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Good luck! I hope yours goes as smoothly and works as well as mine did.

Let us know!

After having surgery to correct my deviated septum the initial results were fantastic. However, after 12-16 months I discovered difficulty breathing through my nose again. Revisited the ENT, TOOK ANOTHER CT scan and to my amazement I'm back to where I was before the surgery.

ENT's response, sometimes the cartilage has memory. Needless to say, I was hoping for a long term solution.

Rharan wrote:After having surgery to correct my deviated septum the initial results were fantastic. However, after 12-16 months I discovered difficulty breathing through my nose again. Revisited the ENT, TOOK ANOTHER CT scan and to my amazement I'm back to where I was before the surgery.

ENT's response, sometimes the cartilage has memory. Needless to say, I was hoping for a long term solution.

Rharan,

How frustrating to have that happened to you.

You might want to take a look at this link on this ENT's site who seems to address the issue of cartilage memory.

http://www.fauquierent.net/septo.htm

The deviated septum is now physically removed. One removes the deviated septum completely instead of forcing it into a midline position. Why? Because just like a young tree sapling, the nasal septum has "memory" and bending or forcing it into a certain position will last only temporarily before it springs back into its original position.

I have no idea if he is right or not but sadly, I wasn't surprised by your situation although I don't think it is common. At least I hope not.

Anyway, if you decide to have surgery again, you might ask the doctor about what this ENT does and whether it would prevent the same thing from occurring again.

I had the surgery several years before my apnea diagnosis. It definitely helped the airflow, but I still kept getting sinus infections. My ENT ended up recommending an allergist as well. I think the allergy shots helped more than the surgery. But since I started them after I already had the procedure done, I can't really say if it would have replaced the surgery all together.

It happens:

Parul Goyal, MD, American Rhinologic Society, Revised 6/2011, wrote:"Because the septal cartilage has 'memory'--it has an intrinsic tendency to assume its initial shape--the septal cartilage can sometimes bend after the surgery."

http://care.american-rhinologic.org/sep ... turbinates

Note to ARS: Fire your copy-editor.

last line of copy for the answers to common questions, after the above article wrote:". . . and there will not be any external bruising is very unlikely."

Say what?