When I was weighing the pros and cons of having this elective surgery I spent a lot of time reading others blogs and experiences. Most of them were 3-4 years old and the methods and procedures have changed since then. So here is my story so that others can have another example when making this difficult decision.

The Diagnosis

Back in April my ear was so clogged that I almost lost complete hearing in it. I hate going to the doctor so I decided to try every home remedy in the book....The book being google. Well nothing worked so I decided to suck it up and head to the ENT. When I arrived, he walked in the room and greeted me. I explained the problem that I was having and he responded with "Has your voice always been this nasally?" Well, "great to meet you too, doc" He quickly cleaned out my ear and brought me to another room where he stuck a camera up my nose to check out the situation. "Do you realize that you only have 10% airflow in your right nostril?" he said. "OK, can you fix it today?" I naively replied. A smirk came over his face and he brought me into his office to discuss the surgery. Being a member of savings advice, my main concern was if my insurance would cover this 100% or would they see this as plastic surgery. Turns out this is a fairly common surgery and my insurance covered it 100% without even a copay. Nice! So I decided to tentatively schedule the surgery and check out the pros and cons on my own.

The main benefits of this surgery are obviously better breathing, less nasally sounding voice, better sleep, waking up more refreshed and mentally alert, and less sinus infections.

I decided to get the surgery done and met with the nurse to sign the papers.

Day 1.

I arrived at the hospital at around 8:30 for a 9:45 surgery time (must arrive 1 hour early for preop.) I was brought back to the preop room, got changed, and was greeted by a few nurses. The nurses got my IV started, gave me a drink for the nausea that would occur from the anesthesia, a steroid, and some Afrin. Two anesthesiologists came in on separate occasions to go over what would happen. They would give me some oxygen in the operating room and some anesthesia through the IV. I would experience a mild sore throat from a breathing tube that will be placed down my throat. Wait, breathing tube? Oh hell no! Don't worry they said, you will be knocked out before we put it in and woken up after we take it out. "Surrrrrrrree, I won't feel a thing", I thought to myself. A few minutes later the doctor comes in and says hello, asks me if I have any questions, and tells me he'll see me in the OR. Next a nun walks in and sits down to chat. Wait, I thought this was a routine surgery...oh man, is it too late to get out of this? I'm not overly religious but do believe and was born and raised Catholic so I welcomed all the support I can get. We chatted for a few minutes and she offered a prayer. In come the operating room nurses and off we walk to the OR.

I get in the very sterile operating room and immediately visions of alien autopsy TV shows come in to my mind. I hardly watch these shows but nonetheless this is what I'm thinking about. One nurse is putting pads on my legs to prevent blood clots and the other gives me the oxygen. The nurse at my feet starts strapping me down with leather straps. I immediately make one final joke and that's the last I remember from the operating room

I wake up to what sounds like a crowd of people saying my name attempting to get me up but it was really only 2. I am fully coherent quickly but have a very sore throat and can't speak for a few minutes. The nurse offers some ice chips and water and brings me to the recovery room where they monitor my vitals. In comes my wife with a very relieved face. At this point I have no pain in my nose but have a killer headache. The headache probably was caffeine withdrawal from the lack of coffee. Damn you Dunkin Donuts...where is the Surgeon General's Warning on those cups! Anyway, I had gauze taped under my nose to catch the ever running river of blood that comes from my nostrils. 30 minutes later the pain starts to set in and the nurse gives me a percocet to help. Oh yeah! She gives me my discharge instructions about 15 minutes later. No lifting, no blowing your nose, no activities, basically stay in bed. That's perfect because doing nothing is what I do best. We leave the hospital at about 1:30 in the afternoon.

