Three days post surgery - bad congestion

Hi Forum,

I had my surgery Tuesday, septoplasty. Concha bullosa resection, and Turbinate out fracture (break the Turbinate bones outward to make more room), not turbinate reduction as I had thought originally. I had no packing and no splints, so my nose was wide open at first.

Immediately after surgery and for the first 48 hours I was breathing better than I ever have. But now I am miserable. Totally stuffed up, sinus pressure, ears hurt, I feel like I have a really bad head cold. I want to 'pop' my ears and blow my nose so bad, but that is of course out of the question.

Last night and this morning I think I figured out what is going on. My Dr lists a specific post surgery regimen including regular rinsing by 'Sniffing' with Simply Saline at least ten times a day, and, here is where I think the problem is, use of Afrin for the first three days. Now as soon as the Afrin wears off, I am totally blocked up. I figured that out last night when I woke up at 2:00 AM unable to breath, and after rinsing and rinsing, I finally used one puff of Afrin in each nostril, and within 30 minutes I was totally clear again. Today when it wore off, same thing, and since this is the third day I used the Afrin as directed, and I was totally fine all day.

I have been worried I was feeling too good. No pain, no congestion, too good. But now I am worried that not only is the Afrin the only thing keeping the surgical swelling away, I may be starting to see rebound congestion when it wears off.

Ah.... it was so good....... This sucks.... sorry to vent, but I hate not being able to breathe through my nose.

I am hoping things will get better in a day or two. If not I will be parked at my Dr's office on Monday morning.

I have been rinsing and rinsing with the simply saline, and I used to get mucus and clots out, but now I can't even get through with the saline, it just runs out my nose now.

What have others done for the immediate post surgical congestion? I searched, and saw some recommendations for steam treatments, and then I searched on Afrin and saw all the horror stories. I have to admit, I really want to keep using the Afrin, at least at night, but from what I have read, I know that is not a good idea...

Anyway, I am still happy over all. No pain is great, but this night time congestion is the pits.

Regards,

Brooks, aka skier757

Well I was bad, I could not stand the thought of not being able to breath, and I have not gotten much sleep the last few nights, so half as a test I used the Afrin again. 30 minutes later I am breathing great.

From totally clogged up, to totally clear. Unfortunately, as good as it is right now, I know I am going to be totally congested when it wears off in the morning, and I have to stop using the Afrin.

Well, at least I will get some sleep tonight I hope. I should be able to start sleeping a little more level, not so propped up. I am a side sleeper, and the combination of having to sleep on my back with my head elevated, and not being able to use my CPAP has been hard the last few nights.

Anyway, it was the Afrin that was allowing me to breath so great. I need to get off it, and let myself heal and see what I breath like without the Afrin.

Later,

Brooks, aka Skier757

I find it hard to believe that an ENT told you to use Afrin following surgery. Did s/he?

I would have a talk with your surgeon if I were you.
Fifteen years ago I had some dental surgery - the fellow who BEGAN the surgery was an incompetent butcher SOB and punched a hole through my root canal into my sinus cavity in the process of removing the wisdom tooth. So incompetent was this dentist that when he finally admitted that he could not get the tooth out he simply packed me and sent me across town to a surgeon friend of his for emergency surgery. I bled like a sonofagun all the way but the dental surgeon had me into the chair in 15 seconds, frozen to my eyeballs in under a minute and the tooth was out 20 seconds later; he simply crunched it with the proper dental pliers and suctioned the remains out. When my head was screwed back on straight he told me that I now had a "fistula" (a damn hole) from my mouth, source of all evil bacteria... into my sinus cavity, intended to be treated like the Virgin Mary and with white gloves on. Until I had corrective surgery I would have a sinus infection for the rest of my life. Say what??????????????????? Ok, what's the surgery? Let's get it over with. Well, my friends, at the time the surgery was simple. Remove the roof of your mouth exposing your sinus and brains and clean things up a bit and the glue everything back together but with a piece of your own bone, cut from your ass or somewhere, wedged into place to eventually seal the hole that the idiots made. I would be shaving my teeth and scratching my mouth for the rest of my life but I wouldn't have the hole after a while. Hopefully.

To make a long story short, every surgeon I saw wanted to take the scalpel to me immediately (it was like they were salivating and rubbing their hands together) until I finally met a surgeon, professor emeritus at the local dental school, who when asked what he would do if it was his own son, told me to take antibiotics for as long as it took for the bone to grow back in.... the body would heal itself. And to use Otrivin/Afrin daily to keep my sinus open and draining. I would get up in the morning, give myself my morning shot of Afrin and spend the next half hour sitting in the washroom watching all sorts of crap and corruption come out. Less every day until one day I was shooting up on the old Afrin spray just because I couldn't breathe through my nose without it. That was fifteen years ago and to this day I need to use it from time to time when cold or allergies strike to maintain sanity and the specialist says it is okay "but watch out for rebound". Sic.

So, I would suggest a heart to heart with your surgeon. Perhaps there will be a price to pay later on, but I am thinking that right now you need to maintain a level of comfort and need to maintain a clear passage for all the crap and corruption to make its exit. I think you just might find that he/she is okay with that. Just watch out for that rebound.

We can't blow our nose after a septoplasty?

Well, my ENT would totally have a fit, but it's worked for me (I just had surgery last Thursday to open up all the sinuses - I had a turbinate reduction 4 years ago). I take an afrin bottle that you can unscrew the top (the plunger type w/ the long skinny top). I dump out about 2/3 to 3/4 of the med and replace w/ saline solution. Then, I only use the spray in one nostril, and I save it until I go to bed. It still unblocks both sides eventually, but because both sides aren't being hit every day, I haven't had problems w/ rebound. And, try just standing in a steamy shower (yuck it's seriously hot here). I don't use it during the day because I can deal w/ the congestion better. Also, if you can take sudafed (the real stuff), it can help shrink the passages. And, it's only going to last a couple of days - you're probably near peaking at the worst. And, hold on to how good it felt to breathe - because it's going to be like that soon.

Oh, and I'm really sorry - being totally congested is freakishly awful - like torture - you can't eat or drink comfortably - but - it's going to clear up.