Sinus Surgery

[rtr]

I'm supposed to have surgery on my sinuses called FESS (Functional Endoscopic Sinus Surgery) to remove some polyps soon. I'm worried about how I'll feel after the procedure.

Anyone have this procedure and want to share here or by PM what it was like for you? thanks.

[J-Ho]

Chris

Never had it or heard of it but I hope you get over the surgery as quick as possible.

[Graham Smith]

I had my septum fixed and polyps removed, basically the whole nasal passage was "reamed out". The work was all done with an endoscope. Despite being told to expect a lot of pain, my discomfort was minimal. The only thing I didn't like was having to sleep sitting up for a few days.

[JimmyZip]

I had my septum fixed and polyps removed, basically the whole nasal passage was "reamed out". The work was all done with an endoscope. Despite being told to expect a lot of pain, my discomfort was minimal. The only thing I didn't like was having to sleep sitting up for a few days.

This was my experience. I too had the septum straightened and polyps removed. After a couple of years I did lose a little flow in one nostril, but it is still 80% better than what it was. Cured my sleep apnea, and that settled my a-fib down too. It Gave me the energy to get back exercising and essentially saved me from a physical downward spiral. Seriously.

Definitely worth it.

JZ

[bbbean]

I'm supposed to have surgery on my sinuses called FESS (Functional Endoscopic Sinus Surgery) to remove some polyps soon. I'm worried about how I'll feel after the procedure.

Anyone have this procedure and want to share here or by PM what it was like for you? thanks.

Hope your experience is better than mine. I got 18 months of relief (who knew you could breathe through your nose?), and then everything returned to normal by 24 months. $10K out of pocket for 18 months of breathing through my nose. Not a good deal for me.

[Adam B]

I had my tonsils removed and my deviated septum straighten out and I will say the tonsils were a breeze but my nose, which was fine before the surgery, has given me nothing but problems ever since. I never had a sinus infection prior to the surgery and now I get them all the time. If I were to do it over I would pass on the nasal surgery. Good luck, I hope your results are better than mine.

[h2osport]

I had 90% blockage on my right nostril, and 75% on my left. Had surgery to straighten the septum, and ream out the nostrils. They ended up having to remove a bunch of bone from the base of the nose(above upper lip)with a chisel and hammer. When I came to I felt like I had been in a fight. Pain was not bad at all. Pulling out the packs was supposed to be the worst, but it just felt like a lot of pressure.

I can definately breathe alot better now.

Randy.

[rtr]

Unfortunately there is a decent chance that the polyps will return, but I feel so shitty I think it's worth it. Hopefully the outcome will be good. Thanks for the info folks I appreciate it.

[Yagi]

Go for it ...It's worth it... Post surgery is also really important. Remember not to miss. You will still have bleeding up to 4-6 weeks after surgery. But not to the point that you need to be concern.

After my surgery, i never really had a sever cold nor congestion in 5 years...

Good thing is, i can now smell. Breathe through my nose and my wife told me that i rarely snore (not that i know...lol, how would i know, i'm sleeping )...

[scap99]

I had mine done a year ago in April.

Fixed a deviated septum, opened up my turbinates, had the holes in my sinuses opened up so the mucus could drain, and adnoid removal. Basically, a brand new nose from the inside...

I had some minor pain and discomfort, but the really really bad part was the nasty bacterial infection I got afterwords. I was on an oral antibiotic for post op, but that didn't work. So they upped the strength to some high power stuff, which didn't work, either. I was kept on the oral antibiotic, but was then given huge injections of Rocephin and I also had to snort Cipro via a saline irrigation. The doc's were really concerned that I was going to have the infection spread to my meninges (meningitis).

That being said, I'd gladly do it again. I can breathe now. I can fly on a plane and not experience pain and then get a nasty sinus infection. I don't snore anymore, and I don't "need" my APAP machine anymore.

Life is better for me now, even though I had a bit of a tough recovery.

[rtr]

Well it's been 7 weeks since my surgery. I had a bunch of polyps removed from my sinuses and nasal passage, some turbinite reduction and my deviated septum straightened.

As a public service here is a summary of my experience.

June 15 went in for the outpatient surgery, woke up to not too much pain and a gauze pad under my nose with my nose draining a fair amount of blood and gunk. Worst part was light pain/discomfort in my throate from having a breathing tube in my throat during surgery, but not bad overall. I was discharged about 6 hours post op. Wasn't terribly comfortable at home, but didn't have severe pain either. Just felt kinda crappy with junk draining from my nose (both out the front and into my throat). Puked once the first night due to blood that I had swallowed. Had to sleep basically sitting up which made me not sleep so well. This whole theme repeated for the first 5 days or so although the bleeding did reduce and I improved slowly. By day 5 or so post op I was feeling better doing a few little things around the house while my wife walked the dog, then wham all of the sudden I could feel something let go in my nose.

