I had the op - couple of hours later the packing was taken out - and no it wasnt painful just an odd sucking sensation followed by the funny sensation of being able to breath really deeply through my nose in the first time for a long time!
Had one or two nosebleeds since - only for a minute or two - and a bit of a gunky nose but managed to get on with my life as normal the very next day wondering why i was so worried about the op - probably because i had been reading over dramatic accounts that arent really useful to people about to have surgery. People need a more realistic idea of what to expect. With surgery you should expect a bit of gunky stuff and a bit of a headache - but not much more - dont worry about it - its not worth worrying about!
Thanks so much & take care.
Jin
I'm not Judith but I had the same procedure Judith had (endoscopic sinus surgery) and my experience was very similar to hers.
I had the procedure done in 2008 in Seattle, WA. It was an outpatient procedure and I was told I would be healed within several weeks. Unfortunately it ended up taking me about 2 months to fully heal and the pain was very intense. I was put on oxycontin and vicodin and took it regularly during those two months just to get through the day.
After I healed and the pain was gone, I felt really good. I could breath through my nose, the pressure was gone, I didn't have to take antibiotics, etc. But now, after a couple of years, the sinus migraines have returned and the polyps are back. The pressure is not nearly as intense as before. Usually taking some ibuprofen, and spraying my nose with Zicam helps the swelling to go down.
I can't say that I'm AGAINST surgery but I do think you need to do tons of research before getting it done. I wish that I had done that. I would never have allowed having parts of my cartilage removed and having my sinus openings torn apart. I think if I had just had the polyps removed and nothing else done, I would have recovered a lot faster and it would have been a lot less painful.
You also should tell your doctor if you bleed a lot. I'm a big bleeder, I didn't realize this until after the surgery. I bled so much the pressure kept building up in my head and the pain drove me insane. I had to be taken to the ER, it was not a fun experience.
Right now I'm trying to manage without getting surgery again. I know a big part of having polyps is allergies so I try to avoid things I'm allergic too. I also swear by Zicam although I've read that it can destroy your sense of smell. I haven't had any of those side effects though, so I'm happy.
I'm not Judith but I had the same procedure Judith had (endoscopic sinus surgery) and my experience was very similar to hers.
I had the procedure done in 2008 in Seattle, WA. It was an outpatient procedure and I was told I would be healed within several weeks. Unfortunately it ended up taking me about 2 months to fully heal and the pain was very intense. I was put on oxycontin and vicodin and took it regularly during those two months just to get through the day.
After I healed and the pain was gone, I felt really good. I could breath through my nose, the pressure was gone, I didn't have to take antibiotics, etc. But now, after a couple of years, the sinus migraines have returned and the polyps are back. The pressure is not nearly as intense as before. Usually taking some ibuprofen, and spraying my nose with Zicam helps the swelling to go down.
I can't say that I'm AGAINST surgery but I do think you need to do tons of research before getting it done. I wish that I had done that. I would never have allowed having parts of my cartilage removed and having my sinus openings torn apart. I think if I had just had the polyps removed and nothing else done, I would have recovered a lot faster and it would have been a lot less painful.
You also should tell your doctor if you bleed a lot. I'm a big bleeder, I didn't realize this until after the surgery. I bled so much the pressure kept building up in my head and the pain drove me insane. I had to be taken to the ER, it was not a fun experience.
Right now I'm trying to manage without getting surgery again. I know a big part of having polyps is allergies so I try to avoid things I'm allergic too. I also swear by Zicam although I've read that it can destroy your sense of smell. I haven't had any of those side effects though, so I'm happy.
My father had polyps removed back around 1950 and I don't remember him having any unusual problems. I'm sure I would remember it if he was having much of any serious discomfort as he was unpleasant to live with when things like that happened. He had a heart attack in 1953 and it was a few years before that.
Considering how much surgery has improved since then, I'm quite surprised to read some of these accounts. Some of these doctors must not have been too well qualified.
