Sue, I had sinus surgery five years ago for a whole laundry list of problems: deviated septum, large bone spur (also blocking one nasal cavity nearly completely, like yours), several polyps and cysts, a messing membrane need reconstruction, etc.
I can say that the worst part of recovery for me wasn’t so much the pain (and at first, what hurt most was my throat and chest from where they intubated me), but the extreme discomfort of not being able to breathe. I’m not sure what they will do for you, but for me, a large amount of foam packing was put in place, and these two garish tubes–4" long each–protruded from each nostril to serve as, well, snorkels. They didn’t work very well, however, as they got…well…gummed up, shall we say? I went nearly a week of very bad sleep–I could only manage an hour or so at a time–before they took the packing out. Actually, at first the doctor wasn’t going to take it out; he looked and said, “That looks like it’s healing nicely. We can remove packing tomorrow.” I, completely exhausted and as a result, highly emotional, broke into sobs and begged him to remove them. I just was going nuts from sleep depreivation. He went ahead and took them out then…and I went home to relish a four hour nap, followed by a 14-hour night’s sleep. Oh, man, that was great.
The pain is certainly noticeable; icing your schnoz and taking the painkillers prescribed will help with that. Just don’t let anyone take pictures of you–it’s amazing how huge that little bit of flesh and cartiledge can swell. I spent my recovery days watching videos, icing the nose, and napping.
FWIW, the surgery did really help me in the long run. I’d had chronic sinus infections (in fact, my doc theorized that I might have had the same infection for four years and that it never drained or healed because of the various problems), and they often led to bronchitis and in one case, pneumonia. I still do get the occasional sinus infection, but it’s dwindled down to maybe 2 a year–when it had been 6-10 times a year.
Let us know how you’re doing (or, as you will be saying it, “Ow I’mk doink”). God bless and take care during everything! (How neat that your mom will be there!)