Anyone here gone through this as an adult?

I'm 41 years old and my ENT told me that I should get it done. My symptoms are chronic post nasal drip and a mid-tone hum in my right ear which is the side of my nose that is mostly closed off.

Been on half a dozen different medications and they barely touch the tanker load of snot that I deal with daily.

I can breathe through my nose by the right side has always felt restricted. Even more so when I'm laying down.

I'm planning on getting in done in early January when it's between classes and work should be a bit lighter that time of year.

Get the stints. Whatever you do.

My wife had this done a few years ago, and her ENT insisted on the packing as opposed to the stints. She was miserable for days, and then wanted to die when she had the packing removed. She said it was worse than childbirth and she had our 2nd with zero drugs.

It didn't really work for her, and she still has trouble with her nasal breathing, but everyone else we know that's had it says it's night and day difference.

Anywho. Get the stints.

Best thing I ever did. It didn't make me 100 percent, but I can breathe out of both nostrils now and it doesn't feel like work when I try to breathe in. Should have done it much sooner.

Every recovery is different, and some people will hate me, but mine was nothing short of easy. I had very little pain, no extra drip, no black eyes or anything. I got the new disolvable stints so nothing had to be taken out. It was almost as if nothing had been done.

I had it done a little over 10 years ago. I got to experience the packing and the stints. The stints were better.

I had 100% blockage on my left side, and about 90% on my right on a good day. Any allergies or weather and my nose simply didn't work. I finally had it done when I almost choked on a piece of food I was attempting to eat and breath around.

The surgery sucked. It was fast, but the first 3 days of recovery were the most physically painful days of my life, and I've had a rough life in that regard.

That said, I would do it again in a heartbeat. My nose still doesn't work as well as the average person's and gets blocked completely occasionally, but total blockage is the exception rather than the rule. I no longer worry about choking while I'm trying to eat. It's been a night and day difference for sure.

Insist on lots of pain meds. Even with the meds you will feel like you got wacked in the face with a baseball bat.

Our 16 year old daughter just went thru it.

MD cut a bone spur out and some flesh. Doctor told us the balloon treatment may be good enough but won’t know until he goes in. Well bone spur was removed and some flesh. 1.5 hour procedure. Daughter was pretty miserable for about three days with some bleeding and drainage. She was able to eat some solid food late night of the surgery. We hope this will help her. She has been in and out of Urgent Care with sinus infections.

School was after us on her attendance. She is a straight A student and that included Algebra 2 and Chemistry last year in the 10 grade. Go Figure the harassment from school.

I have color pictures I can post later if you like.

quote:

Originally posted by ontmark:
I have color pictures I can post later if you like.

No thank you. I still have a vivid recollection of the procedure.

quote:

Originally posted by ontmark:
Our 16 year old daughter just went thru it.

MD cut a bone spur out and some flesh. Doctor told us the balloon treatment may be good enough but won’t know until he goes in. Well bone spur was removed and some flesh. 1.5 hour procedure. Daughter was pretty miserable for about three days with some bleeding and drainage. She was able to eat some solid food late night of the surgery. We hope this will help her. She has been in and out of Urgent Care with sinus infections.

School was after us on her attendance. She is a straight A student and that included Algebra 2 and Chemistry last year in the 10 grade. Go Figure the harassment from school.

I have color pictures I can post later if you like.

That's OK, I appreciate the offer though .

I've been listening to YouTube videos of people giving their experiences with it. Some seem like it's no big deal, other's have quite a bit harder time with it.

I probably should've had it done a long time ago but I didn't even know it was that bad, I just thought everyone had the same hard time breathing when like I do.

I had the septoplasty (deviated septum) and turbinate reduction maybe 8 or 9 years ago. I broke my nose (well, others did it for me) several times and the right side was almost completely closed.

The recovery is unpleasant. But as I understand it, they no longer use stints or even packing. I had packing.

Good luck!

quote:

Originally posted by PD:

quote:

Originally posted by ontmark:
I have color pictures I can post later if you like.

No thank you. I still have a vivid recollection of the procedure.

I might need a refresher, since my surgery was 40 years ago.

And, what are these items you people are mentioning?? Stints? Pain meds??
I do, however, remember the painful removal of all that packing. And, the cutting & pulling (removal) of stitches.

