Seeking Doctor & ENT in San Pedro or Close Surrounding Area

My first question, have you tried a Neti pot? They are available in health food stores or online. Get a ceramic one. It looks like a mini Alladin's lamp and you use it to rinse your sinuses with a saline solution. It will clear out the infection. It takes some getting used to, but it will change your life. No joke. I would also recommend oil of oregano capsules and cayenne capsules. Take one of each, 3x day. Oil of oregano is a very powerful natural antibiotic. Cayenne is packed with vitamin C and gets blood circulating which delivers more oxygen. Oxygen heals. Colloidal silver is also very effective. You can add it to your neti pot. There is also a nasal spray that contains colloidal silver which you can find at Whole Foods or any good health food store. I was introduced to colloidal silver many years ago when I was exactly in your situation. Could not shake the infection and had taken too many antibiotics to count. Colloidal silver is something you want to take no more than 7-10 days in one stretch.

You need to work on building up your immune system. Get on superfood, dehydrated wheatgrass, spirulina. Also found in health food store. Stay away from sugar. Nothing drags down your immune system faster. Don't fall for sugar free products. Aspartame is poison. It turns to formaldehyde when it hits 90'. Our bodies are 98.6'

Start seeing a chiropractor. When your neck is not in alignment it affects your sinuses. I started going to one because of asthma and have not used antibiotics or inhalers in years. Acupuncture is also very effective. There is a pressure point for your sinuses on the outside of your thumb, by the base of the nail. Apply slight pressure with the side of your other thumb. If it is sensitive you've hit the right spot. You might even feel it in your sinuses. Do this for 15 seconds throughout the day.

Steam. Buy Queen Helene's Mud Masque from Rite Aid. You will find it with the facial products. It is in a brown and white tube that stands on end. Apply a thick layer of it over your brow and under your eyes covering the sinus cavities. Let it dry for an hour or longer. Do this as needed. It will break up the infection and get things moving. The main ingredient in it is kaolin which is a fine white clay. It has incredible drawing powers and can be used for things like insect bites and slivers also.

If you really can't handle the neti pot, get a salt pipe. Go to the beach and breathe in salt air. It is so restorative.
http://www.natural-salt-lamps.com/saltpipe.html

You can take care of this without going under the knife. Take charge of your health.

I know that he's outside of your travel zone, but one of the leading Otolaryngologist in the country is Dr. Madison Richardson. He has two offices, one in Beverly Hills and the other in Inglewood. I have had 3 sinus surgeries, all done by him, the first two as a teenager (I had horrible allergies). If you are to have a surgery, you want someone with LOTS of experience doing it.

http://www.madisonrichardsonmd.com/

I have two questions for you, as a person who also experienced the same problem 24 years ago. Did any of your physicians ever take a culture of your sinuses to find out what the actual organism was that was causing the infection? Second have you ever tried a daily sinus rinse with a saline solution? When my allergy season starts, I do the sinus rinse and it really keeps the allergens out of my nose and I haven't had a sinus infection since. If none of your physician's have done a culture, you should ask why. Giving antibiotics for a bacterial infection if the cause is fungal or viral won't do any good and you may need a very specific antibiotic. That happened to me when I had pneumonia while pregnant 22 years ago. Antibiotics were NOT helping and after several cultures they finally decided it was viral and treated it symptomatically and stopped the antibiotics. I had previously had pneumonia two years before that that was bacterial and the culture showed that the first antibiotic they put me on wasn't going to do it and the second was specific for the bug I had and within two days I felt 90% better! That's why I asked if any of the doctor's took a culture. If not, they better have a really good reason and cost is not a good excuse! Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Holy Smokies!!!! 17 rounds?? That is way too much for them to not know what is going on by now. Sounds like a guessing game to me. First, I hope you have been taking a good Probiotic and if not it is not too late to start. You will find them at a health food store, Sprouts, Whole Foods and usually the best ones are in the refrigerator section. The higher, billons, of the bacteria the better.

Second, have you ever been tested for allergies, especially food allergies? I would elminate ALL dairy, casein, soy first to see if that shows any improvement. The best testing is to draw blood (IgG), not the skin pricking test, and send it to ImmunoLabs in FL.

Third, improve the immune system. There are so many ways to go here. Are you 'yeasty'? I would get on board with Olive Leaf Extract, Grape Seed Extract, Oregano Oil or something along that line to work on the immune system getting boosted. Go online or to the health food store to read more as to your symptoms on what would be best.

Not fun, I've been there but you do have me beat on the 17. Dealt with it for years and have been pretty 'normal' since I've incorporated change in diet and adding supplements along with chiropractic and accupunture. You have to be your own advocate and do the research.

(love the Neti pot as well!)

Some people gave you some good advice regarding natural methods of staying healthy. 17 rounds of antibiotics is way too much, you definitely need probiotics like someone else mentioned to heal your digestive system. I have heard the digestive system is a huge basis of our health, and I believe it, based on my own experiences. My entire body started to decline after I had my appendix out (which now they know the appendix reboots your digestive system).

Anyway, long story short, I've been dealing with vertigo for 2.5 years and have seen many different ENT's in the process. I live in San Pedro, but don't know any of the docs you have mentioned. The best local doc I have been to that was actually on my plan is Dr. Rheaurk in Torrance. He's a good surgeon and fairly conservative. He took my tonsils out when I had a tumor a couple years ago, and will be putting tubes in my ears tomorrow actually (something I should have done when I was a kid)! And yes, I've done chiropratic, definitely helps, but didn't fix the problem.

The best docs I have been to, and I would highly encourage you to make the drive to downtown LA to see them, are the docs at House Ear Clinic, which is affiliated with USC. They did very specific allergy testing, much much better than the local allergy specialist I saw. Different docs there have different focuses, do some research online and see which one you think might work for you. I saw Dr. Derebery, who is the head of all ENT's for the American Medical Association I believe. Great doctor! I will be going back there to start allergy shots once I finish nursing a baby.
If you need any more info on House Ear Clinic, please email me, I'd be happy to help you.
Also, DO NOT make a habit of limiting yourself to docs in San Pedro. Aside from our pediatrician who is fantastic, most of the docs here in town are terrible. SP is a bit funky. People will continue to get subpar treatment from subpar docs just because they are local and related to someone they know. There are a lot of "old families" here, and everyone knows everybody, so a lot of people aren't willing to travel for better care, it's stupid.

My son had to have tubes in his ears and his adnoids removed. Dr. Yoshpe did the surgery, and she was wonderful. One of the best, if you go that route. Good luck to you and yours.
B.

I am not sure the specifics of your infection but when i was a teenager I had a ear / sinus infection for about 6 months that no western medicine doctors could help with. I ended up going to a chiropractor / holistic doctor that helped me fight the infection naturally. I have NEVER been anywhere near close to that sick since.

We used herbs, etc and it took a couple months but my body beat it! It would be a bit of a drive for you but well worth it - Health In Balance / Dr. Gary Arthur in Laguna Beach.