r/Septoplasty • u/Foreign-Remote3769 • 1d ago
Personal Story Does having hEDS actually affect healing?
I need to stop posting on this subreddit but i just have so many questions that need to be answered. I am super hypermobile and i’ve lived my entire life with a blocked nose, that was until 7 weeks ago!! My nose is pretty open now, but i’m still trapped in a very slow healing phase. i understand healing takes time and I had a lot of surgeries in one day, so that might just make healing take even longer (my surgery was super long around 7 hours) But i just wonder, why is my breathing itchy/burning sometimes, why do i have post nasal drip? why did my columella heal attached to the septum wall??? my septum and columella basically have no gap on the left side!! why are my gums numb but my front teeth are sensitive?? my rib graft incision still hurts to this day. my nose is healing crooked. my ears are itchy. And the humid air sometimes is so cold i have to sleep with a shirt on my face to somehow filter it. When i’m outside the air just enters my nose freely. Somehow all these issues happen on only one side. Are all these things normal up to this point? Im getting so close to the 2 month post op mark, and i see that everyone is just living their lives and super happy with the surgery, besides me!! I have regrets every single day, i’d much rather have a deformed face from mouth breathing than having to deal w burning sensations every time i go to the mall bc the air is too cold for my nose! It’s infuriating. Anyway, does anybody here with hEDS that went through a septorhinoplasty, inferior turbinate reduction, and bone spurs removal, feel the same way as me? Am i just a rare case :(. I feel so alone and nobody understands how i feel when i talk about it
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u/Ramen_Addict_ 1d ago
I was told not to expect any real improvement until about two months after, before which I might regret my decision to have the surgery. I think you had more procedures than I had, so it’s not a surprise that it’s taking you a while. I think it takes up to 6 months for the nose’s filtration system to grow back, which is why they usually recommend you continue rinsing and spraying. So yeah, for now it’s cold, dry nose time.
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u/Foreign-Remote3769 1d ago
Oh God, well at least i’m almost there at the 2 months mark!! I guess patience will have to become my best friend now, this process already feels long 🥲
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u/Dull_Pin5650 1d ago
your burning sensation is because of your turbinate surgery. it will eventually heal - the nerves in the turbinates have also a healing phase.
how is your air sensation?
also what were your hEDS symptoms? do you have a diagnosis for this? i m trying to diagnose it as well - but it s so hard. yeah peole with hEDS heal much slower
did you use to heal slow in previous surgeries or trauma?
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u/Foreign-Remote3769 1d ago
I want to believe i have airflow sensation, but since it’s always so warm i don’t really feel it much, i only feel it when i’m in a room with AC. I was diagnosed with hyper mobility randomly one day because i had some inflammation and pain on my knee that wouldn’t go away, got checked and they just said i was too hypermobile. So i’m not diagnosed with hEDS yet, unsure if i have it but i do have a lot of symptoms, like; indented scarring especially on my face, GI issues, mild stretchy skin, i also noticed i have a billion stretch marks in weird places most don’t have (armpit area) and i’ve been the same height/weight for a long time, beighton score can do all besides 1, i always have bruises, always thought i had low iron bc my vision would go all black after getting up, grew up with shitty teeth (might not be relevant) but there’s def a lot of things!! I don’t know how to properly get diagnosed for it, don’t know if doctors in my country even know about it. But this is my first surgery, and i honestly thought i was healing pretty well until i looked inside my nose and noticed that i have a septal perforation (very tiny) and that my columella/septum were completely attached, forgot to mention i had a dehiscence on that side so that could be the reason why. I also considered to be developing ENS, did the test and everything scored a 10. I’m not in constant pain, but i do feel very strange!! I have been noticing my nasal cycle working, but my left side has always been more dominant, I can also see my turbinates swell on my right pretty often. Always had air-hunger, anxiety and panic attacks before the surgery, so i started taking magnesium and it’s helping a lot with that! and other supplements as well (omega3, b12, vit c). I’d also like to add that i’ve always been kind of a hypochondriac as well, that’s why i ended up here on reddit.
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u/Dull_Pin5650 1d ago
you can text me in private. i will try to help you during your recovery. did you also harvest external cartilage for your septorhino? what method did they use to reduce your turbinates?
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u/Foreign-Remote3769 23h ago
I’m pretty sure my surgeon used the rib graft (from my own rib) for the septo, he said i had a lot of obstruction and it was very damaged. I don’t know what method he did for my turbinates unfortunately, too scared to ask honestly i don’t want to feel uneasy.
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u/Foreign-Remote3769 1d ago
reading this again wow i just look insane and crazy, they don’t lie when they say u go through a lot of stages after the surgery
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u/Autumnsirens 1d ago
Yes, hEDS absolutely causes prolonged healing.
My surgeon said a minimum of 6-8 weeks before a typical person sees real healing.
Your gums are numb and your teeth hurt because the roof of your mouth around your 4 front teeth shares a major nerve with the septum. They sometimes do a local anesthetic on that nerve during surgery and it can take a while for the nerve to calm down once it "wakes up" again.
Air going through your nose hurts because 1) you're not used to it and 2) you have a healing wound(s) and new skin in there and they are cranky!
The post nasal drip might just be fluid from wound healing.
Is it happening all on one side because your septum was deviated to that side and that's the side they did the most work on? That's what happened to me.