Septoplasty results

Great news!

The surgery went better than expected. I had read a lot of horror stories with bad experiences / results, but none of those things occurred. Re-counting some of this on the blog, so other people considering or going through the surgery can use as a reference (of course each person's situation will be different, but good to have more information around). For those of you not interested in gory details, skip this post :)

My surgery was with Dr. LoveJoy through a Charlotte ENT office and the surgery was done at Carolina's Medical Center, University area.

I took the general aesthesia really fast - seemed like ~5 seconds. I woke up feeling groggy but no pain. They had gauze under my nose (taped horizontally to my cheeks), since it would be bleeding for the next 24-48 hours. Even though it was bleeding and there was swelling, I could already tell a difference in air-flow through the previously blocked nostril.

I had my wife pick me up and they gave me Hydrocodone pills for pain if needed. The nose and my upper lip were pretty sore and sensitive. The nose was expected but not the upper lip, it was kind of like numb from coming back from the dentist and I couldn't smile normally without discomfort. I could tell I would need to take it easy eating. Although there wasn't much in the way of pain/discomfort as long as you didn't touch it, the first day was the worst just from feeling lousy -- constant nose bleed, a bandage taped to your face, and breathing through your mouth.

Breathing through your mouth doesn't sound that bad, but it turned out to be pretty uncomfortable - your mouth gets really dry and especially after sleeping.

The 2nd day was like the first but I felt a lot better and the bleeding gradually stopped. By the end of the 2nd day, I could take off the bandage until I needed to sleep, and manage it here and ther with tissue if needed. I started to over-estimate myself though, and learned if you 'eat normal' it can start to sting a bit (inside the nose). I quickly went back to taking it easy.

By the 3rd day, I could appear normal to anyone and things were pretty settled. At this stage, it had stopped bleeding, and I could tell I had a lot of caked blood in there. I was able to clean out most of it in the immediate area, but was afraid to "dig inside" because it was still sore and healing, and I figured I'd wait until my first follow-up visit (scheduled 1 week after surgery).

At the follow-up visit, he examined me and said it looked good. There was a lot of caked blood so he put two things in my nose, one of which was a kind of suction (similar to at the dentist). It felt pretty weird, but right after he finished, wow could I breathe through that nostril. I was already content with the improvement I observed before hand, and now was even happier with the results.

He mentioned there was a lot of swelling still and that could take ~3-4 weeks to fully calm down, and I should notice even more improvement. Follow-up visit scheduled 6-weeks from now.

I'm happy with the results. Before the surgery, I couldn't breathe at all through one of my nostrils, and now it feels like I can fully breathe through both.