Tell me about you after Septum Surgery

[sleepycarol]

Here is the other side of the story.

I was diagnosed with a deviated septum in 1990. I was having daily migraines that my GP sent me to a neurologist to try to see if they could get them under control as she wasn't having any luck.

I went to a large teaching hospital and after reviewing my case and doing the work up on me decided to have an ENT take a look at me. The ENT did some testing and found out I have severe allergies (I was told I was a 12 on a scale of 1 to 10) and a severly deviated septum. I thought everyone breathed through one side of their nose -- .

It was recommended that I have my septum repaired and my sinuses worked on. I agreed to the surgery.

I had my surgery on a Wednesday. It was suppose to be routine out patient surgery and I would return home that afternoon. I was told by my husband it seemed to take forever and of course I have no memory of it. I DO remember waking up and could NOT breathe!! I was packed tight with gauze and couldn't breathe through my nose at all!! That meant I had to mouth breathe. I felt like I was suffocating, but that wasn't the bad part. The bad part was the constant dripping of blood down my throat and although I have a high tolerance for pain -- THIS HURT!!

I do know that this simple out patient surgery WASN"T a simple out patient surgery for me as the doctor would NOT let me come home and I ended up being admitted to the hospital for approximately 4 days. Even after I returned home I had a lot of drainage and seepage that was awful. I remember taking the pain meds on a fairly regular basis (I have had surgery in the past and have NOT needed the pain meds much).

It also made the daily migraines worse.

The ENT that did the surgery was the chief of staff of the ENT department and I checked his references prior to the surgery and he was supposed to be the best in the state. I don't feel that it was due to a botched job -- just unsure what happened.

The ENT put me in a long term study and I was tracked over a few years and they did routine scopes of my nose and sinuses (every three to six months). When asked if I would have the surgery repeated -- I told them no.

It was the worst thing I have ever undergone. I have had three other major surgeries and they do not compare to the deviated septum one.

When asked if I would do it again -- I WOULD NOT go through that if I had a choice to redo it.

[sharon1965]

i had it done in april and it was the best possible decision

my experience is a little different than most people on the boards because i'm in canada, so i wasn't outpatient, i was overnight; my stents were left in for 2 weeks; i had gel packing which dissolved over time; i had dissolvable stitches which took about two months to disappear completely

but my experience was quite positive: i did get really sick for the first 12 hours or so from swallowing blood during the procedure, but after that it stopped; the pain was easily managed after the first 24 hours; i couldn't use my cpap because i only had nasal pillows, so i was off for one month; at the two week mark when the stents came out (painless, but gross) i could breathe that instant have have breathed freely ever since

i no longer take allergy meds for the symptom, which i had taken daily for 17 years; i no longer have sinus headaches and i don't sneeze uncontrollably any more, which i used to do every single day

i took jeffh's advice and did absolutely nothing for two weeks and recovered beautifully

i say do it...if, down the road, i needed the surgery again, i would absolutely do it; i've had other major surgeries and this doesn't even compare

[MLefholtz]

Hi SleepyNoMore. I had my surgery about the same time as Snoredog. We must be about the same vintage. My experience was very similar.

The one thing that was different was that I was awake through the whole procedure. Plenty doped up, but awake. At the time, they said this was the only way they would do this procedure because they had to monitor if you were still breathing adequately. Anyway, it was pretty much painless. It was weird to hear the chiseling and bone crunching.

The worst part about the surgery itself was coming off the anesthetics. Serious anesthesia always gives me a fairly severe hangover type experience.

Along with others, I thoroughly would recommend this procedure. The results continue to be positive to this day.

I agree with Rooster, it would sure be nice if you'd lose the bold/caps in your posts.

Mike

[Refugee]

I had it done about a year ago and it was one of the best decisions I've ever made. I had a lot of problems using CPAP before the surgery and now I've been 100% compliant since. It's amazing what a difference it makes to be able to breathe through your nose! I had very little pain, I never even took any of the pain medication they gave me. I did not have packing but I had splints I had to pull out myself after a few days.

I did not try to use my CPAP until a over a week later, I probably could have sooner but decided to wait. The biggest suggestion I can give is to make sure you do the saline rinses religiously, they really make a difference.

[JeffH]

When they put my first pacemaker in in 1986, I was awake for the whole surgery. 2.5 hours laying real still while they work on something related to your heart. Now that's an experience. They told me that if they screwed something up they wanted to know about it.

Thankfully, the next two were put in with me knocked out.

JeffH