Turbinates

[jskinner]

Since I have been suffering so much from what appears to be very swollen turbinates, I have been trying to learn as much about them as possible. I thought I would share this link that I found about them for those of you who might also find it useful.

http://emptynosesyndrome.org/turbinate.html

[xmit1996]

This year has been terrible for all of us Sinus sufferers. Thanks for the great information. This is so helpful to understand the situation many of us experience every day.
Thanks again

[sharlan]

I will definitely go read it. I saw the ENT last week, he said I had a deviated septum and enlarged turbinates. Waiting for ins to auth surgery.

[sharlan]

On second thought, maybe I'll just learn to breathe out of one side of my nose.

[Guest]

you could have too much bony structure restricting the airway vs. too much turbinate tissue. The tissue is what covers the turbinate bone and swells up from being engorged with blood. Sometimes as a last resort they will reduce the amount of bony structure.

[woozle]

I have also reviewed the empty nose website, both before and after my turbinate reduction and fix of my deviated septum from nov. '06

I NEVEr thought I would say this, but after 2 months from that surgery, life is GREAT - if you've ever seen me post prior to that surgery, last year was really bad, got diagnosed with severe osa, and nasal interfaces made my sinuses throb during the day, and nasal or full face masks ALL gave me bone bruises on the bridge of my nose - so every night I would figure out which pain I preferred the next day - I have to be compliant or doc says I will have a stroke or heart attack in 5 years - so I am compliant

right after the surgery was really the worst time in my life - for 2 wks I could not use the cpap- and I had some real bad apneas - so I wasn't sleeping AND having bad apneas so I went down hill fast as my apneas were previously noted to be 30 to 90 seconds long - BUT - I have read that others post-surgery experience is not so bad - and after 2 weeks I could use the full face mask and then gradually I worked up to the swift and I tell you what I am now sleeping with my favorite mask and getting good sleep and NO stuffiness at night and NO sinus pain during the day - after almost a year from being diagnosed, I am FINALLY able to function and not think and worry all day about which mask I will use - it is so great - but the road was long and hard - and I am sure ther are more bumps - but it was well worth it for me - and I would not have said this right after the surgery but I have to say it now - so glad I did it -
I had a GREAT ent doc - really great - and after reading about empty nose I asked him about it before surgery and he knew what I was referring to and he said that happens when you take the outside of the turbinate off - but what they do now is go inside the turbinate and take mass out of the inside so that it does not disrupt the air flow or the 'thermometer' function of the turbinate
good luck and kudos for researching all the good and the bad and being an advocate for yourself - if you don't, who will

[SaltLakeJan]

Hi jskinner,
Let me begin for thanking you for sharing the incredible sites re: Empty Nose Syndrome. I had never heard of ENS before, and suspect some of the reason I am having some difficulty acclimating to CPAP may be ENS. I have had five sinus surgeries. I looked up the Surgeon's Report from a 2002 surgery. Among the multiple paragraphs describing the surgery I found this description: "dissection was carried into middle & posterior ethmoid by traversing the remnant of the basal lamella of the middle turbinate." He mentioned other turbinates and concluded "these were all removed."

I spent a couple of hours going through the links, and again thank you for sharing this information with the forum. I did read one quote that fit my situation, "The first surgery invites the second, and so on." My first surgery results lasted five years, the next was about three years. After the second surgery, I did my best to tough it out for two years in between. It seems like "snoz problems" are shared by lots of our buddies on this site.

I wish you well, and am sorry about the pain and frustration you are going through. I certainly hope you find a one-time relief solution, and don't get the empty nose syndrome. Many people will be interested in following your decision and the results, please post and let us all know.
Jan

[mountainlvr]

Don't know if you saw it or not, but I just posted on this exact same subject and I'm trying to make the same decision. My Sleep doc and RT both agree with my ENT that the surgery would be helpful. He is calling it a Submucosal Turbinate Resection and says it is removing the bone and not the tissue. I have read about this ENS also and it's definately a deterrent, but it may just be the chance I have to take.

I was very glad to read Woozle's post about the surgery being successful. It's encouraging!!

Good luck and let us know what you decide and how it goes. I'm probably going to schedule my surgery this week.

Keep you posted!

[kteague]

Reading about ENS gives me flashbacks to my years in the Pathology lab, where we processed the surgical specimens. In the early 90s turbinate removal must have been popular, because I've seen a lot of them. I wonder how many of those patients ended up with ENS, because most turbinate specimens processed contained the mucosal surface all the way down to often some bone. I wondering if the procedure of going submucosal to start removing tissue came out of long term effects on these patients. (Like uvula revision instead of removal.)

James, thanks for the link, and best wishes as you go forward.

Kathy

[nate fry]

I had the radiofrequency reduction on mine and it worked great. Of course having my septum fixed helped a lot also,I also had the tounge advancement operation. That sounded weird but worked great