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.
Septoplasty and turbinate reduction surgery
June 13th, 2009 at 12:25 am
June 13th, 2009 at 02:24 am 1244859871
June 13th, 2009 at 03:01 am 1244862079
June 13th, 2009 at 04:17 am 1244866650
Good luck with your recovery. Hope you are breathing better than normal in no time!!
August 22nd, 2009 at 02:35 pm 1250951723
I am on Day 4 post-op from septoplasty and turbinate reduction. My ears are popping and blocking with every sip, can't breathe, plastic splints up there until Tuesday. The thing is, my WHOLE FACE is swollen. I joked that I look like John McCain, and sound like Squidward. Hoping the swelling goes down soon, it's embarrassing! Luckily, I don't have to go back to work for about two weeks, so I'm hoping for the best. Still in a lot of pain, and constant yellowish/clear/crusty flow coming from both nostrils whenever I sit up.
August 25th, 2009 at 06:04 am 1251180274
So, what's making me finally get the surgery? Snoring. It's gotten so bad my husband actually sleeps in the other room. My sister taped me recently when we traveled together to a funeral. Whoops! Had I not known, I wouldn't be looking at surgery now! I'm going to a Seminar next June, and one of the stipulations of my roommates (who were so carefully informed of my snoring by said sister) is that the snoring be rectified.
So, I go the the ENT. The little-bitty camera tube goes up one nostril fine. It manages maybe 1/2 inch in the other before it has to be taken out. O.M.G.
Add to this the fact that my BIL just had the same surgery - twice. The first surgery didn't heal properly (no fault of my BIL). So, he had to go through it AGAIN! (Different ENT this time.) He's loving it now, but he said when they pulled the packing and splints it felt like they were pulling his brains out through his nostrils. Lovely.
Can they just knock me out for the week? I want to go to sleep and wake up with the packing put in and taken out - that and the pain! I have a saying for how I feel when I have a sinus infection - "Cro-Magnum Man". You know, the jutting forehead and cheek bones? That's how I feel. Oohhh, what if that pain comes when I'm healing? It's bad enough when it happens naturally. But surgery?? Aauggh!
September 14th, 2009 at 02:42 pm 1252939327
September 15th, 2009 at 02:57 am 1252983445
I can't sleep breathing through my mouth. It gets dried out, starts to hurt, and wakes me up. I'll take a little drink of water and go back to sleep, for 15 minutes when it starts again.
October 4th, 2009 at 02:02 am 1254621733
November 10th, 2009 at 05:28 am 1257830931
I don't feel like I have much to have sucked out, except maybe from my left nostril, right is pretty clear off and on. I'm sure thats an interesting experienced being shop vac'd out the nose! HAHA!
November 15th, 2009 at 12:47 am 1258246072
March 18th, 2010 at 12:20 am 1268871645
First 2-3 days had the gauze mustache. Only took two prescription pain pills. Still irrigating and sniff/spitting bloody mucous. My surgeon says see how you do in the next rain or weather change, that will test the success. Much less pain than expected, thankfully. Was breathing at night through my nose by day 3. So far, not so bad. I think I had a very good surgeon and he is very current on techniques to minimize how invasive the surgery is.
January 6th, 2011 at 11:26 pm 1294356375
The anesthesia gave me terrible nausea when I woke up. And I ended up getting a couple good doses of fentanyl too, which probably contributed. When I got home it was my stomach that bugged me the most, but on day 2 my nose was killing me, so the percocets were great to have. It's day 3 now and my nose aches, even after having taken pain meds. The pain kinda spreads through my sinuses as if I've been whacked in the face with a two by four. That's tolerable with the pain meds though. What's bugging me the most is the drainage down the back of my throat. This yellow nasty gunk with old blood mixed in. I'm still wearing my gauze mustache, although it's not catching so much anymore.
The best things that I've been using have been the airline neck pillow and my humidifier. Without those items I think I would be very miserable. Oh, and I have a dry erase board where I write down the times I take my medications. Helps when my mind is drug addled.
January 17th, 2011 at 05:46 pm 1295286417
January 23rd, 2011 at 09:35 am 1295775308
January 28th, 2011 at 02:13 am 1296180833
February 3rd, 2011 at 09:52 pm 1296769976
June 4th, 2012 at 08:26 pm 1338841608
June 11th, 2012 at 08:29 am 1339403370
I cannot imagine this operation without the splints/tubes, and I'd go to a different doctor if that is what it took to ensure that I had them for the post-op recovery.
Basically, the tubes are long enough to span the areas on which the doc operated. So, you get a clear tube though which you can breathe!
Now, the other big thing making this tolerable is the Neil-Med Sinus Rinse. Its a bottle (and associated packets) which you can use (from the first day) to rinse out your nose. All that blood and gunk gets washed away, and I can breathe really well. I was told to do this 6-8 times a day, but I am probably doing it maybe 12-15 times a day. Seems okay, and its keeping everything clean up there. The packets you put into the bottle with luke-warm tap water contain saline and (I think) Xylitol, so its soothing and non-burning. You can get these at local supermarkets.
