Recovering from Surgery

Happy to say my surgery for deviated septum and turbinate reduction was done on Tuesday. So, far this has not been bad. No real pain to speak of. Some discomfort. Nose still stuffy but am getting there. My ENT is extremely hopeful that this is going to make a real difference for me. She is much more hopeful than I am. We will see. I'm glad it's done. Thanks to those of you who have had this surgery for yoru comments and those that responded with how you regretted not doing the turbinates. That helped me stay with my decision to do them. Monday I go in to have the splints removed.

I had started reeading my data and saw that even though I was still having some OA events they had reduced in number and my AHI was way down, EXCEPT for the night before surgery, when My mask didn't fit properly and I had extreme pain with it, my numbers were extremely high.I won't try the machine until I'm healed better, but moment of truth is not far away.

Mary

Glad it went OK Mary. What kind of splints did you get? the ones you can breath through? or the packing type?

Don't forget the swelling can make you feel congested for weeks when the splints come out.

I'd be interested to know how you feel breathing through your nose immediately after the splints are removed on Monday

I really don't know what kind of splints, but since I'm breathing, they must be the ones you breathe through. Even now, I seem to be breathing better than before. I just cannot get over how "easy" this has been so far. I expected much more pain and I haven't really had any pain yet, just discomfort. Maybe the splints will be my pain? I'm sure I have swelling right now, but it sure could be worse.

Mary

Uncle_Bob wrote:Glad it went OK Mary. What kind of splints did you get? the ones you can breath through? or the packing type?

Don't forget the swelling can make you feel congested for weeks when the splints come out.

I'd be interested to know how you feel breathing through your nose immediately after the splints are removed on Monday

I've been told I will most likely be able to go off CPAP all together after turbinate reduction surg in both nostrils. I sure wish I knew what kind of split you had that you could breathe through right after surgery because I would like to ask for the same thing. MY ENT told me nasal packing would be in my nose and that would mean mouth breathing for a couple of days at least. TkX!

Hi Mary.....glad to hear you are recovering nicely.

I sent you a message a few weeks before your surgery....but I forgot my username, so I have created this new one..."Apnea Amy"!

I am having my Septoplasty on March 1st. I hope we can stay in touch, and compare experiences. I am glad to hear that it is not very painful of a recovery. I am having lots of anxiety about the surgery.

I really hope to get control of my OSA. I cannot go on living like this!

Please lets stay in touch.

Amy

Thanks for sharing your good news. Please keep us posted.

Further to my last post. Looking at some paperwork, I see my surgeon has added a type of nose valve known as the "KNA". It is apparenetly an open, thin tube placed
on the floor of the nose and then the packing is stuffed into the nose around the KNA.
Has anybody else ever used one of these? The benefit being you have packing in the nose which stops bleeding and delivers medication WHILE letting the patient breathe?

Very interesting to hear that a septoplasty will cure your OSA? According to Medicare, correction of deviated nasal septum for treatment of OSA does not work and they will not pay for it saying it is "Medically Unnecessary." I have a severely deviated septum from Nasal Fracture at age 14. But no doctor has ever suggested that I get it fixed. I have one small nostril and one large nostril so I guess, theoretically, I can breathe just as easy as if they were equal size.

Why is it advantageous in OSA to remove turbinates? My sister had sinus windowing surgery for chronic sinusitis. They also removed her turbinates. She regretted that as she then had difficulty smelling things and her sense of taste was severely affected.

I don't know what the name of the tubes was, but I did have tubes in both sides of the nose with the sponges and splints. I was surprised when they were pulled out because I didn't even know I had them.

Offshore Eddy wrote:Further to my last post. Looking at some paperwork, I see my surgeon has added a type of nose valve known as the "KNA". It is apparenetly an open, thin tube placed
on the floor of the nose and then the packing is stuffed into the nose around the KNA.
Has anybody else ever used one of these? The benefit being you have packing in the nose which stops bleeding and delivers medication WHILE letting the patient breathe?

Besides the OSA I have had severe allergies. I currently get two shots each week for that. I am allergic to just about everything outside and when I get allergy problems, I get very sick from them. Because of that I spend most of my time indoors.

My blockage from the deviated septum was such that I didnt have half of my breathing ability. My understanding was that my turbinates were "reduced," not removed. My ENT seems to think that the surgery will help my OSA from the point that perhaps I can reduce the high amount of pressure necessary with the machine. That is my hope too. But I didn't go into this expecting it to "cure" my OSA. I already know that I get more oxygen into my system since the surgery and that alone is good. Time will tell if I have any other benefits from it. I hope so.

VikingGnome wrote:Very interesting to hear that a septoplasty will cure your OSA? According to Medicare, correction of deviated nasal septum for treatment of OSA does not work and they will not pay for it saying it is "Medically Unnecessary." I have a severely deviated septum from Nasal Fracture at age 14. But no doctor has ever suggested that I get it fixed. I have one small nostril and one large nostril so I guess, theoretically, I can breathe just as easy as if they were equal size.

Why is it advantageous in OSA to remove turbinates? My sister had sinus windowing surgery for chronic sinusitis. They also removed her turbinates. She regretted that as she then had difficulty smelling things and her sense of taste was severely affected.