Seriously??

I had my appointment with the new ENT.  I will not refer to him as "my" ENT just yet, however.

After filliing out what I thought was a pretty short form regarding my history, and then relaying to him in person PART of what I wanted to tell him and ask about, he immediately guessed that my increased number of upper respiratory infections might be caused by reflux.  "Acid reflux?" I replied, confused.  Yes.  Something about the reflux causes the drainage to be even worse, both traveling like little rivers down the back of my neck and into my chest.  Lovely thought, huh?  I will be asking for more details about why one effects the other.  Especially since I myself have not noticed any symptoms whatsoever regarding acid reflux.

After the initial exam of my throat and nose, he told me that I need to sleep on my right side to get a better night's sleep.  And wanted to know where the outside of our bed is compared to where I sleep.  Since the outside of our bed is on my left, I might want to think about switching.  It turns out all of us have a tendency to turn towards the outside of the bed while we sleep.  Must be a caveman thing - always keeping one eye outward, in case we have to leap up and attack a wooly mammoth or something.  I was so flabbergasted at this point that I found it hard to think of questions to ask.

Then I was subjected to some type of magic air sprayed up into my nose, so that he could insert the probe with the camera and take a better look on both sides.  I have a deviated septum, so the cartiledge that's supposed to run up the center of my nose is actually hitching to the right.  When I was examined by a different ENT specialist just after Joel was born he said he did not think surgery to fix it would improve my symptoms much.  This doctor does not agree.  Then he found that I have a bone spur or something poking into my left sinus cavity over my eye.  So basically my problems are on both sides.  He had me have at CT scan the following day so that he could review and determine whether I need surgery or not.  Wonderful.

In the meantime, he doubled my antibiotics and started me on a steroid taper.  My brain kicked back in from the magic air being sprayed on it at this point and I asked what that was, thinking it sounded parasitic.  He said instead of a steroid pack, which sort of shocks your system with so many the first day, this one sneaks up it and lingers before finally going away.  I pictured him at that point sitting in his office trying to think up a clever, more mysterious name for a jacked up steroid pack.  Taper.  Please.  He also told me to stop taking an antihistimine because it was too drying, and didn't care to hear ANYTHING about my allergies, even details that I considered important like WHAT I'M ALLERGIC TO.  My dad thinks that all ENT's dislike and distrust all Allergists, and vice versa, both thinking the other's way of thinking is a bunch of hooey.  The doctor said that allergies and sinus troubles are like the chicken and the egg.  You don't know which one came first, and having multiple sinus infections year after year has made my allergies worse.

Oh, and by the way, along with no eating for three hourse prior to bed, I am also to cut out all things that "provoke" acid reflux:  Citrus, Coffee, Alcohol, Chocolate and Mints.  He might as well have told me to chop off my own head.