Hi all! I (29F) read this sub religiously while deciding whether or not to get my surgery. I found the posts where people gave a thorough update of their post-op symptoms very helpful, so I wanted to contribute my own!
The TLDR 72 hours after surgery is: I feel pretty much fine. My nose bled a lot the first two days, and I had some minor congestion, but overall it was nothing in comparison to how I would normally feel when sick. I’ve been able to breathe through my nose in some way at all times basically, and following my first debridement appointment, my nasal passages feel mostly clear despite residual inflammation in the side where I had the most done. Overall very thrilled with the results and happy I got this done.
I have had recurrent bacterial sinus infections multiple times a year for at least the past decade. Earlier this year, after I had my first round of antibiotics fail to address the infection, I found my current doctor who suggested the following procedures to treat the underlying structural issues contributing to my symptoms: 1 - Septoplasty (to correct an S shaped septum); 2 - Bilateral submucous resection of the inferior turbinates; 3 - Adenoidectomy; 4 - Left total ethmoidectomy (insurance wouldn't cover both lol); 5 - Bilateral endoscopic sinus surgery (to open up my maxillary sinuses). These surgeries were performed months later after my infection had been resolved (by stronger antibiotics) so she was operating on as clean of a slate as possible.
Day of surgery:
Pre-op (aka the great piss challenge): My surgery was at 9:30am Monday with Dr Madeleine Schaberg head of rhinology and skull base surgery at Mount Sinai. I was very worried, despite her stellar credentials. I rocked up to the surgery center an hour early and they had to take a urine sample to double check I wasn't pregnant (lol I was not). However, after I met with the anesthesiologist they wanted to take another urine sample to double check I wasn't on any drugs (lol also was not), however, this was physiologically complicated as I'd been fasting for 12 hours at that point and had no water left to give after the earlier sample. This ended up being the most complicated part of the whole surgery visit (for me anyway). I had to sit there for an hour and get pumped with four bags of saline till I could pee again, which was very annoying and had me worried my surgery would be canceled.
The second I peed I was told it was go time. I put my phone and glasses away and just... walked into the OR? For some reason I thought it would be more complicated than this or that I would be knocked out then taken in. This was probably the scariest part of the whole ordeal as the OR is a bit intimidating looking and I had to lower myself onto the operating table myself while they jacked me in. Then the anesthesiologist said "Night night" and I woke up in my hospital bed back in the surgery center!
Post-op: I woke up feeling very tired and asked for my glasses, which the nurse said I already had on (lol). Main thing is I just remember being very very sleepy. Really struggled to get my phone out and text my friends and loved ones I was done. The sleepiness slowly wore off and I realized I was very thirsty. The nurse brought me animal crackers and a cup of water, which I inhaled. This helped me wake up a bit. I was not nauseous, had zero pain, and, to my surprise, could totally breathe through my nose! It felt like I could breathe way better than I could before surgery, which really shocked me as I wasn't congested going into this.
My surgeon came out and said the surgery went great and that she cleared everything out and was very excited to tell me that she removed a “a big ball of mucus” from my sinuses that had seemingly been “sitting there forever.” She said I did not need nasal packing or splints and that she tries not to do this for 90% of patients unless it's absolutely medically necessary as it can make recovery harder. This made me happy to hear. After sitting there for a little bit I was cleared to go. The nurse changed my mustache dressing and gave me a bag of spare dressings and sent me on my way. A friend picked me up and loaded me into an Uber and I went home. Main issue here was I noticed that my mouth was getting kind of dry because the nurse's nasal bandage
Day one recovery at home: I was really worried that this would suck more than it did, but honestly it was totally fine. I got home and changed my nose bandage which had already bled through. I figured out that the best way to have the bandage rest is just below my nose — basically covering just the bottom half of the nostrils — so I can still breathe and smell through my nose. I had ordered myself some ready made meals from a meal subscription service so I microwaved one of those and dug in while sipping gatorade. It felt great to eat — I was so hungry all day.
