Deviated septum

1768 Views 28 Replies 14 Participants Last post by k9zgirl, Dec 30, 2003

k9zgirl

Discussion Starter · Dec 29, 2003

Anyone with a deviated septum (not a slightly shifted septum like most people)? Has anyone had septoplasty? I've looked up quite a bit, what a boring topic I know! What I am interested in is if anybody has had the surgery and what is the recovery time. The only symptom I have are horrid headaches, no sinusitis or breathing problems. I don't have the time for surgery right now, I have too much on my plate. However, will be having it at some point. Just would like some input from anyone who has experienced this nuisance problem. Thanks..
Ginny

1 - 20 of 29 Posts

Rue

· #2 · Dec 29, 2003

I don't know anything about your problem but I should maybe look into it. I seriously think I have sleep apnea though.

k9zgirl

Discussion Starter · #3 · Dec 29, 2003

yes thats one of the possible symptoms Rue...look into it.

tommymac

· #4 · Dec 29, 2003

Rue said:
I don't know anything about your problem but I should maybe look into it. I seriously think I have sleep apnea though.

Thats a bit diffferent though, usually deals withthe throat, I have a friend who had it prety bad and had the surgery, she said it took a while for her to re learn how to swallow foods and liquids. I may look into it myself since I do have a few of the symptoms.

Tom

k9zgirl

Discussion Starter · #5 · Dec 29, 2003

tommymac said:
Thats a bit diffferent though, usually deals withthe throat, I have a friend who had it prety bad and had the surgery, she said it took a while for her to re learn how to swallow foods and liquids. I may look into it myself since I do have a few of the symptoms.

Tom

which surgery Tom?? Were you referring to the sleep apnea?

Rue

· #6 · Dec 29, 2003

tommymac said:
Thats a bit diffferent though, usually deals withthe throat, I have a friend who had it prety bad and had the surgery, she said it took a while for her to re learn how to swallow foods and liquids. I may look into it myself since I do have a few of the symptoms.

Tom

Well... I've had to re-learn how to swallow once already. We discovered after having braces on my bottom teeth twice that I was swallowing wrong. I had no idea that was possible in the first place.

I have to look into it. I've been told I stop breathing... more than once.

zlicius

· #7 · Dec 29, 2003

you can swallow wrong?????????? man, that's bad. I mean, maybe that's why I eat so damn much food. :crackup

BillyBadAss

· #8 · Dec 29, 2003

After having three sinus infections in about a 12 month period, the doctors sent me in to get my head checked. They told me I have a deviated septum and that could be causing the problems (along with blocked sinuses). Unfortunately, when I got to talk to the doctor about surgery, I only had a couple months remaining in the Army and I didn't want to stay any longer than I had to. So, I haven't done it yet, but the doctor that would have performed the surgery told me the procedure would take about 3 hours (I think that was all; I was also going to get my sinuses opened up, since they're all blocked off for some reason). He said I'd be able to go home after the surgery, then go back for a follow-up about two weeks after, leaving me plenty of time to do my outprocessing from the Army. I still decided against it, just because I didn't want anything to go wrong and leave me stuck in the Army longer.

I'll probably try to get it done sometime soon though. Since getting out of the Army and moving back to FL from WA, I haven't had any problems. Now that my wife is in the military, I have no idea where I'll end up, and I don't like only being able to breathe out of one nostril, so I'll go ahead and get it done.

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Jeff6R

· #9 · Dec 29, 2003

How is it possible to swallow wrong? :confused What's different between the right way and the wrong way?

Dvus

· #10 · Dec 29, 2003 (Edited)

I've had the surgery. It's a relatively quick day surgery. you have tubes and packing in your nostrils and trust me when they say to breathe out of your mouth when you come to from being under. You better do it.

As for pain. This is none to be the worst recovery and most painful. The key is to get all the pain killers as many as you can before your morphine wears off.

Always stay on top of the pain. Vicodine every 2 hours is a must! Always take your anti-biotics. If you do that you won't feel any pain of course you'll be all high, but that is much better than feeling an ounce of pain. DO NOT MESS WITH YOU NOSE TOO MUCH DRAIN IT WITH SALINE! If anyone messes with your nose you will definitely feel it.

As to breathing and sleeping good luck! After the first night, my mouth was drier than Death Valley. I drank water but not too fast cause I couldn't breathe out of my nose. I couldn't sleep cause I had to breathe in and out of my mouth and had to be propped up. Eating right. You cannot taste anything since your nose is in no use. Bland and only feel textures. So don't go and spend too much on fancy foods.

It takes about 2 weeks and once my vicodine was all gone my nose was in pain. Try to get 3 to 4 bottles of vicodine. It will be worth it.

After my recovery, the doctor removed the tubes talk about more pain. He removed the stitching and the packing came out. Blew my nose and some horrid foul looking chunks of paking that looked like liver came out. OUCH!!!!! I had mine done in the winter. After the visit I felt the coldest air! Talk about brain freeze DAMN! But the air smelt sooo fresh it was great.
I had packing stuck in my nose for 2 weeks!

