CPAPtalk.com

I know this thread started in 2005 but today am another one off to see an ENT specialist after 1 18 months using nasonex - my doctor asked me to stay with it for at least a year. In general it did help but for self, the issue is that at times just can't get enough air through nose. By holding nares can get plenty of air.

Am going to the ENT mainly to see what she can do to help nostril openings - am not crazy about having turbinates worked on & may resist any suggestion re that.

Have always envied people who had noses that let plenty of air in

DSM

Since I'm new here I don't know how serious people will take my reply but I'll post it anyway. I'm a 26 year old male and I had my surgery on 4/17/09 by Dr. Brandes at the St. John's Hospital in Madison Heights, MI. It is now 4/22/09. So far I haven't had any problems except for the stuffy nose and a nasty sore throat. The surgery went very smoothly, I actually was discharged from the hospital a couple hours after it with very minimal bleeding. I haven't experienced no swelling at all, hardly any bleeding and have been pain free except for my throat. I've had no headaches or migraines like many people say and haven't felt completely miserable like many people said. I go back tomorrow to see him and get the splints taking out, I'm hoping I'll be able to return to work next week and do some of my normal activities because I'm going stir crazy being stuck in the house. If I remember to do so I'll update this next week to let people know how it's going. But like I said other than the throat and the stuffy nose I feel fine and so far I'm glad I had it done. I just figured I post this because I saw all these horror posts on here about people having terrible experiences and I wanted to share mine so it might help ease people that are having it's minds cause I know when I read these last week before I got mine done I got paranoid and almost cancelled it but thankfully I didn't. Well thanks for reading this and I'll try to remember to update this, good luck to whoever is having it done and take care everybody.

tigerhart wrote:........ I just figured I post this because I saw all these horror posts on here about people having terrible experiences and I wanted to share mine so it might help ease people that are having it's minds cause I know when I read these last week before I got mine done I got paranoid and almost cancelled it but thankfully I didn't. .......

Good post. Don't forget the surgery techniques have changed in a big way in the last fifteen years. There are plenty of true horror stories, but anyone having it done today by a good surgeon has it much easier. Mine was easy.

rooster wrote:

tigerhart wrote:........ I just figured I post this because I saw all these horror posts on here about people having terrible experiences and I wanted to share mine so it might help ease people that are having it's minds cause I know when I read these last week before I got mine done I got paranoid and almost cancelled it but thankfully I didn't. .......

Good post. Don't forget the surgery techniques have changed in a big way in the last fifteen years. There are plenty of true horror stories, but anyone having it done today by a good surgeon has it much easier. Mine was easy.

Rooster,

In balance do you feel it has made a distinct difference & was worth it ?

Tks

DSM

dsm wrote:

rooster wrote:

tigerhart wrote:........ I just figured I post this because I saw all these horror posts on here about people having terrible experiences and I wanted to share mine so it might help ease people that are having it's minds cause I know when I read these last week before I got mine done I got paranoid and almost cancelled it but thankfully I didn't. .......

Good post. Don't forget the surgery techniques have changed in a big way in the last fifteen years. There are plenty of true horror stories, but anyone having it done today by a good surgeon has it much easier. Mine was easy.

Rooster,

In balance do you feel it has made a distinct difference & was worth it ?

Tks

DSM

My nose is really opened up now because my turbinates were quite enlarged and the septum was badly deviated.

I would do the surgery again to get the airflow I now have through my nostrils 24 x 7.

The amount of mouthbreathing I do at night is now much less. However, I still have to use CPAP. The doctors thought my prescribed pressure of 19 cm could be lowered after the surgery but that has not been the case.

Just for the record, 8.5 cm is optimal for me when side sleeping and 7.5 cm works well when tummy sleeping. I try to totally avoid back sleeping because it is big trouble for me.

The apnea blockage is obviously in the throat and the turbinate reduction and septoplasty of course don't address this area.

Regards,

Just got back from my ENT visit - she sent me off for a CAT SCAN of the sinus.

Seems there are lots of issues

Pollops at rear of nose
Deviated septum that could do with straightening
Enlarged tonsils that should really come out (but she says the operation makes grown men cry esp around day 6-7 afterwards)
Also said my wind pipe thing that protects it in the throat is 'immature' - hasn't developed since childhood.

