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Old 05-26-2012, 04:30   #2
PedOncoDoc
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Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Northeast Utah
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Sorry to hear about your sore - as you mentioned, you know the right thing to do is go to a doc and get evaluated. Depending on your insurance and what not, you may need to start with a primary care doc - either with a visit or a phone call - many primary docs would put in a referral based upon a 7 month sore in your nose without insisting on seeing you. If your insurance allows, you may be able to set up an appointment with a specialist without going through a primary doc. Regardless of whether you need to go through your primary care doc, I think seeing an ENT (ears, nose and throat doc) is likely in your future - not only do they have better tools for evaluating what is going on in your nose, they also would be the docs performing any surgery you might need.

Not sure what is causing your issue, but possibilities include infections (including bacteria, fungus and chronic viral infection - possibly tracking up into the sinuses to cause your vision issues), cancer, recurrent trauma (you didn't mention if you're an avid nose-picker ), a polyp (non-cancerous growth) and other things I can't think of at the moment. It is possible that your vision changes may be unrelated to the sore in your nose.

As far as what to expect - the docs are going to want to take a look in your nose (typically with the same tool we use to look in the ears at the primary care doc, perhaps with fancier tools if at the ENT), and I wouldn't be surprised if they wanted a CT scan (cat scan) of the head, focusing on sinuses and the areas around your eyes to look for any masses or signs of infection in areas that are hard to see with the tools available in the office. They may even take a tissue sample (biopsy) from the area of the sore to try to capture any infection and for pathologists (docs who look at things under the microscope) to investigate for any clues for why you have a non-healing sore.

Feel free to PM with further questions, and in follow up after talking with your docs and getting the ball rolling.

HTH.
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