Bard Judith wrote:
I am back at home four hours after being released from hospital for removal of a single large nasal polyp (I was admitted Sunday, had the surgery Monday afternoon, and was kept for recovery until Thursday morning) I also had a deviated septum corrected, so some of the pain and bleeding may be attendant upon that particular operation - but this was my experience...
The surgery itself of course is done under general anesthetic (with its own risks and side effects, but whatever). While you are still under your nasal passages will be 'packed' to keep them open and reduce bleeding. You will also be intubated. This sounds innocuous but when you wake up choking on a throat full of tubing and with a face full of packing, it's not pleasant. (All pain 'ratings' are of course subjective, but are given on my personal scale of one to ten, with one being 'needle prick' and ten being 'in labour'.) Dazed from the anesthetic and unable to breathe temporarily, the initial awakening rated a seven in terms of pain and discomfort.
The tube will be removed promptly, leaving your throat sore and your teeth feeling loose. The packing will remain in for more than twenty-four hours, and the pain/sensation is similar to an untreated sinus infection or sinus migraine. (I rated it five to seven on the pain scale, but it went down to a bearable 3 - 4 with the various analgesics and painkillers they put into me, though.)
You will constantly be dripping blood through this packing into a gauze pad taped across your face below your nostrils. This pad will have to be constantly replaced, probably by you, anywhere from every ten minutes to every two hours. Your cheeks will become chafed from the tape but there aren't too many other options to keep your pillow from becoming blood-soaked in short order.
You will be able to breathe only through your mouth, quickly dehydrating your mouth, throat, and lips. Did I mention the IV that needed to be in for three days? It will be difficult to swallow because not only are your throat, jaws, teeth and lips sore, the pressure from your blocked nose makes it painful. After about forty-eight hours (maybe less at your hospital...) you'll be taken down for packing removal, at which time they assure you the sinus pressure will cease and most of the pain. This is true. What they will not tell you is that removing the packing is one of the most frightening and painful experiences you can have in a hospital.
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DO NOT CONTINUE TO READ IF YOU ARE OF A SENSITIVE DISPOSITION - this is graphic and prejudiced. Do realize that this is one person's experience in a large hospital of an excellent reputation. You'll have to make up your own mind.
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You will be seated in what looks like an upright dental chair. The gauze strip will be removed yet again. Then you will be approached with a speculum (which stretches your nostril open) and a pair of thin forceps/tweezers about six inches long, four inches of which will be in your nasal passage at one point. The packing will be grasped with the tweezers, then pulled steadily and firmly out with the assistance of a suction tube. This results in a horrific and painful sensation which feels as though brain tissue is being removed from a point beneath your eyeball. It is not only excruciating, it is quite terrifying to realize that the points of the tweezers are indeed that deep in your head: your nasal passages extend past your eyeballs. (This was almost an eight or nine in terms of sheer agony. Thankfully it was brief, but debilitating and demoralizing.)
Pause, to see a finger-size wad of sanguined foam packing dropped into the kidney basin which you are holding beneath your own chin. Repeat on other side. Experience same intense pain and disgusting sensation of grey matter being sucked out of skull. Feel blood and mucus gushing out down your upper lip, over your chin, into the basin.
The tweezers go back in again with small strips (about a half-inch wide and about three inches long) of anesthetic/disinfectant-laced gauze. They are fed along the nasal passage; again, the tweezer points go deep into your skull.
What exactly happens then I am unsure, as this was the most painful part of the entire experience and I nearly blacked out. I cannot describe it without sounding melodramatic, but it was literally the most frightening and intense pain I have ever felt in forty years of my life (and I am including the thirty-four hours of mostly unmedicated labour, the spinal epidural, and recovery from an emergency C-section). Possibly the residual clotting was being 'dabbed' away from the raw areas, or the nasal passages 'cleaned up' with the gauze, because I do not remember those strips staying in and having to be removed later.
I went into shock while sitting there, trying to keep myself upright in the chair, holding the clotting basin under my own chin, shaking and trembling and crying. Perhaps you're made of tougher stuff. The children and teens who were ahead of me and after me (they did all the packing removal for the surgery patients in the same hour one evening) were screaming in literal hysteria during the proceedure, and even the older males (who pride themselves on toughness and have been through compulsory military service) were coming out looking dazed and shaky. (Please bear in mind again that this is no back-alley plastic surgery clinic but a major hospital of good reputation in its country).