I see her again in a week to go over the cat scan data.
Not at all exciting stuff.

But turbinates are apparently reasonable & thus far no suggestion of reworking them. But she suggests using double dose of Nasonex rather
than just one spray per nostril.

DSM

dsm wrote: ...........Enlarged tonsils that should really come out ...........
DSM

DSM,

I don't remember the details of your case, but is there a glimmer of hope that your sleep apnea could be cured by tonsillectomy?

Regards,

My surgery was terribly painful. I am one week out of surgery and my nose still slightly drips and am still on pain pills. I had a terribly deviated septum and turbinate reduction. My nose was soooooo deviated from breaking it as a child that my surgeon had to REBREAK MY NOSE BONE then straighten out the cartlidge! Yea, it was not fun. I also had pus in my maxilary cavaties that needed to be drained. The whole surgery lasted 5 and half hours!! Owwwwww!
I cried:( Well, tomorrow it will be a week and I feel better everyday:) I have to wear my stents or splints and stitches for 2 weeks. I am looking forward to breathe through my nose again. I am on antibiotics and hope I helped. If you are going to have the surgery ......... remember to drink lots of water, and get plenty of rest. It will help you heal faster.


Let me know if you have any questions.

Mine was oct 21 and I kept lot s of ice on my face. I also found that ensure was great. I am so happy to be off afrin.

I guess I have to consider myself lucky - had the surgery back in August. In addition to the septoplastyand turbinate surgery, they did some other scraping/cleaning and stuff..... can't remember it all. It was out surgery - and I was home within 3 hours of the surgery. Had very little pain (only had to take 2 pain pills that day and one the next morning in prep for removal of packing). Surgery was on Thursday, packing removed Friday, I was at work as normal on Monday.

It is amazing how much better i can breath through my nose. My sense of smell has improved. I woudl recommend the surgery to anyone.

I had septoplasty and turbinate reduction about a year and a half ago [october 2007] at age 23. Even though my air flow through my left nostril still isn't quite what I feel it should be and I'll likely be seeing my ENT dr soon to address this, my breathing is MUCH better overall. My snoring has decreased significantly and I've finally been able to actually breathe through my nose rather than my mouth all the time.. though when you've been doing so all your life, its a HARD habit to break! The side effects from my seasonal allergies have been greatly reduced as well.

I had a severely deviated septum and large turbinates. I suffered from constant sinus infections as a child and had my adenoids removed at age 10 which alleviated this somewhat, but didn't fully improve the problem. Until I got my septum/turbinates corrected, I literally had no idea what it was like to breathe through your nose... the summer after my surgery, I was quite shocked to discovered what it felt like to have water go up your nose.. my nasal passages were so blocked before I had never experienced it.

I started taking arnica and cutting out salt 1 week prior to alleviate any possble bruising/swelling. My procedure was outpatient surgery on a thursday morning. I came in at 6:45 am and was out by around 11:30. I had general anesthesia and don't remember much from the first day. I was pretty sleepy and numb, no pain to speak of thanks to the meds and anesthesia. By the time I woke up in recovery any bleeding I might have had was done with. Thanks to the splints I felt extremely congested and had to breathe through my mouth, but I'm used to it. I do remember being ridiculously thirsty though. I was able to eat some scrambled eggs about 2 hours after waking up from surgery, the rest of the day I just slept.

Since my surgery was on a thursday, I was able to get my splints and packing removed friday morning. I hadn't felt any pain until they were removed, at which point my nose definately felt tender and sore.. but the congestion got better, which was so relieving. I had a prescription for oxycodone and steroid antibiotics, though after the fourth day or so I started to wean myself off the oxycodone in lieu of regular tylenol. My nose was a bit swollen and I had a dull pain in the roof of my mouth that made it kind of uncomfortable to eat anything. The swelling only lasted about 3 days, but the pain in the roof of my mouth came and went for about 2 weeks. The bridge and tip of my nose was tender for probably about a month and I'd scream in pain if I actually hit my nose on anything. Saline spray and humidifiers were my friend for about 6 weeks afterwards, and I had alot of mucus drip. I went back to work after a week. I definately wasn't feeling fabulous, but I was functional.

The tenderness and congestion got better with each weekly appointment, where they used long tweezers to remove fun things like giant blood clots and massive clumps of dried mucus from my sinuses. I was utterly shocked by the size of some of the things they removed. It wasn't comfortable by any means, but I always felt 10000 times better afterwards.

