Having sinus surgery on 6 of my 8 sinuses as well as getting a deviated septum fixed on Monday. Anyone else had this surgery and have any tips on how to make the recovery process any better? So far all I'm hearing is that I will feel like I have a pick axe stuck in the front lobe of my brain for a week or so.
I had surgery for a partially deviated septum to try and improve breathing, and wish I didn't. Didn't help me at all and I think it actually makes me snore more now. Had these stuck up my nose for about a week.
A graphic look at how they were placed. This is shortly after surgery and without bandages. Click at your own risk.
I'm honestly not sure whether or not I should respond to this thread.
I had sinus surgery in 2003. Had life threatening bleeding afterward.
Had surgery again in 2004. And a week later in 2004, emergency surgery to control bleeding again.
And 2006.
And 2010.
And 2011.
And 2016. And again in 2016, another emergency surgery to control bleeding.
Huber, which two sinuses are they not operating on? The frontals or the sphenoids?
Sinus surgery has come a long way in terms of how much packing and/or splints are required. And that, by far, is the most miserable part of it if you have to have a lot of packing and/or large stints.
Pain was never much of an issue for me. They gave me pain meds but I didn't need them too much. My first surgery I used vicodin for about three days. The other surgeries I got away with tylenol or nothing.
But if you have to have a lot of packing and splints (depends on the surgeon and exactly how much he has to do to straighten the septum), you will be miserable for a few days. Just miserable. You won't be able to breathe through your nose at all. Think of the worst nasal cold you've ever had and multiply by 10. Or just use your hand to close your nose, and then keep it that way for 3 days. It's hard to breathe and really hard to eat.
On the other hand if they don't have to put in a huge amount of packing and/or large stents, then it's really just uncomfortable but not miserable.
Tips:
1. Plan to do nothing but rest the first 3-5 days. You probably won't feel like eating much either, but try to drink enough. Boost, Ensure, chocolate milk, gatorade, applesauce, things like that.
2. If you have packing or stents, you can't breathe through your nose so you'll be a mouth breather. And your mouth will get really dry. Sip water, or small bits of ice, all day long.
3. You'll get lots of bloody gunk draining from your nose. As long as it's not a brisk bleed of bright red blood, you're ok. But you'll probably want to put something over your pillows to keep from ruining them. Use a towel or a couple of old pillow cases.
4. You might get really constipated, both from the anasthesia and then not eating or moving around at all for a few days. Start stool softeners this weekend before the surgery. Maybe even start Miralax - that's what worked best for me. And start it now and continue for a week or so.
5. When/if they have to remove the packing & stents, it will feel like they're pulling your brain out. You might faint - but they'll be prepared for that and have you reclined in the chair.
6. When they tell you to start using saline rinses, do it. You'll have several days, maybe even a week or two, of big nasty bloody blogs of gunk coming out. That will gradually get better over a couple of weeks.
yea basically what they said, my wife had all that. it worked, she hasn't had anymore sinus infections since. breathes better and all that. but damn, that looked like one of the most miserable surgeries/week after recoveries i had ever seen. she was bad. she doesn't handle pain at all, or nausea. and her stomach doesn't handle antibiotics well either. basically just a miserable combination. i wanted to damn near kill her myself. but hey. it worked. one of the most painful things you will ever do!
Thanks for all of the responses. Other than wisdom teeth and LASIK surgery, this is my first true surgery. Pretty damn lucky I know, but stressful regardless. Taking next week off to recover and play about 23 seasons of NCAA football on my dusty old PS3.
No packing. They removed it an hour or so after surgery. I do have splints in which they will remove next week. Relatively no pain which has been surprising. Not sure if that's from the pain meds or what. Could actually breathe through my nose for a bit last night, but today I'm totally clogged and only able to breathe through my mouth. Hard to prepare for how much blood will pour out of your nose though. 24 hours later, and surprising how little pain I have.
Sounds like it's going well. Like I said, packing has come a long way in the last 15 to 20 years. My first surgery I basically had two tampons shoved up in each nostril. The last few surgeries they just used a gel coating on everything - soooo much easier than the old style of packing. Same with the stents - the first surgery I couldn't believe they could fit those things up in there because they were so big. But the surgery I had last year, the stints were way smaller.
I'm not surprised about the lack of pain. Like I said, I used vicodin for about three days after my first surgery, but got away with tylenol or even nothing for the others. I get sinus headaches a lot that are far worse than the pain I had from the surgeries.
It's normal to have that experience of being able to breathe through your nose the first day, then have it get worse. They give you potent decongestant injections during the surgery, so the first day those keep everything from getting inflamed. But once they wear off, the second day, the inflammation kicks in and you get a stuffy nose. That will last a few days, then gradually get better over the next couple of weeks. Assuming all goes well, a couple weeks from now you should be able to breathe through your nose much better.
As far as voice changing. I have no idea. Having a difficult time talking because my nose is completely clogged. I've told my wife if she wants to communicate, just text me.
Not sure why it would change though. Drilling in your nose and sinuses have nothing to do with your vocal cords. Right?
damn this sounds horrible .......... there is a chance I'll need surgery for my sinuses thanks to cysts and chronic sinusitis ....... and now I'm praying like hell steriods and fixing my thyroid problem will clear it up and in case anyone wonders how the thyroid comes into play.... most thyroid problems are autoimmune diseases which screws up the immune system and that means infections come easy and hit hard.
but the whole surgery to stop bleeding ...........yikes.... no thanks... i dont want any part of that scare.
Not a dumb question at all - actually a very good question.
Around the time of my first couple of surgeries, I had a co-worker who used to be a professional musician. He noticed that my voice sounded different after the surgery - said it had a slightly different resonance to it. It's not a big change, but I do think he was right.
damn this sounds horrible .......... there is a chance I'll need surgery for my sinuses thanks to cysts and chronic sinusitis ....... and now I'm praying like hell steriods and fixing my thyroid problem will clear it up and in case anyone wonders how the thyroid comes into play.... most thyroid problems are autoimmune diseases which screws up the immune system and that means infections come easy and hit hard.
but the whole surgery to stop bleeding ...........yikes.... no thanks... i dont want any part of that scare.
If it makes you feel any better about it, the ear-nose-throat doctor who treated me in the ER after my first bleed said he had NEVER seen or even heard of a bleed like that from sinus surgery. Said a little excess post-op bleeding happens fairly often, maybe 1 out of 10, but mine was probably a 1 in 10,000 or more chance of bleeding like I did. I had to go to the ER in an ambulance. Bled through towels, sheets, rags, soaked my shirt, etc. And of course it happened to me two more times, though not quite as bad as the first time.
Came here to chime in on this. Had a septoplasty and turbinate reduction in May 2015. As everyone else has pretty much confirmed, the first few days are hell. Constant sinus pressure, airway totally blocked.... I thought it was like a severe sinus infection but with zero relief for the 2 days after. The packing that I had was dissolvable (sp?), as they gave me a squeeze neti pot and I used it every 3 hours or so to break down the packing. By the fifth day, enough had dissolved where I could get a little airflow. Went back a week later and they sucked the rest of the packing out. For results, it's been completely life changing. Allergies are better, breathing while sleeping is better, zero sinus infections since... There are horror stories, the days after suck, but it was worth it.
