Cold vs allergies vs sinus infection

Does your nose, eyes, skin, throat get itchy?
When you were a child, more so...but even now, do you ever get dark circles under your eyes?
Do your eyes ever run/leak?
Does your nose begin to suddenly run? and after a while the 'cold' goes away almost as suddenly?
Do you have excema?
These are some general reactions I get when ever I have an allergic bout.


Sinus infections feel like I've been hit in the face with a heavy bat repeatedly.

rarely
no
rarely
rarely
no

I know that sinus infections hurt like hell. I have a thing going on now when I get these colds. I get stuffy, sneezy, tired and then the cold feeling starts to go away and I am left with this stuffy sinus thing - I can breath through my nose, but I have stuffiness. I try to blow it out which only works to a small degree. I can 'snick' it back with some degree of success. The thing is that they don't really hurt. The only even mildly painful part is that my gums will almost always get achy.

Thanks Ceili.... do you take anything for your allergies?

Allergy drainage is clear. And the symptoms come and go rather abruptly for me.

I know it's a sinus infection when the muck is thick and yellow/green. Usually comes with headaches in weird, specific places.

For me, a cold comes on slowly, lasts about a week, and goes thru lots of varying symptoms.

I'm pretty drug free but if I need to, I take an alexa, I think it's called that - It doesn't make me drowsy, it works right away and it lasts. Sometimes I have to get a cortozone cream for my skin and I carry a bee kit. I'd take a cold medicine that will dry the sinus cavities if I had your symptoms, sound like a bad cold. Why suffer, go to the drug store.

Sometimes I feel that way too. I dread spring and the pollen count.

Littlek, you may be experiencing allergies, it is not very likely that you have had that many colds this past winter. Allergies can mimic colds and sometimes make it hard to tell them apart.

This is an unusual situation that I will describe, but one that doesn't fit allergies so I'll tell it. My ex boss, who now writes medical crime books, ran himself as a control in some immunology test, much as we all did those years. He happened to get innumerable colds. Well, he also smoked like a chimney, but he of all people could tell allergic from cold symptoms and he did have these revolving colds. Turned out he was missing a gamma globulin. There isn't just one, but four or five(who knows by now, maybe more) but he was missing gamma A.

He ended up taking samples to follow it from his whole family, the absence of gamma A. Not many had it but I think a few did.

He's still alive and writing thrillers. But it IS possible to have repeated colds.

Usually not. For one thing there are certain protections that the body or virus does, that you usually don't get another one for a while. (I haven't followed the stories on interferon, but they interested me back then).

I would spend the bucks to have an initial allergy consult. It is more money to go through the tests, but that would be step two.

After decades of allergy, I now take low dose benedryl when stuff is acting up, about $4.00 at Costco for a few hundred tablets.

A simple test is to take one and see if it works.

At least in the old days, a cold wouldn't really benefit by antihistamine, whereas allergy would. (Even though cold medications have antihistamines in them.)

I am sure my pov is not the latest on all this.

If you do go to a md about this, why not visit an actual allergist?

I have been trying to figure this out, too. Similar situation, down to possible kiddie influence.

My guess at this point (based on nothing in particular) is that I have a low-level sinus infection that seems to never completely go away, and then flares up at times of particular stress or when I am exposed to something else. I have promised E.G. to go to the doctor and get to the bottom of it once and for all. I'll let you know what happens with that. (I admit to putting it off because I had a huge fight with the doctor last time -- I have been going for over 3 years without an interpreter because she was so resistant, this last time I was like wtf I'm exhausted each time, lipreading is tough, I deserve a terp, I'm getting a terp, I brought it up first got the "no we don't provide interpreters" line, I explained that's nice but it ain't legal, I was handed off to someone else, who called someone, who found out I was right, and then suddenly I was ushered into one of the examination rooms and a very earnest nurse (doc had vamoosed) explained that ANOTHER medical group had a staff interpreter (I know this is untrue, had experience with that other group), argh you get the idea I could go on for a while, enough digression. But next time I call, I'm sure to get plenty of attitude and will need to fight for a terp when all I wanna know is what's up with my nose. Glower.)

Rather than playing guessing games with your health, I would suggest you go see your doctor and get professional diagnosis. Your health is more important than $$$ or time. Trust me on this one.

Soz, sheeeeeeeeet.

What a complete pain, not to mention reason for yet another lawsuit (no, no, not my point). All the time stuff is probably allergy, inmho.

Allergy is way strange, in that they now seem to be saying that children who aren't raised early around allergens then get to be allergic to them. I don't follow all this any more. I suggest it is worth paying attention to real high level allergy articles, summaries.

Me, I just never clean. Cleaning just about kills me, but if I let the dust sit, no problemo. I clean, asthma for two or three days. So I clean and run, from time to time. The standard solution is the opposite of mine, as in, clean all the time. (Go on!!!!)

INo one in my family has allergies, I never did, I do know they can come on at any age. So, I don't think I'm missing a gamma A type of thing. I seem to be thinking along the lines that Sozobe is thinking. I think I have had a low grade sinus infection for maybe 2 years - since I had a really nasty flu with really severe stuffiness. And now I medicate for colds, I never used to, because they immediately go to yellow.

I did bring it up with my doctor. She gave me a flu shot and told me to eat vitamin c tabs.

Sozobe - I have met some vile doctors in my history of dealing with them both personally and professionally.

If there's something goin' on with your gums as well, l'k, sounds much more like an infection than a cold or allergies. Better whack the sucker out. Over the counter drugs are useless. Do NOT take something to try to stop your nose from running when you're at the front end of one of these episodes. A colleague and I both got told off, very recently, by a doc for having done this. Apparently this is part of what turns a minor cold into an infection. The scarring from long-term, low-grade sinus infections can lead to problems later on, requiring surgery.

I started a allergy test many years ago, and learned that I was allergic to dust. Not long after I started the allergy testing, I learned that even knowing what we may be allergic to some allergens may not help much - such as dust, and I believe my doctor also confirmed that fact. I stopped the testing, because I'm not allergic to any food that I'm aware of, and no medication. The few times I suffer from stuffy nose is so infrequent, I don't worry about it any more. I drink orange juice every day, and get my annual flu shot. I haven't been sick for about five years now with colds or the flu, although I've had coughing spats once in awhile.

Another thought: I think it helps not being exposed to people at work 5/7 with colds. I stopped getting sick after I retired, so that may be another benefit of retirement.

What ehbeth says sounds right. And maybe the specialist to see isn't an allergist like I first prompted, but and Ear, Nose, and Throat person, an otorhinolaryngologist..

I have a dust allergy that seems to make me a lot more susceptible to getting a cold - for a long time I had a cold about every month or two. I can tell them apart, though (I think) - but one seems to make you more prone to the other, or something.

It is possible to get serial colds.

A friend of mine always had a cold, flu, sniffles, snuffles, and since he's an infectious disease specialist in a teaching hospital, I asked him if it was because of his work.

He pointed out he had 4 young children, and one of them was always bringing some bug home. His immunity was lowered because of constant colds, so he caught more colds. He wasn't keen to divorce his kids (too often;) )

Margo - my thoughts too, having a cold lowers your immunity and makes it more likely that you'd get another cold. I wish people would keep their sick kids home more often.

Beth - I never use cold meds until my boogers turn green. Then I only usually use them at night (i figure one good draining is ok) unless things start to hurt. Things are now starting to hurt and I'm going to pick up some daytime congestion meds.

A very loud amen to people keeping their sick kids home more often. Makes me absolutely batty.