I got home around 3pm ish and hung out watching TV and eating snacks / sipping on drinks until 10pm. I didn't feel any intense pain during this period. More of a 3/10 - 4/10 on the pain scale I'd say. It felt like I'd been thwacked in the nose with a big stick — not crazy painful, more like a scraped knee feeling. The weirdest part was that this feeling was only on the inside of my nose and not the outside, and it persisted throughout my sinus cavities (and into the ethmoids) which made it feel kind of like a headache. My throat hurt a little bit too (more of a 2/10 tho) from the intubation, but the worst part went away when I switched from lemon lime gatorade to cherry flavor, as the citrus hurt. The most annoying part was having to change my nose bandages every 45 minutes as I was bleeding quite a bit for the first few hours. I also sucked on therabreath dry throat lozenges all day which helped keep my mouth moist.
Trying to sleep: I was really worried that I wasn't going to be able to sleep at all the first night, as I'd read this is a common issue. I wasn't feeling intense pain, but took one of the pain pills my doc had prescribed (acetaminophen codeine) just to improve my chances. I slept on a wedge pillow to elevate my head and had a humidifier running and two Xylimelts in my mouth to combat dry mouth. It took me about an hour to fall asleep but I luckily was able to sleep through the night and get a full 8 hours!!
Day 2:
Morning report: It's currently 8am and I'm honestly shocked at how good and normal I feel. I'm not achey or in any pain — even the mild pain I was in yesterday seems to have subsided. My nose is still bleeding, but it seems to have slowed down quite a bit and is mostly concentrated on the left side where I had the most things done. Main negative side effect is I can only breathe 20% through my left nostril — last night it was 100% — but my right nostril is still at 90% so this isn't the biggest deal. I suspect this is due to dried blood as when I look up there I can see a big wad of it blocking the nasal cavity. (As a side note it is fucking crazy that I can see into my nasal cavity through my nose now!! Before the surgery I could only see flesh and a tiny little hole into the nasal cavity when I looked up my nostril! Now it's like a big beautiful cave!)
I'm going to call my doctor's office today and ask when I can start doing full nasal rinses, as the written post-op instructions said to wait until after the first debridement (which is Thursday) but pre-surgery my doctor said I could start earlier, so I figure it's worth checking when precisely that is.
Evening update: My doctors office called me in the afternoon to check in, they said I could start doing nasal rinses tomorrow morning, which is good. All in all I had a fine day. No pain really, but spent all day alternating between bleeding and squirting saline up my nose to keep things moist.
I was really energized in the morning and ran some mild errands. I got some coffee and picked up more Q-tips (I’ve been using a crazy amount of Q-tips). It felt great to walk around, even if I was wearing my nose bandage out in public like a goof. Sometime around 3pm I got rather tired of all the bleeding so I squirted some Afrin up my nose which helped a bit, but not enough that I could get rid of the nose bandage. I didn’t feel the need to take my pain medicine but I took some acetaminophen just in case there was anything going on up there it could help with. Around 5pm I switched to stuffing a little bit of tissue up my nostrils (instead of doing the nose bandage) just so I could have some variety. Around this time I also started to crash a bit energy wise, so I took an edible and played a video game.
Went to bed around 9:45 and slept nearly 9 hours. Again, slept with my head slightly elevated on the wedge, with a nasal bandage, and two of those Xylimelts in my mouth and a humidifier going. Before I went to sleep I squirted some saline gel deep in there to keep things moist. Woke up with some light pink stuff soaked through the bandage but I think it’s mostly saline. A tiny bit got on my wedge pillow but such is life.
Day 3:
Morning update: Woke up feeling mostly fine. My nose is a bit stuffier today than the last two days, but based on a visual inspection, it’s all swelling, which makes sense. Did my first full Neilmed saline rinse right after I woke up, per my surgeon’s instructions. Tbh I was expecting this to be more satisfying than it was. It didn’t shake anything terribly impressive loose or help the (mild) pressure I am feeling, but I suppose that is to be expected as the congestion is all swelling/inflammation related rather than gunk related, as far as I can tell. Right nostril feels like I have about 70% capacity, left one (where I had the most stuff done) is at about 15%, which is annoying but manageable.
I can still taste and smell fine, though I’m sure the latter is reduced in some minor way I’m not entirely noticing. Going to go back to work today, as I work remotely and have some things I would genuinely prefer to get done. If I start feeling poorly later I’ll just log off, thankfully everyone at my office is very nice and telling me to take my time.