I had blood literally shooting out my left nostril, called 911, called my wife. One of the firefighters clamped her hand over my nose and the bleeding stopped. Went to the ER and they shoved an expensive tampon up my nostril and sent me home.

24 hours later the bleeding started again, couldn't stop it like the firefighter had and bled into a bucket while my wife drove me back to the ER. The ER doc pulled the pack out of my nose and shoved another one in each nostril, then off to surgery to cauterize the bleeding arteries (at like midnight on a Sunday).

Woke up in recovery and then was rolled into a regular hospital room with my lovely wife taking care of me. Physically felt about the same as with the first surgery but was weaker due to blood loss, was also really freaked out about the whole situation.

Didn't do so great in the hospital, but was discharged 36 hours or so later. Two days later had a checkup with the ENT doc and he pronounced that things were as they should be, I could breathe a bit through my nose. Started eating real food that night and took Dulcolax as the doc instructed, then the worst pain hit then the Dulcolax kicked in, it was like a brick trying to work its way through my GI tract, horrible writhing pain for about 3 hours.

After 6 more days and several doses of Miralax my magic moment on the porcelain throne finally came and I was able to start getting back to normal. I felt pretty weak for a couple weeks but things slowly got better.

So after 6 weeks the inside of my nose and sinuses is supposed to be all healed. I can breathe through my nose and smell things again (not as well as I could once in life but much better than before). Now I have to use a Neti pot rinse twice a day (it's like a douche for your nose) and a nasal steroid. Hopefully that will keep more polyps from forming and my new nose will stay this way for a very long time.

If I had known the process would be like this beforehand I honestly wouldn't have done it, but I'm happy with how my nose feels and works now, just glad the process is over.

My recommendation to others, if you are on serious pain drugs like morphine DO NOT TAKE DULCOLAX, it will hurt, use Miralax it's much better. And if you're going to have this surgery make sure and ask about the risks of bleeding, and stay relatively close to a hospital for the first couple weeks at least post op.

BTW my ENT doc who has done 2500 or so of these surgeries said he has never seen someone bleed significantly so long after the operation, usually it's within the first 24 hours post op.

At the risk of oversharing I hope this may be helpful to others considering this surgery.

Edited August 2, 2010 by rtr

[SiG Lady]

Good God, what an ordeal!!! Truly your hemorrhaging must've been unusual. Still, I can kinda imagine the inconvenience of it all.

Bet you're glad it's over......

[LadyinBlue]

ditto...Good God what an ordeal!

Chris, I hope you are doing better now...that sounds like a miserable handful of weeks.

I had my surgery many years ago to fix a deviated septum.

I had suffered with sinus infections and allergies for years.

The surgery made a difference but not perfectly satisfied with the results.

I found the Neti-Pot to be the best solution.

I try to use it once a week with raw sea salt and warm water.

Keeps the sinus infections away and the allergy headaches too.

The only problem I have now is when the barometric pressure drops I can feel it.

Especially if I have not used the Neti-Pot.

Low pressure=sinus headache

Hope you are back to normal soon...

[Graham Smith]

By day 5 or so post op I was feeling better doing a few little things around the house while my wife walked the dog, then wham all of the sudden I could feel something let go in my nose.

It's unusual to have that kind of bleeding after surgery, modern cauterization pretty much eliminates it, but it's not unknown.

Not to be nosy (pardon the pun) but I have to ask, what were you doing when this happened? Were you by any chance bending over picking something up? Reason I ask is that my doctor specifically warned me not to do that and a few other things for a couple weeks because it causes a rapid increase in the blood pressure in the head (and I have high blood pressure as well which makes it worse).

[rtr]

It's unusual to have that kind of bleeding after surgery, modern cauterization pretty much eliminates it, but it's not unknown.

I believe there was no cauterization during the original surgery as the surgeon did not see a need for it because there wasn't any significant bleeding. The second surgery they definitely cauterized.

Not to be nosy (pardon the pun) but I have to ask, what were you doing when this happened? Were you by any chance bending over picking something up? Reason I ask is that my doctor specifically warned me not to do that and a few other things for a couple weeks because it causes a rapid increase in the blood pressure in the head (and I have high blood pressure as well which makes it worse).

My recollection is that my blood pressure had increased relative to where it had been (as I had just been sitting on the couch most of the time), I had taken out the trash and a couple other small things I couldn't remember. At the exact moment the bleeder let go I was standing erect walking through my kitchen.