I was led out to the waiting room almost unable to walk and left with the other bleeding, dripping, basin-clutching recoverees for about twenty minutes (as the staff had previously informed us would be the case) while the bleeding slowed. The anesthetic began to numb my top lip and throat (post-nasal drip bleeding) and finally got to the nasal passages. I was then taken in to see the doctor who (promising me THIS wouldn't hurt) used a nasal endoscope to check the results. I gave him a truly filthy (as in glaring, bleeding, red-eyed) look of disbelief and he had the grace to inform me that, yes, polyp surgery and recovery was one of the more painful proceedures on the hospital's list - not something they had advertised in their earlier information to me on the subject.
Recovery time: shuffle back to room with huge blood clots forming in nose and gauze pad taped back under nostrils, pushing the IV shakily. Lie down on one side or other so that blood does not drip into back of throat and get swallowed (bad for you, makes you quite nauseous). Change gauze every ten minutes, request painkillers (though the pressure pain is drastically reduced once the packing is gone, there is still the raw surgery spots and septoplasty pain to contend with), try to get some sleep in ten to fifteen minute blocks. You will still need to keep rehydrating your mouth (your tongue will literally dry up and stick fast to your palate while you are sleeping, and you cannot pull it loose. Don't try, just grab a mouthful of water and let it soak into those dried tissues) and keeping chapstick or something similar on your lips unless you want cracking and bleeding.
Wait another twelve hours under observation (I had a slight fever, which they considered 'normal' for this operation) from post-surgery on through the next two days) with antibiotics and vitamins and anti-adhesion meds and painkillers in your IV. You may or may not still be dripping blood by the time you are released: I had to keep the pad on and change it every four hours or so as the blood slowly became the consistency of loose gelatin. Now, Thursday night, after saline irrigation (don't ask because I don't want to describe any further horrors) and rest at home, the bleeding has dwindled to a slight trickle and the gelatinous clots have stopped forming. I will need to take five different pills three times a day for the next week (various antibiotics to prevent infection, adhesion, etc.), irrigate the nose with saline solution, and.... consider the possibility that the polyp(s) may grow back.
If you can prevent polyps, treat them alternatively, or live with them, please consider whether or not the time, cost, and pain is truly worth it.
Judith
Oh my goodness Judith...I have never heard my experience described so accurately...from the surgery to the removal of the packing...you did a good job. That is EXACTLY what it is like. I did read your update post as well, and yes, you were right on target again. I am about to have my second sinus/polyp surgery (first one I had the septum repaired like you) and I have concerns that when I was 26, it took me months to really heal. Now at 42, I'm thinking "NOOOOO" :) I was just searching internet for possible alternatives to surgery (even though I know it doesn't exist) and saw your post...it takes one to know one as they say....thanks for writing that description. I'm going to give to my husband before my surgery so he can maybe understand a little better. :)
I had this operation done a month ago & just like Judith it was a nightmare .I had both packing pulled a once,the worst pain going. ( i had 3 children natural birth) Blood went everyplace Went on doctors suit i was glad because there was no need for him to be so rough ,he could have pulled one at a time . I has this operation done twice before & this was the worst . Doctors can be so rough much better to get a nurse to remove packing.Private hospital so i payed for this,think if i ever need this operation again i will go to public hospital.
Two weeks ago I had outpatient surgery in the US to correct a deviated septum and removal of "tons" of polyps that were on one side. There were so many polyps that I could not breathe on one side and there was extreme pressure on the corresponding middle ear and ear drum. Here is what I experienced:
I am a 48 year-old male in very good general health. Surgery at about 10 AM, home by probably 2 PM. No pain that I can recall, though I was taking Vicadin (and an antibiotic that I took for 10 days - no other drugs, and I went from Vicadin to ibuprofin on the 7th day). That first day, however, there was a LOT of blood, a WHOLE lot. Though I had packing in both sinuses, I was shocked at how much I bled, to the point that I even ended up throwing up a LOT of blood later that night. Sounds awful, but I sure felt better after doing so. A midnight call to the doctor to make sure this wasn't abnormal, and he said it wasn't unusual, and that if I had any Afrin, to spray some in each nostril. Fortunately, I had some, and this slowed the bleeding almost immediately. By the way, my doctor said that the excessive bleeding was due in particular to the septum surgery. Like an earlier poster, I ended up with raw cheeks from constantly replacing the tape that held the padding in place.