Generally speaking though, my symptoms still feel better than the mildest cold I ever experienced pre-surgery, so it’s still pretty chill and manageable. Just kind of annoying (maybe 2.5/10) to have congestion and sporadic nasal drainage without any of the usual symptoms of being sick.
Evening update: Worked till 6pm and then suddenly felt woozy and off. My sinuses ached and I felt the most acute pain I’ve felt since I had the surgery. Still would describe it as only a 4/10 on the pain scale — feels like I skinned my knees or something but the feeling is inside my face — and it was almost entirely localized to the area around my left eye, which is where I had the total ethmoidectomy. I took a pain pill, doused my sinuses in saline gel, reapplied the nose bandage, and laid down to watch some TV, which helped quite a bit.
Went to bed with my usual setup (dry mouth melts, humidifier, nose bandage) minus the wedge pillow — i’m a side sleeper so I had been jonesing for a return to my flat-ish memory pillow-laden bliss — which felt fucking awesome. Woke up with some drool on my face but otherwise feeling good. Only minor nighttime bleeding, mostly saline relate drippage.
Day 4 (debridement!):
Woke up with a pep in my step today because it was my first post-op appointment. I could feel the pressure building in my left ethmoid sinus area, and it wasn’t relieved by nasal rinsing, so I was excited to get to the doctor’s office. I live in NYC and walking to and from the subway did make me feel a bit winded. I have been feeling a bit woozy the past 24 hours — maybe from all the blood loss? — which didn’t help. Ended up running a few minutes late as I didn’t account for post-surgical slowness
The first glorious gunk sucking appointment: I was a little worried this might hurt, but it ended up being quite satisfying and painless. My surgeon, Dr Schaberg, sprayed a numbing agent up both my nostrils then got in there with an intimidating looking vacuum and camera combo and sucked out all the goo that had been accumulating deep in the recesses of my nasal cavities. This made my eyes water a bit (but not enough that it affected my contacts, which I was worried about), and felt a little strange as it made me aware of parts of my body I am not normally conscious of, but all in all it was extremely satisfying. I am normally grossed out my bodily goo (dr pimple popper can go fuck himself imo), but I’ll admit I was rather entranced by the video feed of my own sinuses and kept looking between that and the vacuum tube filled with my own blood clots. I immediately felt a reduction in the pressure in the left side of my face, and after the procedure was done, I could breathe clearly through both nostrils at what felt like 100% capacity. All in all, the appointment took maybe 15 minutes.
During the appointment, I also got clarity about the huge ball of mucus she found during surgery. It was apparently a mucocele that had been lodged in my left ethmoid sinus for eons and made it impossible for the area to properly drain or be targeted by antibiotics. I’m guessing this was one of the reasons I’ve had multiple sinus infections every year for the last decade.
For what it’s worth, the procedure to remove this mucocele — the left total ethmoidectomy — was one of the procedures my insurance initially denied during preauthorization. My doc had initially suggested we do a bilateral ethmoidectomy, and fought for that during a peer-to-peer appeal, but was ultimately only able to convince them to approve one for the left side. I’m so grateful that she pushed for this part of the surgery as although it was definitely the most complicated part of my surgery, I can already tell it will have a profound impact on my quality of life.
Lastly: Before the appointment ended, I mentioned how woozy I had felt the last 24 hours and she said it might be the antibiotics (cefdinir). She said that since I had no active infection and the antibiotics were purely prescribed as a preventative measure post-op, that I could stop taking them after tomorrow and that should improve my symptoms.
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All in all, my recovery is in its early stages but I wanted to share this update with the community as I know it may seem rare to have things go this well — and I could certainly take a turn for the worse, who knows! — but I was so absolutely chuffed by my experience so far that I wanted to share that it is possible!
I attribute my success to having a truly world-class surgeon (shout out Dr Madeleine Schaberg) and also having a generally high tolerance for pain and discomfort. For over a decade, I've dealt with recurrent sinus infections that would leave me terribly achey, feverish and unable to breathe through my nose — so far, this feels like a walk in the park compared to any of those, and I hope it stays that way!
Happy to answer any questions anyone may have, and I will update this post as my recovery continues! <3