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Deviated Septum Repair

WakeUp08

WakeUp08

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Having surgery to fix the septum and a couple of other sinus blockage issues on Thursday. I think a couple of y'all have had this before, so I am wondering what the post-surgery level of discomfort will be and how long were you out of commission?

My class doesn't start back until the Tuesday after MLK day, so I've got plenty of time to sit on my ass, but I've got some work that I need to knock out before classes start so I'm trying to figure out whether I can expect to be productive at all.
 
Had mine 3 years ago. Had to sleep sitting up in the recliner for a couple days. Was out of work for 2 days. Travelled to CA a week later. Discomfort was from the stents placed in the nose that get removed a week later. You wouldn't believe how big those things are.
 
Had mine just before Christmas the year we went to the Orange Bowl. The most difficult thing for me was not being able to touch or blow my nose for a few weeks. The stents LK mentioned feel like massive boogers in your nose, and every once in a while mine itched.
 
Had mine four years ago this March. I slept propped up for probably a week just because it felt better (could have all been mental), but I was really fine after 2-3 days.

The main problem was like LK and tsy said...after you start feeling better, you forget you have these big plastic sheets in your nose, so if you wrinkle your nose or something it feels really weird.

Don't know if LK or tsy had their nose packed to boot...my septum wasn't healing correctly so the ENT had to go back a week after surgery and pack my nose for another week. There's a reason they typically do that while you're still knocked out...it hurt like a bitch. It's pretty rare to have that happen, though, so it probably won't be an issue for you.

Good luck!
 
I was very fortunate, I had some wax rolled stents. I didnt have to have them taken out, but eventually after the swelling went down a few weeks later they eventually worked themselves out. They were much longer than I expected. Because I was flying so soon afterwards, I was given a steroid taper to help with the healing, but thats not the norm.

One of the things I had the most trouble with was trying not to sneeze. Sneezing just after the surgery can create catastrophic consequences.
 
tsywake said:
I was very fortunate, I had some wax rolled stents. I didnt have to have them taken out, but eventually after the swelling went down a few weeks later they eventually worked themselves out. They were much longer than I expected. Because I was flying so soon afterwards, I was given a steroid taper to help with the healing, but thats not the norm.

One of the things I had the most trouble with was trying not to sneeze. Sneezing just after the surgery can create catastrophic consequences.
Click to expand...

Those things are easily the size of your index finger. After seeing it pulled out, I'm wondering how it didn't stab me in the brain.
 
Liquid Karma said:
Those things are easily the size of your index finger. After seeing it pulled out, I'm wondering how it didn't stab me in the brain.
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thats_what_she_said_icon976.jpg

Boom.
 
I had the septum repaired as well as parts of my sinus removed which were inflamed. I had the plastic stents stitched through the middle of my nose and then they put a tampon like packing inside of that. The pain wasn't as bad as they described, maybe a 6, but it was about as uncomfortable as you can be trying to sleep. Make sure to throw some vaseline on your lips before sleeping or you'll wake up with badly cracked lips as well.

They took the tampon swabs out after a week, then the stents after two. After snipping the stitches they told me to take a really deep breath, that's when they started pulling. It felt like an alien was being extracted from my brain, not really painful, but one of the weirdest feelings.
 
Had mine done a couple years ago. had some sinus polyps removed plus the spetoplasty. Swollen and hurt like a bitch for the rest of the day. Plastic splints sown into my nose for about 2 weeks. Suckers were at least 4 inches long and all you could see was about the bottom quarter inch or so.

I had no packing. Try to find an ENT who doesn't use packing. Packing sucks. My doctor had me do a nasal rinse twice a day afterwards. I was realy frightened by the stuff that come out.

Had it done on a Friday morning, went back to work on Tuesday
 
Spot the Wonder said:
Had mine done a couple years ago. had some sinus polyps removed plus the spetoplasty. Swollen and hurt like a bitch for the rest of the day. Plastic splints sown into my nose for about 2 weeks. Suckers were at least 4 inches long and all you could see was about the bottom quarter inch or so.

I had no packing. Try to find an ENT who doesn't use packing. Packing sucks. My doctor had me do a nasal rinse twice a day afterwards. I was realy frightened by the stuff that come out.

Had it done on a Friday morning, went back to work on Tuesday
Click to expand...

Not having the packing is great and much easier on you, as long as everything goes as it should. And be sure to rinse your sinuses as often as they tell you to. My ENT said to use the saline spray every 45 min. or so for the first few days, which I did. It really helped.
 
Want to hear a horror story?

An ex of mine almost died from complications from a deviated septum repair.

Basically, it started when she went on a trip to the Galapagos shortly after getting her wisdom teeth out - while she was down there, it got infected, had a high fever, all that jazz. It turns out the dentist that had originally removed her wisdom teeth left a tiny piece of one tooth in, which caused the infection. She had to go to a doctor down there to get it fixed, and when she got home she was normal sick for a few days, and then got better.

Over the course of the next couple months, though, she kept having sinus infections and bad headaches frequently. So she went to the doctor and they told her that basically her entire right side of her face was stopped up with mucus etc left over from the infection caused by the wisdom teeth because she had a deviated septum. They assured her it was a minor surgery and planned it for a few days before Christmas.

So she has the surgery done in Greenville, NC, and about a day later she started bleeding from the nose. I don't mean your average nose bleed; I mean sitting with a popcorn bowl under her face with blood pouring out. So she went back to the doctor and they packed her nose like wakegrrl mentioned.

On Christmas Eve late in the day I traveled to Wilson to spend Christmas with her family (mine is weird and we do everything on Christmas Eve, but it makes spending time with significant others family easy). She had gotten the packing removed the day before, and hadn't bled any for almost 24 hours. So we all think everything is fine, and everyone goes to bed. In the morning right after doing presents, the bleeding started again with a vengeance. Normally if it happened, it would clot itself up and then wouldn't happen again for a few hours. This time, it started, stopped, and started again withint 15 minutes. So we called the doctor in Greenville and he told us to get everything ready and come in, about a 45 minute drive from Wilson. Right as her parents are doing that, I'm sitting on the couch with her trying to comfort her and hold the bowl, with her sister doing the same thing on the other side. The bleeding stopped and started again, but on the third go round it was more aggressive, and she coughed up a big wad of black blood into the bowl. Right after that she got really stiff, her eyes rolled back, and she started seizing and not breathing. Luckily both her sister and I had been life guards, and I tilted her head back, opened her mouth and held her still while her sister cleared her airway. She started breathing again after a few seconds, and stopped seizing, but she was extremely disoriented and it was easily the scariest thing I've ever been witness to.

It turns out that when the doctor performed the operation, he nicked a capillary in her nose, causing the bleeding. She hadn't been eating or drinking a whole lot, causing her to be anemic, which led to her going into shock and seizing on Christmas Day. Luckily she was fine, the ambulance picked her up quickly and she spent the day receiving 3 units of blood in a blood transfusion. Very, very scary episode though.

Anyways, hope your surgery goes well! :thumbsup:
 
Given wolfdeac's story, I felt I should mention that the reason the ENT packed my nose after a week wasn't due to bleeding; it was just because the splints hadn't straightened my septum as much as they should have, so I needed the extra pressure to keep the septum straight while it healed.
 
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