I feel sooooooooooooooooooo
Much better. No more sleep apnea and no more closed nostirls during allergy season. I can breathe much better. I'd do it all over again with out a doubt!

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tommymac

· #11 · Dec 29, 2003

k9zgirl said:
which surgery Tom?? Were you referring to the sleep apnea?

The throat surgery, her throat was widened by about 60% which is apparently quite a lot.

I know I snore quite a bit and when I read something about having difficulty sleeping and waking up a lot I thought about looking into it since that hapens with me sometimes.

Tom

Baby Gorilla

· #12 · Dec 29, 2003

I'm looking into it.

I have a severly deviated septum, and allergy season is a problem mostly due to if I can't keep them dry and draining, it's sinus infection time.

trikzee

· #13 · Dec 29, 2003

I just went to the doc last week to address this very issue.
I've put it off for 7 years then when my hubby told me I quit
breathing I knew the snoring issue was more important than
I thought. I thought it was just my bad sinuses. The doc looked
in my throat & said "I see you still have tonsils". Ummmm, better
look again cause they were taken out when I was 4.
They are sending over a machine that measures oxygen levels during sleep. I go back next week.

I'm not looking forward to any of this!

Rue

· #14 · Dec 29, 2003

Jeff6R said:
How is it possible to swallow wrong? :confused What's different between the right way and the wrong way?

Based on where you put your tongue. Typically when you swallow "correctly" you put your tongue on the roof of your mouth. I used to thrust my tongue forward against my teeth.

That's what I got from the orthodontist anyway.

ScottyCoyote

· #15 · Dec 29, 2003

isnt deviated septum what alot of people who did coke and stuff have?

Aquarello

· #16 · Dec 29, 2003

My MIL had surgery for a deviated septum recently. The recovery process wasn't any fun---there's a lot of nerves in there---but she still can't stop talking about how much better it is after the surgery.

Rue

· #17 · Dec 29, 2003

ScottyCoyote said:
isnt deviated septum what alot of people who did coke and stuff have?

I don’t think so… they just rotted out their noses.

Converge

· #18 · Dec 29, 2003

i had spetoplasty when i was in 8th grade. Fixed my deviated septum, cut out about 4 pollips in my sinuses and roto-rooted my whole face. If i can remember correctly, healing was somewhere within a week???? It was a long time ago some im not exactly sure. But what i do remember was the removal of the packing that was all the way up into the upper sinuses. It felt like she was pulling my BRAIN through my nose. But yeah, growing up i always had problems breathing through my nose, tons up sinus infections. After the surgery it was a noticable difference.

Converge

· #19 · Dec 29, 2003

ScottyCoyote said:
isnt deviated septum what alot of people who did coke and stuff have?

A deviated septum is when your septum (cartlige that seperates your nostrils) is over more to one side than the other. Its a natural thing. The coke thing actually like mentioned by Rue, is a hole in the sinuses or septum from snorting coke. 2 different things

ryanslat

· #20 · Dec 29, 2003

Dvus3000 said:
I've had the surgery. It's a relatively quick day surgery. you have tubes and packing in your nostrils and trust me when they say to breathe out of your mouth when you come to from being under. You better do it.

As for pain. This is none to be the worst recovery and most painful. The key is to get all the pain killers as many as you can before your morphine wears off.

Always stay on top of the pain. Vicodine every 2 hours is a must! Always take your anti-biotics. If you do that you won't feel any pain of course you'll be all high, but that is much better than feeling an ounce of pain. DO NOT MESS WITH YOU NOSE TOO MUCH DRAIN IT WITH SALINE! If anyone messes with your nose you will definitely feel it.

As to breathing and sleeping good luck! After the first night, my mouth was drier than Death Valley. I drank water but not too fast cause I couldn't breathe out of my nose. I couldn't sleep cause I had to breathe in and out of my mouth and had to be propped up. Eating right. You cannot taste anything since your nose is in no use. Bland and only feel textures. So don't go and spend too much on fancy foods.

It takes about 2 weeks and once my vicodine was all gone my nose was in pain. Try to get 3 to 4 bottles of vicodine. It will be worth it.

After my recovery, the doctor removed the tubes talk about more pain. He removed the stitching and the packing came out. Blew my nose and some horrid foul looking chunks of paking that looked like liver came out. OUCH!!!!! I had mine done in the winter. After the visit I felt the coldest air! Talk about brain freeze DAMN! But the air smelt sooo fresh it was great.
I had packing stuck in my nose for 2 weeks!

I feel sooooooooooooooooooo
Much better. No more sleep apnea and no more closed nostirls during allergy season. I can breathe much better. I'd do it all over again with out a doubt!

I agree 100%
I had the surgery about five years ago. You'd wish you didnt' get the surgery during the healing period. That part really sucked. I can't emphasize enough to stay on top of the pain killers. But after that it was soooo worth it.

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