Last year I was told that I have a deviated septum and my left side is pretty much closed. My ENT also recommended that I have a rhinoplasty done at the same time since my nose is crooked. He said that he should be able to get my insurance to pay for the rhino. He took pictures last year of my nose and said that when I decide to have this done that he will send the pics to my insurance company and have them confirm that they will cover the bill.

I chickened out and never scheduled the surgery. I am really noticing that I cannot seem to get enough air into my lungs and am thinking about getting this done. I know that I run out of breath really easy and believe this is the issue. I've had other test performed for this issue and they came back fine.

I am very concerned about having this operation done, but I have to do something. I have a low tolerance for pain but I know that I will have pain meds for that so that should help. One of my biggest fears is not being able to breath through my nose. That scares me. Even now I will occasionally wake up and gasp for air. I feel like I am suffocating and get out of bed and walk around for a few minutes just to calm myself down. I do have moderate sleep apnea, but I cannot get used to wearing a mask when I sleep. How bad is it trying to breath after the surgery? My doc will be using packing. Is have the rhino done at the same time that much more painful?

Hi There -

I know that the thoughts of the surgery are scary and my own fears kept me from moving ahead for years.   But sometimes it becomes mind over matter since we know what is in our best interests and just have to talk ourselves down from the scaredness part till we get through it and realize we really are able to handle it.  This might be one of those times for you.  I did not have rhinoplasty done and my surgeon used stents instead of packing for my deviated septum surgery so hopefully someone with your exact situation will weigh in with their experience.  As I read through this thread weeks ago before my own surgery, I know there were many cases of people who had rhinoplasty with the deviated septum surgery.  Many of them reported that the packing was only in place a very short period (1-2 days - often just overnight).  Even with the packing in place you will still get air - you will breathe through your mouth as you do when you have a bad head cold.  Mouth-breathing is probably how you are getting much of your air now but you just dont realize it.  (If you wake up at night with a very dry mouth then you have likely been mouth breathing.)  

The fact you are waking up at night gasping for air and feeling agitated is a very common sign of apnea.  You do need to find a way to wear the mask - your good health does depend on it.  A LOT of people find that their comfort with CPAP improves significantly after correction of a deviated septum so getting the surgery done can help you on many levels: 1) It will likely result in you breathing in more air through your nose and cut down on mouth-breathing; 2) it can make CPAP therapy much more comfortable; 3) you will sleep better and feel better when you breathe more air and are more comfortable with CPAP; 4) if weight is an issue as it is with many CPAP patients (but not all) then getting more air and more sleep will often give you more energy and make it easier to tackle a weight issue.  So for all the decades you have ahead of you to live with the benefits of a clearer nose and more active lifestyle, you have to bite the bullet for the very short term and get yourself through the surgery.  I am betting on you!!  Feel free to contact me at my email (DJVJOY@hotmail.com) and I would be glad to lend some support as you work through this.

Hugs,  Joy

Joy,

Thank you for that response. I am hoping that once I have the surgery that I may be able to handle CPAP. I am trying to get up the courage to go through with this surgery. I have to meet with my ENT this Friday and from there he will schedule the surgery. I will have a good week off after the surgery, so that should help. I don't know why this is bothering me so much. From all the post I have read here, it does not seem to be as bad as I am making it. I am going to keep my fingers crossed.

Hello. My name is Scott and I live in Washington State, USA. I have been feeling as though I had something up my nose for the past several months and My general practitioner kept telling me that he didn't see anything wrong. I finally received a referral to an E N T specialist and found out that I had a deviated septum. It is deviated to the point that the back of the septum is touching the other wall of my nasal passage in the right nostril. I have also had difficulty breathing deeply through my nose because the top of my nose collapses when I try to pull air in especially when exercising. The specialist explained the surgery to me and I requested that he go ahead and make arrangements with my insurance provider. I do not have severe apnea but I am really fed up with feeling like I have a bean up my nose all the time and it will be great if I can breathe through my nose when I am hiking.
I was happy to find this group and am encouraged by you're experiences. I think that I have made the correct choice.
I am about 90lb over my ideal weight and I do have apnea if I try to sleep on my back. I don't appear to have any problem when I am on my side and I am a side sleeper so I guess I am lucky in that. I had no problems at all in that regard when I was 185lb. The specialist was surprised that I wasn't having more of a problem as I have what he called a snorers throat, lots of redundant epiglottis tissue and large tonsils.
Regards; Scott

I was diagnosed with sleep apnea Q1 2006, and I have been using CPAP since April 06.  It did take about 6 wks for me to get used to the CPAP.  My wife says two things about the CPAP, 1) you are a different person & 2) it's a lot quieter than your snoring!

