Is this ENS? What should I do?
About two and a half years ago, I had a septoplasty and turbinate reduction. I should point out that I have other autoimmune/allergy conditions that could complete the picture. The situation was really serious, and I had a hard time sleeping; I often had to breathe with my mouth open, especially in the winter and spring. My right nostril, in particular, was almost always blocked. I had the operation, and since then, my condition has improved. I'd say my breathing quality has gone from 30% to 60%. Now I can breathe decently, though still not great, but at least I sleep better at night. I'm writing because I still have some residual symptoms. My left nostril is practically perfect, but the right one continues to cause some problems. I have dryness, crusting, and little mucus, which translates into almost constant congestion in my right nostril. Most of the time, I breathe almost entirely through my left nostril, with a ratio of 85% to 15%. I always feel like I'm not breathing at my full potential. I know about alternating nostrils, and indeed sometimes they alternate and the left nostril closes a little and I finally start breathing through the right. In these cases, the airflow is a little worse, but I can still breathe, it's just that it happens a few times and they're almost never both open. Last night I was in exactly this situation (left nostril completely open and right nostril almost completely congested). I tried using a nasal spray only in the right nostril, and boy, did I breathe like 4k. I had a very slight cold sensation in my right nostril (I think it's normal since the mucosa is damaged) but it honestly didn't bother me at all. Overall, it was a good experience. Today, I'm clearly back to my baseline and I'm thinking about what to do. Obviously, I won't continue using the spray because I know it would make things worse in the long run, but I'm considering MARPE. I was afraid at first because I thought creating more space would worsen the ENS symptoms, but thinking back to how well I breathed yesterday, I'm not so sure. My breathing was good despite the slightly damaged mucosa, I was fine. I noticed that my palate is visibly narrower on the right side, which is the one giving me problems. Perhaps a moderate expansion could bring my breathing from 60% to 80%? I know I'll never breathe perfectly, but I think it could improve with caution. My problem is much more with a stuffy nose than a "too open" one. It’s really annoying. I don’t even know if this is ENS or not. Is it common for ENS sufferers to breath well after nasal spray? Thank you!