Still only a marginal improvement so far. Day to day, there has only been a slight improvement in the breathing through the nose.
They were tampons for all intents and purposes. I have a smallish nose, and asked my doctor how he hell they got all the stuff up there. His response, “Well, that’s one reason we knock patients out for the surgery.” :eek:
My doc also removed my ability to do long division with that sucking out of the goo.
But the freakiest post-op doc visit was when he used a long pointy instrument to remove dried blood and scabs from my nose. Basically…He picked my boogers!!! :smack:
Today is much like the previous day with only a marginal improvement.
I can breathe through the nose, just that it is somewhat restricted
Best Wishes for a speedy recovery.
My nose has all of your presurgery symptoms; had them my whole life, but surgery was never an option. I hope you’ll update this from time to time so I can hear what it’s like to go from never breathing well to always breathing well.
Can’t say much more other than it is about the same today.
No blood or anything coming out with the nasal rinses but it still feels partially plugged.
It will settle down (including swelling) over the next few weeks.
I had deviated septum / turbinate-ectomy (turbinectomy?) when I was just 30, and it was in some ways life-changing.
You see, I had literally NEVER been able to breathe through my nose - I mean, occasionally pass a little air, but not enough to, yanno, live. I was always baffled by the concept of Afrin and the like - I mean, who CARES if your nose is congested, it’s not like it does anything beyond holding up your glasses, right?
Things were tender for months afterward, if I pushed on parts of the nose. But I could actually breathe through it. This of course is not an unmixed blessing, when you’re commuting via subway :D.
I didn’t notice any difference in sinus infections, but then I wasn’t especially prone to those anyway. In fact the worst bout of sinus issues I ever had was actually several years later.
My asthma also improved somewhat for several years - better filtration of air, I think.
HA!!! I too remember thinking “I’ve had my nose picked, by a professional!”. At one point it looked like he’d removed a full-grown leech from my nose.
Immediately post-op, they left in a “nasal airway” which was like a big funnel attached to a very thin tube so I could still breathe through my nose. As noted above, I was baffled by this and did not make use of it.
Thanks for your input. There has been little change in the last few days.
I can breathe through the nose somewhat. However, there is nothing draining from the nose despite doing these rinses constantly.
Maybe I am expecting too much from the surgery but there has not been a great change overall yet.
I also have some allergies which is compounding the problem and am getting allergy shots to help with it.
Can’t say much more than it is about the same today.
That might help with situations where sinus passages are swollen and drainage isn’t happening, but I doubt it would do any good for
- deviated septum
- polyps
- overgrown turbinates
I definitely had the septum / turbinate issues; they were bad enough that the doctor couldn’t even see if I had polyps before surgery, and I forgot to explicitly ask about them. Fair chance I did as at that point I’d been living with significant allergies for 30 years.
I had this surgery and it was a complete success. I’ve had only one sinus infection since (I used to get them every time I had a cold) and I can actually breathe through both sides of my nose.
I did not have stents up my nostrils afterwards. I was told that this was old-fashioned and not required any more. But that may be because of the extent of surgery I required in particular.
I seem to recall it was well over a week till my nose felt clear. When I reached the point where I was pretty much all healed up I still felt like my nose was constricted but then in my post-op visit, my surgeon did this:
… and as I walked back to my office afterward I could actually breathe freely through two nostrils for the first time in my entire life.
As to terminology, my surgeon actually joked as he was pulling these gigantic blood/mucus scab things from my nose:
“We ENT surgeons have very technical names for all the body parts and fluids we encounter, and these particular things,” he says holding one up in his forceps, “are called…”
“… boogers.”
I actually asked my surgeon, at a followup visit, what the medical term for boogers was. I managed to stump him with that question. As I was walking out, I heard him asking a colleague “do YOU know what the medical term is for boogers?” 
Still much the same today. Again, part of this is also from allergies as well.
Staying much the same today. May have to go back to the nose doctor a little sooner for another followup
I had a similar surgery in 2002. They cleared all the crap out of my sinuses (including stuff they didn’t see on the CT scan), enlarged the exit from the sinuses to the nose, straightened the septum.
When they took all the pledgets out (three tampons per side) and the weird splint thing off the septum and I inhaled, it felt like WIND was whistling through my nose and sinuses. It was the weirdest feeling.
Of course, the damn nose clogged back up because it was still all stuffy from the surgery. But that moment…damn.
It was great for a few years. Now I have nasal polyps and should have surgery to remove them and clean out the sinuses again. I’m fighting it. I was almost ready to do it again, until I went into my ENT’s office and saw a guy in the waiting room who was one day post-surgery and had a drip pad taped under his nose. Then all the memories of the total suckiness of the surgery came back.
ETA: Mama Zappa and Princhester, I am ***so ***going to ask one of my doctor co-workers what the medical term is for “boogers”.
Nose doctor will not be able to see me for a week unless someone cancels
A week is better than a month, at least :(.
Of course now I’m imagining you on the phone trying to make the appointment, with a horribly stuffed up nose:
you: “Hi. I need to make a followup appointment with Dr. Schnahz”
them: “Name, please?”
you: “Hhssgeedyusss”
them: “I’m sorry, I didn’t quite catch that, can you repeat?”
you: “Hhssgeedyusss”
them: “So sorry, I still didn’t catch that”
you: “HHSGEEDYUSSSSSS!”
them: “Excuse me, did you just say ‘Jesus’??? Please do not take the Lord’s name in vain!”
you: “(jeeebus) Ehhsss Ehhsss hShee Eeee Ehhd Eye You Ehhss”.
them: “Heavy breathing??? PERVERT!!” :::click:::
Saw the nose doctor today. He said that it had healed just fine and his only thought as to why I still have some troubles in breathing through the nose is allergies.
Where I am at right now (subjectively) is only a marginal improvement over the pre-surgery conditions. Perhaps I was expecting a greater improvement than what I have got
He gave me some more allergy medicine (which I was already taking) and said to followup in about 6 weeks and to continue the allergy shots
Not much more to say than to continue with the allergy shots
Much the same prognosis. Still continuing with the allergy shots which are only helping marginally.
My last sinus surgery was 25+ years ago. I’m going back again next Wednesday. The last time I was in the hospital for 2 days at least, and packing up nose, splints, etc. polyps removed and deviated septum fixed.
In a week my surgery will be local anesthetic only, 30 minutes in and out to remove polyps. I hope it goes better this time around! Like you, the original one was one of the worst experiences of my life.