My ENT wanted to do the surgery again after I recovered, as my nose was still visibly crooked after the procedure (I had originally broken my nose a couple times playing football & basketball in high school). I "politely" said no thanks to a second surgery.
Besides, my crooked nose has always been a conversation starter at parties!!

If I had to do it over again I would do the smart sinus procedure. Seems to work better and much easier recovery.

https://www.smartsinus.com/

I had it done while in my early 30s. Not sure if it was the surgeon or what, but it did not help me in the least..with the exception that I could breathe ever so slightly thru it.
It was not hard on my. Seems like the worst part was when doc removed the gauze from my nose. I almost passed out. There must have been 5 ft of it in there.

I had the surgery in January to hopefully improve my sleeping issues. Recovery consisted of switching out the gauze covering my nostrils and spraying a saline solution in my nostrils before replacing the gauze. Plus regular doses of pain meds. My biggest concern was keeping myself entertained during my recovery week since, due to the pain meds, I couldn't drive or play video games.

My 1st post op bowel movement was uncomfortable. As was having the stints removed a week after surgery. Picture Arnold in Total Recall removing the tracking bug from his nose. That's what I felt like was happening.

My hope is that the humming stops in my right ear and that it stops or greatly lessens the post nasal drip.

It would be nice if it helped the snoring but the doc said it might but don't count on it.

It's a lot to go through if it isn't successful, mine was not, still mostly blocked on the bad side. I didn't have much pain and my eyes didn't blacken, but the packing was very painful to remove, the vacuum job they did later to remove scar tissue and blood/blood clots was pretty bad too.

I had the full surgery and then a bunch of follow ups, out patient, they tried some pretty radical stuff, none of it worked. The worst was when they found I was producing a lot of scar tissue when healing, so they put a very hard, porous gauze in my nose, let things heal in and around it, so they could pull it out, ripping out the scar tissue. Yeah, sounded like a bad idea to me at the time too.

The positives are I don't get sinus infections constantly, the bad stuff drains rather than getting stuck and making me sick.

The negative is I don't breath any better.

I had the surgery done several years ago when I had to have an encapsulated infection removed from a sinus cavity that had swollen and was giving me horrible headaches and numb eyebrows. Doctor told me I had a deviated septum and asked if I wanted to do both at same time. I did and it made my breathing much better. The recovery sucked. It was probably the worst or very close to my shoulder surgery. I had the stints, which we're no big deal and I was surprised how big they were when he took them out.

One weird side effect I have from the surgery is now if I ever go to equalize the pressure in my ears on a plane, air shoots out my left eye tear duct so I have to hold my nose and put a finger on the tear duct.

Had it done in the late 90's. Twice. First time, he packed it up with no splints and my throat felt like it was full of razor blades for a week or so. It was rough. Bad rough. A few weeks after getting the packing out, I took an accidental shot to the face and broke the damn thing again. Had to let it heal for a while before he could redo it and I think that ended up being done about 8 months later. Second time, he used the splints with the little air straws and then the packing around them. That was better. Still awful though. The first time I got the packing out, my nose was like a magician's sleeve and I was floored by how many feet of gauze he pulled out. When he finished, I said I was glad it was over and he said, "that was just one side." I cried on the inside.

I'm sure I breathe better than before, but I honestly can't remember feeling any life-altering improvement.

For those of you that have had it.... imagine if you will.

Something like 27 cuts and stitches to pull my pork rind of a septum into line. Retracted (roto rootered) both turbinates. Into recovery I went. Admitted for the night. The infusion pump med setting was MIS-SET by a factor os 10 too low. So, 0.01 instead of 0.1. Not sure the exact setting, but too low by a factor of 10.

I have NEVER experienced anything so mind bogglingly horrible before in my life, or since. Surgery was at 8:00AM. The setting error was discovered at 1:00AM the next day. They reset it, hit the button, and I was out like a light.

A few miserable weeks later and it was over.

---- I'd do it again. Breathing is really rather nice.

Had deviated septum on both nostrils. Had one fixed, other is ok, but not great. Can definitely breath easier. Probably had them done when I was about 55. Clearing ears was a problem, both flying and scuba diving, now no problem at all. Running and breathing through nose was impossible. Now possible. Better breathing when allergy season is in full bloom.

Surgery not bad. Nostril was packed, pulled next day. Big advise was "DONT SNEEZE". Suggest both be done at once. Get it done and be done with it.