Day 2: Recovery Phase
I was able to get a really good rest last night, at approximately 3am my nasal passage on the right side opened up a little and I was able to breath through my nose to sleep. 
So I finally got the chance to sit down and write about my second day of recovery.  It was quiet day, mostly just sitting around watching Netflix and using my computer.  The packing that is inside my nose is completely blocking my nasal passages.  The only thing that relieves my congestion is the constant mist of saline spray that I put into both nostrils(every hour).  I started to supplement it with ocean spray nasal gel.  This gel helps keep the inside of my nose nicely moisturized so crusting would not occur.  What I do is spray a saline mist through each nostril first, then apply the gel with a Q TIP.  The mist allows for part of my nostrils on both sides to open up a little and the gel serves as almost like an extra shot of saline that oozes through those small hole.  It definitely helps a lot!


I took glutamine pills to help with the recovery process and continued my Organic ORGAIN meal replacement shakes.  Was able to eat solid foods again.  Ate Spicy Salmon Rolls (not really spicy), Salmon Avocado, and Avocado rolls.  Getting my appetite back and it no longer hurts when I chew food.  Even though I cannot breath through my nose, I do feel more alert for some reason.  Took a clarithromycin(bioxin) antibiotic pill this morning and will be taking another one in 4 hours.  CANNOT wait until Monday so that I can get all the snot sucked out of my nose. 


One thing I did notice is that my sense of smell is amazing now.  Even with this cloggy nose I can smell so well.  Things are looking very good right now.  There is no pain at all with my nose but I still took the extra strength Tylenol pills to prevent any onset of pain (just in case).   What I found out was Halls cough pills help open up my nasal passages as well.

Will update you guys tomorrow on my recovery process!

-David

Surgery Day! Deviated Septum Surgery (Septoplasty), Turbinate Reduction (Turbinoplasty), Balloon Sinuplasty, Nasal Polyp Removal

Day 1: Surgery Day
Surgery day has come for the following procedures to be done to me:
Deviated Septum Surgery (Septoplasty), Turbinate Reduction (Turbinoplasty), Balloon Sinuplasty, Nasal Polyp Removal

Although my ENT told me that I should not have any food or drink (even water) past 12pm I opted to stop drinking and eating anything after 9pm.  The reason for this is because when you are put under general anesthesia you may get:

Risk of inhaling stomach contents into the lungs is reduced. When you are going under anesthesia, your body and all its functions are “put to sleep” making normal reactions, like swallowing, impossible. Since you are unable to control your gag reflex, if you eat something before surgery your stomach contents could regurgitate into your airways, causing complications such as pulmonary aspiration which, in severe cases, can be fatal.

My brother is an anesthesiologist and upon his recommendation I stopped eating and drinking anything as soon as possible.  My surgery was scheduled to be at 9am, I was required to come at 7am to get registered and prepped for surgery.  Also, make sure the morning of your surgery do not put any lotion on your face or brush your teeth (they will ask you when they are registering if you had even any SIP of water).

Once I got to the ENT facility they registered me, took my height and weight, blood pressure and temperature.  I then had to strip naked and put on a gown with a scrub hat.  I was brought into the pre-op room and the Nurse and Anesthesiologist spoke to me explaining what they were going to do to me.

Next thing I know I am in the operating room, the Anesthesiologist states he is going to be my bartender and I will feel like I knocked back a few drinks.  Moments later I passed out and awoken with my friend to my side.  I was very nauseous and my nose was in severe pain.  The nurse will ask you, don't be afraid to tell them exactly what you are feeling.  5 minutes later she pushed some drugs into my IV and my Nausea and Pain was alleviated instantly.  30 minutes later I felt good enough to walk and they brought me to the post operative room to get dressed. 

I had a gauze mustache on the bottom of my nose to help catch the blood and fluids draining out of my nose.  I was able to breathe pretty good out of both nostrils at this point.
(this isn't a picture of me, but this is what it looked like)

 

I got car service home.  As soon as I got home I took extra strength Tylenol to prevent the onset of any pain.  I also took the antibiotics prescribed to me (Bioxin).

This is the Tylenol I got:


I used Ocean Spray Saline mist every hour to help prevent any scab tissue from forming.  I would recommend the double pack, you are definitely going to use up both of these bottles.


