|
Shape Nose Without Surgery
|
Question: I'm looking for advice, experiences, .02 worth, etc. A CT scan of my
sinuses has revealed that I have a deviated septum. My ENT says that the
septum is blocking drainage of my left maxillary sinus, causing the
sinus infection I've been fighting for almost 5 months now! He thinks
the infection in my right maxillary is due to "spillover" from the left
sinus. He wants to do surgery to correct the septum, clean the
infection out of my maxillaries, and adjust the turbinates on both
sides. I'm probably going to go ahead and do it because I'm desperate
for relief and it looks to me like a cut-and-dried
situation--something--my septum--is blocking the sinus drainage; we move
the blockage; the sinus drains properly; I don't have chronic infections
anymore. Am I oversimplifying this or letting my desperation for relief
cloud my judgment? I'd like to hear other peoples' stories, experiences,
and perspectives on this procedure
Answer: your situation sounds very similar to mine. I had been fighting a sinus
infection for 7 months without success, so I too elected to have surgery
similar to yours--septoplasty, turbinate reduction, naso-antral window,
removal of cyst that was totally blocking left maxillary sinus. I had the
surgery on August 13, 1997.
Good news: It's a good thing that I had the surgery, if for no other reason
than that when the surgeon went in there he found that my sinus disease was
actually worse than the CT scan had showed. So he also did a double
ethmoidectomy. According to my ENT, my sinus disease would never have
cleared without surgery. In the last few months, I no longer need
antibiotics. The most recent CT scan and rhinoscopy show the sinuses are in
good shape, apparently. And I can breathe freely thru my nose without
decongestants--I haven't needed decongestants in months.
Bad news: I continue to suffer from sinus symptoms at a low-to-moderate
level. These symptoms include post nasal drip (some of which is
discolored), which is significantly worse on my left side (which was the
side with the worst sinus disease); sore throat; laryngitis and chronic
cough. Every morning, when I irrigate my sinuses, a bit of yellow material
comes out. My ENT had tried me on Ceftin just to see if there was some
residual infection, but Ceftin had no effect. I sometimes still think I
have some low-level infection, because sometimes the exudate has that odd
odor that I always only used to get with an acute infection. But my ENT
doesn't think so, and the sinus culture didn't show anything.
Comment:
|
|
|
|
|
