I’m not going to break this into several posts because I wasn’t ontop of things enough to keep a diary.
The Day of Surgery
The advantage of going in for round two is that I wasn’t nearly as nervous this time. That is lucky because there was a teenage girl who was in right before me to get her tonsils out. I could hear freaking out and crying from near complete panic. I saw a woman get this procedure done live on the Dr. Oz show using local anesthesia. Dr. Dawson does it under general anesthesia which I’m thankful for.
The procedure itself took less than 30 minutes. I went in. The anesthesiologist gave me happy drugs. I went to sleep. I woke up. It was easy with no muss or fuss.
I woke up with no packing and the ability to breath out of my nose. I had a mild headache but that was the only pain. Just in case I ate two puddings (which were delicious) and then popped some hydros.
As the day wore on, I stayed pretty comfortable. There was no pain in my nose. I could breathe. There was a little drippyness from my nose which went away within hours. All in all, this was nothing compared to the deviated septum correction.
Days 2-3
My only symptom was a very bad headache. It didn’t feel like it was in any way connected with the surgery. In fact, at first I just figured it was caffeine withdrawal. After a couple cups of coffee didn’t help, I gave up and took my pain pills. That helped.
Because I’m paranoid, I called Dr. Dawson who assured me that a headache was one of the potential side effects.
Day 4
My headache was completely gone. I went in for my post op. Dr. Dawson used the snot-O-vac to remove some blood clots. I also had a very small amount of packing he put in there during the surgery removed.
I COULD BREATH! The right side was a little more restricted than the left, but nowhere close to where it was before.
I was told I could resume ALL normal activities in another 10 days. I could also start blowing my nose gently immediately.
Day 7
I was feeling a little disappointed because my right sinus remained a bit plugged up. To put a number to it, I would call it 80% of where I want it to be. Then I blew my nose one day.
Stop reading now if you are squeamish and move on to the next bolded text.
Something came out of my head. It was bloody and gross and completely awesome. It was the sort of thing that little kids giggle about. All of a sudden, I could breath perfectly out of both sides. PERFECTLY.
Day 14
As I was told, I could resume all normal activity 10 days after my post op. I really tested it here. The morning of day 14 saw me riding a chair lift up to the top of a cold snowy mountain for a skiing vacation. I have had no complications. No blood….nothing. I can breathe perfectly.
Conclusion
Some would call going in twice a failure. I don’t agree. I’m glad that Dr. Dawson was conservative his first time in. It is comforting that he treats surgery as a last resort and only does the minimum. I’ve read about Empty Nose Syndrome and would rather they take too little out than too much.
For anybody in the same boat I was in, I cannot recommend these procedures enough. My quality of life has improved immensely. I no longer have to go through a nightly regiment of nose sprays and allergy pills just to hope for sleep. I can breath and well. Recovery from surgery wasn’t bad.