Bronchitis & sinusitis.
 

I have both of these. I've had sinusitis before, but I've never had bronchitis. God Lord am I miserable. I waited a week before going to the dr., thought it was just a common cold. Conventional treatment wasn't doing anything. I'm on an inhaler, a decongestant/exportant & an anti-biotic. But I haven't missed any time at work. I figure what the hell, I can stay home & be miserable & not make money, or go to work & be miserable and at least get paid for it if there is no time available to take off. For demand time we have to call in the morning of, there are only 7, 8 hour slots available & it is first come, first serve.

Anyone else been sick yet this year? How long did it take you to recover? Beyond the meds. I'm, which I hate taking, do you recommend anything, besides the obvious, rest, fluids, etc.?

I was supposed to start a new exercise/weight lose/nutritional prgram on Monday, needless to say I have not yet. In fact, I am not exercising at all right now, not in any shape to.

If you get bad sinusitus, try a cranial osteopath. They can work on thesinusses and help them drain. Worked for me, anyway.

I feel badly for you. My wife has rather minor nasal difficulty which is helped by a humidifier in the bedroom. I hope you folks are feeling better soon.

Lots of hot steamy showers and drink as much liquids as you possibly can to thin the mucous. If you have another in the household who wouldn't mind, have them learn to cup their hands and gently pound on your sides as you lay down on your side.

For example: Lay on your left side. Have them firmly slap with cupped hands(alternating) your rib cage area on your right side. It should losen your phlegm and make you cough almost instantly. Do this for a few seconds. Rest, then repeat. Roll over, do the other side. It is what respiratory therapists do for physical therapy on COPD type patients. It really does work and isn't hard to learn. My mother was a respiratory therapist. It should help shorten recovery time and get you back on the bike just a little bit sooner. It won't necessarily clear the infection, but will remove some of the phlegm and make you feel better.

My brother got a whing-ding case of sinusitus, with crud in the chest to top it off and his doctor recommended the usual: drink lots of fluids, steamy showers etc. But his doc also added this: Eat hot, spicy stuff--hot enough to make you sweat and make your nose run. I have tried it when I have a stuffed head, and it works for me; the stuff starts to move and flow, helps loosen crud in my throat and head.

The perfect excuse to eat suicide chicken wings.:)

I have chronic sinusitis and every now and then get nasty flare-ups, sometimes leading to acute sinus infections. I'm usually reduced to taking whatever measures are necessary for even slight relief. Sometimes the following work for me:

- decongestants. I avoid these as long as possible, because I have high blood pressure and they aggravate it -- but they are usually very effective. They act by thinning the mucus, theoretically allowing it to drain. I find the old kind, psuedoephedrine, more effective than the modern replacement phenylephrine but it's hard to find psuedoephedrine any more because of the meth problem. Also they have a rebound effect...after you stop, sometimes the congestion can get (temporarily) worse.

- tapping the forehead/face (around the frontal & maxillary sinuses)...just discovered this technique and it provides excellent, though only temporary relief. It's great if you can get someone to do this for you...lay on your back & relax. After a steamy shower, etc. would be great.

- nasal lavage...flush the sinuses...basically: squirt salt water up your nose and into the sinuses. The idea is that it will flush out some of the crud. This sometimes works for me but I've had it backfire once; the sinuses were so congested that the salt water got stuck in there too and took forever for everything to drain. Felt like someone had inserted lead weights into my sinuses -- miserable. There is a product called "Simply Saline" which has a nice long 'probe' to get way up in there.

Good luck. Personally I find sinusitis extremely debilitating. You can't think straight, can't get comfortable in any position. In the midst of a flare up I frequently request of my wife that she simply shoot me as it would be less painful.

Nothing for bronchitis, sorry.