Sinus Surgery - Who's had it? Recovery Time? Downside?

Well, my sinus have finally gotten to the point that I am going under the knife. Gonna have some polyps and a bone spur removed and a deviated septum repaired. The doc said I shouldn't lift anything heavy for a week and I'm hoping to be back to normal after that. The bright side is that I should be able to breath again and they don't pack any longer afterwards. So, give me some your experiences having this procedure done.

I had mine done 15 or so years ago. all I remember about it is the first time I sneezed & blew out a chunk that looked like a piece of liver..Yuck....

I have had mine done twice about 4 years apart. Some of the worst parts were not being able to breath out of my nose for a week or so until I got the packing out. Then the smell in my nose was like rotting meat. Also getting the splints removed from the septum repair really sucked.

Once I got past the 2nd week of recovery I was fine. After healing I was off of allergy shots completely and have since only had 2 sinus infections.

Good luck.

Had it done a few years back plus tonsils out at sane time. Doc said it was going to be the worst 10 days of my life after...She was right!!!!!! You are going to be miserable for a week. But it will be worth it. Good Luck!

Thanks for the info everyone. Sounds like it is not going to be fun and I am going to be out of action for a little longer than expected.

Kevin, as you can guess, this is effecting my P90X schedule. Thought about waiting until I got through the final phase, but it is 3 more weeks and getting deeper into riding season. This two weeks recovery is going to kill me.

It was pretty much useless for me...and a really good friend of mine. She had it done, and told me how awesome it was. For a couple years it was great...then, it basically started to clog up again but I had the surgery done before she started noticing it.

I must say that being able to finally breathe was incredible. But, for me, the same thing happened as her and it is the same as it was before the surgery. I would say that I would never recommend this surgery unless you have some severe issues, since I will agree that the pain associated with getting your nose meat tenderized and beaten to a pulp (or polyp) is not fun.

It was pretty funny though, when they stuck the 12" camera through my nose and into my brain and the doctor was so stunned at the size of the crap in there that he had to go show another doctor.

My nose was sensitive for a year after.

I had mine done for a couple of reasons. First was the deviated septum. That caused my left sinus not to drain properly, which led to sinus infection after sinus infection. Eventually my sinus infections became so bad that antibiotics would only knock them down for 2-3 weeks before they would flare back up. After a couple of years of repeated sinus infections I decided to have the problem fixed. The Dr. did what he called a sinus obliteration. He cauterized my sinus tissue and basically scraped the crispy sinus material out to get rid of all of the infected tissue. On the way out, he fixed my deviated septum which helped my sinuses to drain.

The second surgery was to fix my septum because it healed weird the first time. To this day I have had maybe 2 sinus infections (in more than 10 years) and they were mellow compared to the ones I used to have.

I feel it was totally worth it. Make sure you are as hydrated as possible before you go in. You will most likely be mouth breathing for 1-2 weeks. Also, make sure you have some Chap-Stick handy. All that mouth breathing will crack your lips like never before.


Hope this helps some.

Yeah AKA there will be now P90X for you unless your one badazz mofo. I struggled to make it to the bathroom I felt so bad! I only did it because my sleep apnea was so bad they said I was taking years off my life. 2nd worst case my Doc has ever seen in his 40 yrs and the guy that was worse than me was 780lbs and had to sleep sitting up or risk death. I was @ 250# and scored just under him on numbers of Apnea in the sleep study. My wife rode my azz like a $2 pony because she said I stopped breathing all the time when I was sleeping. She bitched at me so much I gave in and went to the doctor. He said she saved my life. So all this being said it was the worst 10-14 days of my life after surgery but atleast I am still kicking!

I had mine done in April... BEST THING I've ever done! Should have had it done years ago. Yes the first week after sucks. And you nose is tender for a month. It took about 6 weeks before I was fully recovered. And I stopped snoring! GO DO IT, You'll be happy you did!

It's done. Went in at 6AM got home about noon. Seems to have gone pretty smoothly and I've been awake all day since I came out of recovery. Irrigating sucks.... or blows, depending how you look at it. The worst part are the stitches just inside the left nostril where he went in to correct the septum. Without getting too graphic, I hope it stops "running" soon. The best part is that I can breath through my nose better than before. Thanks again for the input, I really wasn't worried about it going in. Doc said do nothing until I see him next week and he hinted to no lifting for the next two weekends. D@*&!

Good Luck on recovering! had a freind that did it a while back and he was wakeboarding in 4 weeks I think.

You will have to live vicariously though others P90X workouts!!