I did it!
Have been contemplating a septoplasty and turbinate reduction for over a year. Finally had enough of crappy sleep and scheduled. Honestly still at this moment not even sure if this will fix my sleep, but I’ve tried so much and spent so much and the doctor was very confident it would, so heck why not?
I am an anxious person, especially with health anxiety that can get bad at times. I am 8 hours post-op. I have zero anxiety. Probably the pain meds? Also read all the horror stories and psyched myself up, so anything is probably easier than what I had imagined in my head.
I’ve only had two real issues. First, when I woke up from anesthesia my nose and throat were burning SO BAD. Doctors brought me pain meds and apple juice, albeit not very quickly, and I let them know about it lol, but burning quickly subsided. I didn’t bleed at all through surgery or in recovery, stood up to walk to the car to go home, started bleeding pretty fiercely, haven’t stopped yet, although it’s trying to clot, just hasn’t fully happened yet.
If I can through the recovery with at least 10-15 percent airflow through nose, then this will be no problem. Right now I have zero due to bleeding and gauze. I also vape, which I noticed caused more bleeding, not insane, but enough to get some pouches for a few days.
I had really bad anxiety about this for over a year. My sleep was so bad and fragmented though, this was kinda one of the few mainstream things I haven’t tried yet. Who knows if it will fix it, if it doesn’t then I’m not even sure where to go next. But let’s hope for the best! It really isn’t bad at all right now. Does it get worse? Am I overreacting to how tolerable it is on the first day? When will the bleeding stop? Is swelling going to increase? I don’t feel much right now.
P.S. one thing I’ve found odd is they told me to squirt afrin up my nose every 10 minutes for an hour, and then every hour for the rest of the day to get the bleeding to stop. It stings, and I’m worried about rebound congestion, but I guess they would know best?