What else? If you're taking oxy, better get some stool softeners, and take them starting day one. Take it easy the first couple days. Really get lots of rest and keep warm, because your body will be using a lot of energy to heal up, and if you're wasting that energy doing other stuff, the healing will just take longer.
Good luck!
July 15th, 2012 at 02:43 pm 1342363430
July 19th, 2012 at 11:01 pm 1342738901
August 21st, 2012 at 08:50 am 1345539059
September 7th, 2012 at 12:53 am 1346979223
September 17th, 2012 at 03:06 pm 1347894383
December 18th, 2012 at 11:42 pm 1355874168
I went to a new ENT this past Summer 2012. We decided on a CT scan as I had mentioned that an MRI from 2 years prior had shown a crooked septum and a Thornwaldt cyst. After my CT scan, we met again and he went over the scan with me step by step. He wanted to be honest with me and stated that he used to not want to operate on people he couldn't get to at least 85-100% better breathing, but discovered over the years that if you're only at 25% and he could get his patients to 50%, they were happy. So, not to expect 100% being open. That was fine with me. Anything had to be better than what I have.
So, I'm 4 days post op. When I woke up after surgery, I had a nasty headache and my throat was extremely sore. She gave me some Fentanyl. Which I wish I had protested because when I have headaches, narcotics make them worse for me. Then they provided a popsicle, which helped and became my new best friend. In the step down recovery I wanted to have a good cry, but refrained. I think it was a combination of the stress of the surgery being over and the throat pain. My guess now, is, is that the hospital staff that insert the breathing tubes should be more gentle. I looked inside my mouth with a flashlight and saw what is like a red bruise on the rear roof of my mouth. And, four days later , it's still not back to normal. Took me an hour to eat a bagel for breakfast this morning.
Anyway, when I arrived home, I propped my drunk self against a wall and cried for five minutes. I felt better after that release.
I took a Percocet at 3p and only because I was expecting the nasal pain to settle in. Then a half at 630p and a full at 930p. Took no pain medication all the next day. I've been quite obsessive about irrigating - but it usually just leaks right back out or into my mouth - which is gross. I don't sleep that well because I can't breathe - yet noticed some small air passage in the nose which seemed to let up on some of the pressre. Was still waiting for the nose to swell and the pain to set in. I had barely any swelling. Really no need for pain medication, unless I want to get a in longer nap. And, really, the only negatives are feeling like I have a nasty head cold and I'm not allowed to blow my nose. The stints come out Friday morning. I'll be anxious to see how I am after that.
Oh, and I did go back to work today, but the boss sent me home. I was exhausted and he said it hurt him to look at me lol. (Still have drainage, so using the gauze strap) I usually write much better, but still a little out of it. Just wanted to share my experience thus far. If you're nervous and saw a bunch of horror stories, hopefully everyone who has posted here has alleviated your concerns. I totally expected far worse. For a surgerical procedure, this is quite tolerable.
February 4th, 2013 at 06:31 pm 1360002697
July 24th, 2013 at 02:15 pm 1374675313
September 12th, 2013 at 07:23 pm 1379013804
October 11th, 2013 at 04:21 am 1381465262
Thank you.
November 14th, 2013 at 05:03 am 1384405411
February 13th, 2014 at 08:47 pm 1392324437
The sore throat for me is the worst part. I swim a lot and so I don't feel claustrophobic about mouth breathing. But the throat is quite sore and the ice water really helps.
My other main discomfort is in the upper front teeth. Like I'm a baby and teething and I want to chew on something rubbery. Yet it also feels like the dull ache of root canal. The inside of my nose stings a bit, like when you get pool water up your nose, but the doctor said wait until tomorrow to start my Neti pot (saline irrigation). He said I could that every hour, and it would help recovery.
But let's talk about some good things, too. :-) Walking from the car to the house I swallowed and noticed that my right ear (the usually-stuffed side) popped, just like the left one. That hasn't happened in at least 20 years, if not longer.
So far it's not as bad as some of the experiences here. It's not comfortable and fun, but comparable to a really bad flu: exhausted, woozy, stomach upset, sore throat, and stinging dry nose that I do not touch at all so I don't upset any stitches and shaping.
I got this surgery because a few winters ago I had a terrible flu/cold and couldn't breathe at all and felt like I was dying. It was rec'd to me 20 years ago, but my father had some sinus work done and said it was very very painful and that scared me as a child.
In addition to flu shots, that episode also got me started on neti-potting, which was not nice the first 2-3 times, but has since been a daily activity for me. If you want to try it, just remember: the weirdness of the first few times is not how it will always be, so persevere for your own health. Since then, I can't remember getting cold or flu. Maybe it's the shots, but I think both help.
So I'll post an update later. Good luck to all of you!
May 31st, 2016 at 06:26 am 1464676016