Life after sinus/nasal surgery
Venting/commiserating. I got surgery on 3/23 to correct a deviated septum, concha bullosa, enlarged turbinates, and silent sinus syndrome. The surgery went well and the first week of recovery I felt mostly fine other than the annoying feeling of the splints and not being able to blow my nose. For context, I also have severe allergies to everything 🫠 (dust mites, animal dander, pollen, trees, grass, multiple food allergies, metals). For non food allergies, I’m mostly non responsive to allergy pills and have only just recently started shots (that have been an additional uphill battle) and only dymista seems to do it for me. Due to the surgery, my nose is too sensitive to this.
Weeks 2-4 of recovery have been hell. I’ve been back to the ENT 4x due to tooth nerve pain and numbness (mostly gone now), extreme dryness, headaches, pain, foul smelling snot, debridement, and just found out I have a sinus infection most likely due to how raw my nose was from constant blowing due to allergies.
I nasal rinse 5x a day, use ponaris drops, add baby soap to my rinses, mask while outside, run the humidifier damn near 24/7, and use saline gel to moisturize the passages, so they always tell me I’m doing everything right, but I’m so frustrated. I had a super active lifestyle before this despite allergies since I was comfortably able to use my nasal spray without issues. I don’t regret the surgery at all, it was 100% medically necessary and my surgeon did an amazing job. But I’m also sick of being confined to the house.
I’ve suffered from chronic allergies and sinusitis my entire life. I never got treatment during childhood due to the severity of the allergies plus trauma and neglect. Now I n my 30s, I’m trying to do right by myself by finally getting the shots, correcting my breathing (which I didn’t know was obstructed until January), but it gets hard. No one really gets it and it’s hard to explain how severe the allergies are on top of recovering from surgery and everything else. I was looking forward to a summer where I could finally be outside and enjoy myself without having to worry about random allergic reactions, congestion, and constant drainage, but it looks like I’ll be scaling back and staying inside most of the time.
I’m not really looking for any advice as I’m more than diligent, just feeling bummed that I had to wait decades to get medical attention for something I’ve had almost my entire life. That chronic rhinitis was noted so many times in my medical files as a child but nothing was ever done to help it. My nose would literally run like a faucet and I’d have sinus infections at least monthly and the only thing I could take to help was Benadryl.
Anyway, just venting in a place where some can understand the severity of the situation and how stifling it can feel.