Sometimes I wonder if doctors actually remember that "First, do no harm" thing.
Pollen season in North Carolina was especially nasty this year, so I managed to get a nasty sinus infection. I was pumping the nasal spray and gulping the Benadryl. Concurrently, I noticed that it started burning when I peed. I made an appointment with my urologist and he told me that the burning was likely caused by the decongestants, and oh, by the way, I also had a mild prostate infection. Lovely. He did the KY Jelly and bend over the table thing, prescribed an antibiotic, told me to lay off the Benadryl, and sent me on my way.
Without the Benadryl, the sinus infection soon became pure misery, so I made an appointment with an ENT. After sitting in a waiting room full of crying three year old snot factories, the ENT poked around in my nose and sent me for a CT scan. We looked at the results (there's something disconcerting about looking at your own head turned inside-out) and he showed me that the sinus cavity behind my eyeballs was full of gray glop. In all actuality, the glop was probably more of a green color, but the CT is in gray-scale, but I digress.
I informed the ENT that I was on Cipro for the prostate infection, but the ENT allowed that it was probably not the best one for treating a sinus infection. He prescribed another polysillabic antibiotic and a steroid and sent me on my way.
Near the end of the course of antibiotics, I noticed that I was frequenting the bathroom more often than usual. I then remembered that antibiotics will mess with the beneficial bacteria in your colon, causing you to have a case of the trots. Nothing serious, but the bad news is that multiple antibiotics can cause you to develop such interesting conditions as diverticulitis, PMC, and something awful called toxic megacolon (which sounds like a professional wrestler's name). The inside-out head thing pales in comparison to standing up after a nasty bout with diarrhea and seeing a toilet bowl that looks like someone was killing hogs in it.
The web is a wonderful, wonderful place. After calming down from thoughts of rectal cancer and spending the rest of my life with a colostomy bag, I poked around WebMD and the Mayo Clinic sites. Their advice was to eat some yogurt and by all means stay away from the Immodium. You see, diarrhea is your body's way of expelling the little nasties that have collected in your gut. Stopping the diarrhea will interfere with the natural course of things. As an added bonus, I really like yogurt a lot. I guess if I'm still running to the bathroom every fifteen minutes to crap blood, I'll make an appointment with a doctor, but my sane side tells me that might be a mistake. You know, current events and all.
The unkindest cut of all?
I still have the sinus infection.