For the first day I was told that the most important thing I could do is be completely still and to remain only slightly reclined. I am a very antsy person, and this combined with the bleeding and constant changing of the dressing that was soaking up the blood drove me up a wall. I just could NOT sit still. Doc said it was safe to take a Xanax, and fortunately I had a couple, so one of those calmed me right down and I was eventually able to nod off for a bit sometime after midnight.
Over the course of the next couple of days, the bleeding subsided quite a bit each successive day. The packing I had was not the sort that dissolves, and I had it in there for 5 days, during which I could not breathe at all through my nose. The worst part of this was trying to sleep somewhat upright to prevent blood draining down my throat, and breathing only through my mouth, resulting in a very dry mouth and chapped lips. I hardly slept for those five days and was told that, when I did manage to sleep for a half hour here and there, that the noise I made struggling to breathe was cacophonous.
Having the packing removed was EXTREMELY uncomfortable and the clean-up rather painful, but it's very quick, so as bad as it was, it was over in no time and ultimately a relief. I'm sure it helps that my doctor has a gentle, steady touch. The worst part of it was that, after having one side taken care of, I could fully anticipate what was about to happen on the other side, so I was extremely tensed up and ended up being shaky afterward. If I had to go through that again, I'd probably ask for a xanax or valium or something, in advance, to take the edge off. Once this was done, I could immediately breathe normally again, and more importantly, get a good night's sleep. I felt weak for a good five more days, and the bleeding/seepage was minimal, and the only pain being headaches, which ibuprofin took care of. Over that next 5-day period, it was important to stay upright or inclined backward. Leaning forward puts pressure on the sinuses and when I'd do so, I'd start to bleed a little bit.
For years I have been a neti pot user, so the sinus irrigation was a welcome component to the recovery for me. I find the feeling very pleasant and was very happy to see mucus, blood, and snot come out of my nose. This can be done as often as desired, but my doctor asked that I do it morning and night. After irrigating, I was able to breathe much better than before doing so. On my 2-week follow-up doctor's visit, I was told that the irrigation is a strong component in speed of recovery and that people who skip it or do it less than recommended take much longer to heal. Considering that I have been forbidden to blow my nose for three weeks, this is essential in keeping the passages cleaned out, and I am more than happy to do it.
At about 7-10 days, as healing really set in, my sinuses started to itch a little bit. Irrigating the sinuses more frequently minimized this, and it seems to have mostly stopped now, just past the 2-week mark.
On the 2-week follow-up visit, the doctor used a sort of vacuuming device in each sinus. This thing made a horrible noise, not unlike a dental drill, and I tensed up, remembering the shock of the packing removal. This was uncomfortable and slightly painful, but painful the way yanking off a bandage is, so it was over almost instantly. The purpose of this intrusion was to remove anything that was sticking to the sinus walls, and some bizarre looking gunk ended up on that tray.
A little past the 2-week point, I can breathe almost normally, have no problems with my sense of smell, and have no leakage at all. I am still taking ibuprofin twice a day and find that if I don't do so, I get a terrible headache, the sort that hits right at the temples. Even though I'm not fully healed, I am breathing far better than I was prior to the surgery. I still tire more easily than usual, but given that I am still healing, I'm not surprised. The most bizarre thing is that I can smell the healing flesh in my sinus cavities. It's not gross, but is definitely odd.
Would I do it again? Absolutely. What I'd do differently is be more prepared for the bleeding. Had I known about the Afrin, I could have used it far earlier that first day and not bled so much. Then, I'd ask for anti-anxiety medication before having the packing removed.