If you have a bacterial upper respiratory tract infection you usually feel much less well than when the average viral infection.
The usually route of antibiotics appearing to work is that a course of antibiotics is usually 10 days, by which time you're mostly over the viral infection anyway.
I wish someone had told me about netty pots, nebulizers, xylitol nasal spray, whatever preventative things to try first. Pre surgery, I was in so much pain, I would have tried anything.
Post surgery, for months, to clear things out, I would lie down face up hanging my head over the edge of the bed, fill up my nostrils with the saline concoction (ABX, steroids), and let it marinate. For as long as I could handle it. Worked pretty good.
It's astonishing how much goop the human head can store up there.
Why did you conclude that traditional medicine wasn't the answer?
As for the root cause being viral versus bacterial, I suspect it was pneumonia bacteria. There was a frequent peroxide smell to my mucus and said bacteria were cultured repeatedly from the crud.
To my somewhat surprise, every day I did this an unholy brew of dark brown mucus and blood would drain out of my nose after a few minutes. A couple weeks later the crud dissipated and so did the sinus infection. I haven't had a serious infection of more than a few days since 2011.
What's my point? Keep an open mind here. Traditional medicine wasn't the answer here. Homeopathy is nonsense, but there are occasional bits of truth to mine from alternative approaches.