Make sure you have a lot of gauze so that you can make a gauze mustache, you are going to be bleeding a lot.  I probably changed my gauze a total of 12 times throughout the day.

You will need waterproof tape in order to tape it onto your face.


The only way that I was able to breath was to use a combination of Ocean Spray Saline mist and then use Afrin and then back to Ocean Spray Saline mist .. my nasal passages cleared up to a reasonable amount to a point that I could get a good nights rest.


Will update you on Day 2 soon!

Cheers!
-David

Weeks leading up to my Deviated Septum Surgery (Septoplasty), Sinuplasty, Turbinoplasty, Nasal Polyp removal

So weeks leading up to my sinus surgery I wanted to be a good patient and go cold turkey on Alcohol.  I stopped drinking any type of alcohol 3 weeks before my surgery date to make sure my body was in tip top conditioning.  You are also supposed to stop taking anything that may thin your blood such as Advil, Ibuprofen, Motrin, etc.   I also discontinued the use of OMEGA 3's and Fish oils as recommended by my ENT doctor.

I ate very healthy during these 3 weeks to prepare myself. 

I drank Organic ORGAIN meal replacement for breakfast (highly recommended) and ate very healthy organic meals at night.  Drank plenty of fluids and did as much exercising as possible because I knew after surgery it would be quite sometime before I could exercise again.  The chocolate and Vanilla Bean flavors are very tasty. 
Orgain Chocolate
Orgain Vanilla Bean


I continued my daily Neilmed Sinus Rinse/Alkalol mixture every night until the surgery.

My next post will detail my surgery experience. 

-David

Why I Needed Sinus Surgery

I decided to get Sinus Surgery because I felt that my breathing severely affected my quality of living.  When I go to movie theatres I get fearful if the movie is too long because I'm scared my nose may get stuffy and I wouldn't be able to breath and enjoy the movie.  When I workout I cannot go 100% because I am gasping for air and dread going to bed because I know my entire body would be sore and wake up to the next morning with bags under my eyes due to my 3-4 hour of sleep.  I didn't even feel safe driving because if my nose starts to clog up when I drive my entire body starts to feel numb because I hyperventilate.  I no longer wanted to just relieve my symptoms anymore (see blog post below), I wanted to have a definite cure to my sinus problems.

I went to the ENT today and she referred me to Radiology to get a CT scan done.  1 week later I received the results as seen below:

So reading from the Radiographic impressions I had to do a lot of work on my sinuses to help relieve my pain.  I wrestled for 5 years throughout high school until first year of college, I noticed my breathing problems started first year of college.  I am assuming I may have obtained my deviated septum from wrestling. 

The strange thing is, my other ENT told me that my septum was not deviated and opted to just do turbinate coblation surgery (which was highly unsuccessful on its own).  So what I would do is make sure you pick a very competent ENT doctor, I read up yelp reviews on him recently and he had a series of bad reviews. 

Anyhow getting back on topic, this ENT's plan of action was the following:
1) Septoplasty (to fix my Deviated septum)

2) Turbinoplasty (to reduce my interior turbinate)

3) Balloon Sinuplasty (To open up all my sinuses)

4) Nasal Polyp removal


My next blog post will go into detail on how I prepared for my surgery.

Hope this allowed you to learn a little more of what and why Sinus surgery is sometimes necessary to improve breathing.

-David

How to cope with Sinus Problems

Hey all,
First let me introduce myself, My name is David and I have been suffering from Sinus problems for 10 years.  This means throughout 1/3 of my life I have been a mouth breather.  My left nostril is completely occluded.  The first CT scan that was done on me back in 2002 showed that I was 98% occluded, I went to an ENT in Rockville, MD.  When he looked at my CT scan he told me that my septum was not deviated and that all I needed to have done was turbinate coblation surgery of my inferior turbinates in order to relieve my Sinus problems.  This procedure was highly unsuccessful and I did not gain any benefits from it at all.  He tried to sell me sublingual allergy drops called Allerdrops that I had to pay out of pocket about 29.99/month(after insurance) and that was a complete waste of money.  After a whole year of buying the vials and adding them sublingually (under my tongue) every night it did not help me at all.