I get home and my nose is bleeding pretty badly, easily soaking through the gauze pads. We get home and my wife changes my nose diapers every so often for the remainder of the evening. As the day goes by the amount of blood lessens. Don't be surprised by the amount of blood flow coming from your nose. It's pretty heavy and constant. I snacked on crackers and drank water through a stray for most of the day because I was worried about the after effects of the anesthesia. I took the percocet every 4-5 hours like instructed which took care of the pain in my nose and head. Cold water and crackers helped the pain in my throat. By evening the only pain I was experiencing was my Mets blowing another lead and game to the Phillies. My calendar showed June 12 but it sure feels like September. I take another percocet around 10:30 and head off to bed with the uncomfortable nose diaper on. My nose is ridiculously swollen at this point, almost twice the width that it normally is. Once the percocet sets in I sleep through most of the night. Only waking up when the dog jumped on or off the bed, I can't remember which.

Day 2.

I wake up with a blood free nose diaper and very little pain. All of a sudden...ahh ahh ahh chooo! Holy crap, I think that's what child birth feels like. Note to others: screw manners and sneeze with your mouth open. It's at this point that my nose starts flowing again but this time it's not fresh blood. A combination of snot, dried blood, and other nose goo is now flowing as easily as the blood did yesterday. I'm very congested but in no real pain. At this point it feels like a head cold or a minor sinus infection. I keep the nose diapers on to catch the goodness and have to change them more often than the blood pads yesterday. This, however, is even more disgusting. I decide that changing these pads every 10 minutes is not worth my time and switch to tissues. I clean out my nose with saline spray and get my first real look at everything. I can see what I first thought was a very long nose hair sticking out of my nostril. When trying to remove it, I quickly found out this was a stitch and not a hair. I can also see the bottoms of the 2 splints they put in my nose that I am to have removed at day 7. No pain so far today so I have not taken any percocet. I feel no ill effects from the anesthesia, am not overly tired, and feel like my old self...with an elephant trunk as a nose. At around 3:00 the pain returns with a vengence. It's a deep throbbing pain that percocet takes care of. The percocet also takes care of me and I'm out for the next 2-3 hours. The rest of the day was pretty much the same with throbbing pain and the annoyance of all sorts of gunk coming out of my nose.

Note to those getting the surgery: Have Puffs Plus with aloe available and straws for drinking.

Day 3.

Day 3 was a little better than day 2. There was less "leakage" and less pain. So far I was able to make it through the day without taking any pain medication (other than tylenol) and actually went out to the store for a little while. The worst part about this is that I am starting to get severe cabin fever and am bored out of my mind. We'll have some visitors tomorrow and I'll have to start studying for a mid term next week so that will help. I also can't wait to get these splints out of my nose. They are not painful or uncomfortable but they are irritating simply because I know they are in there.

Day 4.

I have the feeling that until the splints are removed nothing else is going to change. Today was exactly like yesterday with some leakage from both nostrils and just enough pain to use Tylenol instead of Percocet. I was able to have some guests over and then head to the mall and another store for a few hours of "get out" time.

Evenings are particularly difficult. Not for me but for my poor wife. I take the percocet before bed and it helps me sleep throughout the night. The only problem is that I still can't breathe out of either nostril so I snore...loudly. I also wake up with a nasty sore throat that goes away pretty quickly.

3.5 days until the splints come out.

Day 5 - 7.

I was able to return to work and make it through the day. I had no pain with the exception of the stitches themselves. Still had constant leakage coming from above the splints which required me to always have tissues on me.

Day 8.

Splint removal day! Whoohoo! I arrived at the doctor for my 3:15 appointment and was immediately brought into the exam room where I sat for about 20 minutes staring at the diagram of a nose. Finally, the doctor came in with his toolkit. He told me that the removal of the stitch will hurt a bit because he has to pull it tight to cut it. However, it didn't really hurt at all. Next came the removal of the splints. This was completely painless. The second he pulled the splint out a river of nose goo, snot, and dried blood literally poured out of my nostril. The same thing happened with the second nostril. Next, he vacuumed out both nostrils and immediately I could breathe. I'm not sure what I was doing before the surgery but it definitely could not be considered breathing compared to this.

Overall the surgery wasn't too bad and seems like it was definitely worth it.