My breathing is definately better now, though its still noticably better in the right nostril as its always been. It wasn't a walk in the park, but I'd do it all over again just to be able to breathe through my nose for the first time in my life.

Niia wrote:...........
Since my surgery was on a thursday, I was able to get my splints and packing removed friday morning.........

I had all six turbinates resectioned and a double deviated septum corrected. I am very surprised that your splints were removed in 24 hours. Mine were removed in 96 hours and the surgeon said he has never done it earlier.

Judging from the amount of bleeding, mine might have been OK to remove in 72 hours, but definitely not sooner.

I guess every surgery is different.

Thanks Tigerhart and everyone that has shared their experiences in the forum. I am a 24 yr old female with severe nasal obstruction from my enlarged turbinates. This has caused me to have headaches from the nasal pressure and allergies. I also have a deviated septum but it's not as bad as the turbinate problem. I will be getting the septoplasty and turbinate reduction surgery on June 19th, 2009. I was very nervous but I am now more eager to get this done because I am a serial mouth-breather!! I am so excited at the thought of being able to breathe through my nose. I see everyone is stating that they had really bad dry mouth due to the packing after surgery, well guess what, I have that several nights a week. I sleep with a water bottle next to my bed. I have found these posts to be so helpful and encouraging, so I will be sure to return the favor after my surgery June 19th

Hi...yes, Detroit, please post your surgery experience after June 19th. I developed enlarged inferior turbinates after two back-to-back colds in Jan/Feb of this year. I just had Radiofrequency done three weeks ago. There has been some improvement and I have to wait another 5 weeks to find out the complete extent of the procedure. I'm hoping that we can do the procedure again if results aren't as good as I would like, but my doctor has mentioned a possible septoplasty and submucosal resection of the inferior turbinates. I'm slightly petrified, but will do it if I have to as I want to be able to breathe through my nose perfectly again.

Rooster...you mentioned that you had all three sets of turbinates reduced. What procedure did you have done on your inferior turbinates and do you know if the entire turbinate was swollen or just the front part of it? Are you still doing well with it all, no terrible dryness or anything? After reading your surgery description, you are an inspiration. I hope I can be as positive as you are if I have to have surgery.

per-turbed in san jose wrote:......
Rooster...you mentioned that you had all three sets of turbinates reduced. What procedure did you have done on your inferior turbinates and do you know if the entire turbinate was swollen or just the front part of it? Are you still doing well with it all, no terrible dryness or anything? After reading your surgery description, you are an inspiration. I hope I can be as positive as you are if I have to have surgery.

Per,

Here is something I wrote on the forum back then.

I had a great surgeon who did a great job in November of last year (2007). It was a double deviated septum correction and reduction of all six turbinates.

I had the surgery on a Tuesday. Wednesday I was in a fair amount of pain and was glad not to be doing any work.

Thursday I felt good but had a good bit of bleeding when I got up and moved around. So I was happy to lay around most of the day. I had a mustache bandage that was gross looking so I did not want to be out in public.

On Friday morning I went to the doc and he removed the splints. There was very little bleeding which I would occasionally catch with a facial tissue - the mustache bandage was no longer needed. I could have worked Friday afternoon but heck even without surgery I usually don't do much on Friday afternoons.

Your mileage may vary.

What a huge improvement for me. There was only one lasting side effect. For about 10 months, to me my voice sounded like it was echoing in a canyon. My wife and friends said it sounded no different to them. I eventually got to a point where I no longer noticed it.

Just my opinion, not a medical one, but when he scoped my airway it looked like the entire turbinates were enlarged not just the front parts.

I am not exactly sure of the procedure, but I do know the doc sliced below the mucosa of the turbinates and removed a good bit of material.

This guy is a darn good surgeon. He gave me a big bottle of pain killer (codeine something) and told me it would be about two weeks before I could stand to wear my CPAP mask. At the first post-op visit I told him I had used the CPAP mask every minute of sleep and the bottle of codeine still had the seal on it.

If you have a good surgeon, I think you will do well and later be very glad about the surgery. People have probably told you horror tales about this surgery. And these tales were true. But they do surgery very differently now as compared to 15 years ago.

Good luck,