My sinus problems got to a point where my body would go numb from hyperventilating since I felt like I was suffocating.  When I weightlifted I would gasp for air, and I could only get 3-4 hours of sleep a day since I felt like I was suffocating at night, could not sleep at all.  The numbness would start in my fingers and gradually work its way up to my face.  I have a pretty muscular build and am in good shape.  I had an EKG done and various other tests and I was completely normal, no signs of heart attack.

What my allergy test revealed:
Allergy to Shrimp and Dust
So I thought it was over, I would have to live with getting 3-4 hours of sleep a day with no relief.  The problem with that is that Dust is found everywhere!  What I did was extensive research on forums and online in order to make my place as Allergy friendly as possible.  I would like to share with you the things that I have bought over the years and rate their success.

This knowledge is what I have gained from going to four different allergists, 2 different ents, numerous different general physicians, forums, and trial and error.  I hope that through my experience I can help you relieve your Sinus problems while you decide if you want to undergo sinus surgery or not.

1) Neilmed Sinus Rinse: This is a must have for any sinus sufferer.  I use this on a daily basis at night.  Make SURE that you use this product with distilled water, there was a case of someone using tap water with the sinus rinse and got meningitis and passed away.   So be on the safe side by either 1) Boiling up your water first or 2) Use distilled water.  I personally buy distilled water and use that just to be safe.


2) Alkalol Sinus Rinse: Alkalol is a life saver.  This is to be used with the Neilmed Sinus rinse.  Here are instructions on  how to make my Alkalol/Saline Mix.  What I do is that I fill the Neilmed bottle up as see in my picture, then add one packet of saline, then add distilled water up to the line indicated on the bottle.   This will give you INSTANT relief before bedtime.  I use this before bedtime in order to get a good nights rest, without this combination I have no idea how I would survive and get any type of sleep.  I have this set so that I receive 3 bottles through subscribe and save monthly from Amazon, it is worth every penny.

 

Review: This is a gem.  I did not know about Alkalol until I read numerous forums about this product.  When my nose gets very stuffy I use this to clear it up, it works instantly.  I have tried to use Alkalol on its own, however it burns too much, the trick is to add 1 packet of saline and dilute it with distilled water to make it more manageable.  I do this before I sleep and it works wonders.


IngredientsPurified Water (USP); Menthol; Eucalyptol; Thymol; Camphor; Benzoin; Oils of Wintergreen, Spearmint, Pine, and Cinnamon; Potassium Alum; Potassium Chlorate; Sodium Bicarbonate; Sodium Chloride; Alcohol (2/100 of 1%); Caramel Color.

3) SafeRest Dust Mite Bed Cover: I personally recommend anyone who is suffering to get this bed cover, it has worked wonders preventing dust mites.  I throw these sheets into the washer/dryer every 2 weeks to make sure that all dust mites are killed.


4) Saferest Pillow Cover: This pillow cover is a must.  Your head is located on your pillow every night, so why not protect it from any chance that it would inhale dust?  I also throw this into the washer/dryer every 2 weeks to make sure that all dust mites are killed

5) Claritin 24 Hour Allergy: I have tried the Kirkland brand Allerclear, Zyrtec, and other anti histamines.  What I found worked for me best for Claritin.  I would highly advise to use Claritin everyday to relive your allergy symptoms.


6) Honeywell 50250-S 99.97% Pure HEPA Air Purifier: First time I got this air purifier, I set it on high and left the house for entire day.  You will smell a huge difference when you come home.  I keep it in my bedroom next to where I sleep and keep it on low at night when I sleep.  This is a must have for any allergy sufferer.  I cannot stress enough how many air filters I have gone through before I found this gem.  It is a #1 Amazon Best seller for a reason.

7) Afrin: This is to be used as a last resort.  It is highly addictive.  I keep a stash of these in my closet just in case I have those days where the infamous Alkalol/Sinus Rinse did not do the job.  This is for emergency purposes only, I know a lot of people who have become highly addicted to this.


8) Yogi Breath Deep Tea This tea does wonders, if you cannot breathe throughout the day, this is definitely a good option.  It has an organic blend of peppermint in the tea.  While the tea is hot I would encourage you to take deep breathes in with your nose, it will really open up your nose.


This is my top 8 list of MUST HAVE items if you are an Allergy sufferer.  I hope that this list will help relieve your symptoms and improve your quality of daily living.  

Cheers!

-David