Just had to share.

Just had to share.

Okay dumb question---but what's a splint? Hope you are okay!
~dagmar

When you have sinus surgery, they put little tubes in your nose to keep the passages open while you heal. They're supposed to comeo ut after 10 days. Yesterday was day 10, but I wasn't going to have them removed until Thursday (day 13) because the doctor is on vacation.

My splints were removed after 24 hours. I think you may have had an older technique.

how is the recovery going?

Recovery is going fine.

I don't know if it's older or newer - maybe just different. What were your splints like? Could you feel them?

Mine are little soft plastic tubes, maybe a bit over an inch long. I can't feel them. Which made it extra shocking to find one just sitting there in my hand!

I'm going out to an expensive restaurant tonight. I sure hope I don't sneeze the other one out at dinner. Drat, I should have bought more kleenex over lunch ...

my splints were 2 rectangular objects, one in each nostril. They absorbed blood and held the septum in place. I couldn't breathe through them, but they were removed after 24 hours.

I know they used to use gauze, but I've never heard of hollow plastic tubes. Did you have a nasal airway reconstruction (NAS)? Or just a FESS?

I'm not sure you'd call it a reconstruction, but they did widen the passages from my nose to my maxillary siunses. They had to scrape down the bone in one or two places.

The also sucked out whatever gunk was in there. (I have yet to find out if they were able to culture it.)

My sense of smell is unbelievable now. Saturday I woke up to the smell of bread, so I went downstairs and asked my housemate what she was cooking, and she said, "Well, I made toast ... about two hours ago!" I know what all the neighbors are having for dinner. Friday someone was smoking three rooms away from me, and it was completely overwhelming. I was previouisly unaware that my cats' paws always smell like clay litter.

Unexpected bonus: My snore has a lovely new deep resonance to it. :rolleyes:

My sense of smell has improved as well. I can smell if the baby needs to changed from 20 feet away!

Other amzing improvements include a reduction in allergy symptoms, and my blepharitis has gotten a lot better. Blepharitis is basically a disorder of the glands within the eye lids, causing redness, crusting, and even infection.

I'm thrilled with the sinus surgery results!

Hi Chiggins,

I am scheduled for FESS & septolasty on June 15. What can you tell me about what to expect? Thanks loads.

I had the other splint out today. I can't decide how I feel. It's weird. It's like I'm both congested and clearer than ever at the same time. The ENT said everything is healing perfectly and there shouldn't be any problems. I wonder if this will "cure" me for real. Oh, and there was no sign of infection or any other nastiness in the stuff they cultured. My GP, Allergist, and the ENT all insisted it was an infection, and I kept insisting it wasn't. Validation!!!!!

A little background--

I'm 34 and except for some sinus infections as a kid (so I'm told) didn't have any sinus problems until about three years ago. I did always have nasal dryness and crusting, but I'm told that was due to the deviated septum. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Three years ago I got the typical cold that wouldn't go away. Antibiotics took care of it, and for a few months I was fine, then it came back withthe next cold. Back to the doctor, CT scan revealed a severely deviated septum with a spur and blocked ostia. Off to the ENT. He recommended but didn't push surgery. I began irrigating, with the pot at first and then with the machine and premixed solution, but only when I had symptoms.

Over the past few years I average a sinus infection every 3-4 months. I kept thinking that each infection would be the last, and my sinuses would recover and return to normal, but with every subsequent infection I was dismayed. Kept going bak to the ENT. It got so last time I put myself on antibiotics that I had access to.

This time, I again had access to antibiotics but went back to the ENT. He looked up my nose and declared he really didn't see any evidence of infection, no purulent drainage (but he also said that the deviation was so severe that he couldn't even visualize everything). He gave me the AUgmentin I asked him for in any case, since I told him that whenever I felt like that an antibiotic always improved things, and lo and behold it is.

I decided though, that I could not continue the roller coaster I was on indefinitely. There was no indication that things were just going to spontaneously improve, and all indications were that they weren't. So I reasoned that onstead of sufferring every 3 months with sinus pain, pressure, headache, fog and congestion, I'd suffer throught the surgery once (hopefully) and be done with it.

The doc told me several things. He's going to have to see whatthings look like once he gets in there, but the plans are as follows: perform FESS on the open side first, clear up the natural sinus drainage openings (OMC), then repair the septum, and then FESS the other side. He said it should take about 2.5 hours, and there shouldn't be much pain. (He told me that he had his own septum repaired and it wasn't that bad...kind of made me wonder who did HIS sugery!) He showed me an intraoperative video of a procedure on a patient he said very much like me, and that eight years later the patient remains problem free.

He also told me that his surgical outcomes are better than most of is colleagues, because he is more selective about who he operates on. Indeed, he never once pushed or steered me toward surgery. He said He has seen that I have a pattern of recurrent symptoms, associated with a definite anatomic abnormality, and that those factors point to a high success rate.

I don't have allergies that I know of, dust maybe but most people are, just congestion and recurrent infection.

So I am approaching this operation with a mixture of hope, uncertainty, excitement, and dread. I am almost less worried about pain then discomfort, though every time I am in the throes of a full-blown sinus infection I think that the surgery couldn't be much worse. I also have read (probably reading too much for my own good) many accounts on the internet, including this board, of people who have undergone FESS and have had less that ideal, sometimes even miserable results, needed revisions, had recurrent infections.

I plan to give myself almost a week off work and have a relative visit to help.

Any other thoughts you, or others can give me would be very much appreciato.

Thanks! :confused:

If I had sinus infections as often as you do, I would definitely opt for surgery. I think Chiggins's surgery was more like yours, though, and it sounds like it helped a lot.

As far as discomfort, for me the worst thing was the after-effects of the anesthetic. I kept having chills and nausea for another 5 days after the surgery. The discomfort in my nose wasn't bad, but my surgery was a lot simpler than yours would be. It stung for the first day or two, then for another two days my whole face was a little sore from the swelling, then I was fine.

Thanks Crossbow,

I was also concerned about nausea-- 5 years ago I had bilateral varicocele surgery (right near that important one percent anatomy, ;) )and had a lot of nausea when I came to. I brought this up with the ENT surgeon, and he said that I will be given adequate anti-nausea medication. I also plan to address this with the anesthesiologist prior to surgery. I think it will be alright. I hope. Aahh, what can I say I'm a big fat baby!

Will I be able to return to work 6 or 7 days post-op?

I was OK to work after about 6 days.

My splints were removed after 24 hours. I think you may have had an older technique.


It depends on what you have done. I work in a Recovery Room and we take certain kinds of packing/splints out before the patient's go home, but other kinds are removed in the doctor's office a week later, oh and some the next day. It also depends on how extensive your surgery was.

Sounds like you are past the miserable part. Glad it is going well. I may be in line for this surgery so I always like to hear what it is like the few days after, since I don't get to see that side of it.

Any regrets so far?

Ack I had some sinus/allergy surgery at about 16 (10 years ago). My splints were around 6 inches long, like the spiral binders of a book. They go in through your nose, and all the way to the centre of your head (placed during surgery).

I severely hope this practice is no longer carried out, the blood hardens and locks them to your skin/sinuses; I cant explain the agony of having them removed weeks later, the doctor apologising as he tried to reef them from my nose.