel as well as possible, even if it's only in the short term. I've contacted my rheumatologist and am waiting to hear back from him. In the mean time, I wanted to reach out here and see if anyone has dealt with a similar experience before.