Since being on CPAP, there have been times when I struggled with feeling congested and not getting enough air.  I started Claritin Q1 07, switched to Allegra Q3 07, and then switched to Xyzal Q2 08.  It was after I was switched to Allegra that I realized that sometimes my breathing felt restricted.  This restriction was different than nasal congestion.  I had used a variety of nasal steroids that were supposed to reduce congestion (can't remember all of them.  My preference is Veramyst).  When I haven't felt the restriction/congestion, I really don't mind using the CPAP.

I would find myself in the middle of winter feeling like I couldn't breathe with the CPAP.  So I would end up on the couch with my head propped on the arm of the couch using the CPAP.  It was the only way I could breathe.

So last winter, my doctor refers me to an ENT to check out my slightly deviated septum.

Consequently, I had my deviated septum fixed and a turbinate reduction done on 25 Sept.  My doctor said these two things go hand-in-hand.  Somehow, if there is a deviated septum, the turbinates can enlarge in order to balance the air-flow between both sides of the nose.

Immediately after the surgery I could tell a difference, even with the splints in my nose!  I have had the splints out for over a week now, and I can breathe better than ever!  My doctor doesn't want me to blow my nose yet, and that is annoying.  Saline spray helps a lot.

I have a low pain threshold, and the pain was minimal.  I took Darvacet for two days.  Then I switched to Tylenol.  I took the pain meds regularly, and the pain never bothered me.  Frankly to me, a sinus infection hurts worse.

I am glad I had this done.

For Robing and LZICC - just checking in to see how you both are doing.  Hopefully your surgery is behind you and you are feeling good about it all!!  If you are still waiting for the  surgery to be done then just hang in there and know it will be behind you soon.  I am a couple months out from my own septoplasty and doing just fine - no complications at all.

Scotty - hope your surgery has gone well or is scheduled soon!  I think you will find hiking and exercising much more enjoyable.  My left nostril was completely closed down and the difference now is very significant and well worth the angst of the moment.  

Best of luck!!

Hey Joyful,
Thanks so much for checking back about that is so nice.
I have not had my surgery yet.
The DR.called and they pushed it out until Jan.2009.
So with that I still waiting.
Sooner I get it over the better.
Thanks so much for your comments and your thoughts.
robin

14 days ago I had the septoplasty and turbinate reduction surgery.  I have OSA and was very worried about falling asleep without my cpap...In the recovery room after surgery was difficult...they pulled out the breathing tube as I woke and I struggled to stay awake and breathe through my mouth.  For the first 5 nights I could not breathe through my nose at all...so cpap just did not work.  I tried to sleep sitting up, and breathing through my mouth...had many apnea episodes... probably slept no more that 3 or so hours per night... However, after that and through this date I have been able to breathe through my nose enough to use the cpap and am getting enough sleep...  My surgeon used the splints with breathing tubes and not the packing..and I believe that has made all the difference...  Because of the condition of my septum I will not have the splints removed until next week..

To me, the worst of the entire experience was the lack of a protocol in the hospital for dealing with a sleep apnea patient.  It was necessary for me to be pretty tough on the anesthetist and to demand that he have a plan to deal with the breathing issue...but all in all it has worked out well.  I wonder why hospitals are not more prepared for apnea people?

I am new to this thread but thought I would add my surgical experience to the mix.  In January of '05 I had deviated septum repair with concha bullosa and nasal turbinectomy.  This was pre-CPAP.  My surgical experience was very positive and I would definitely do it again.  I suffered from allergies and had constant sinusitis.  

The septum was splinted and I did not have packing.  While the bandaging was awkward it was not unbearable and after several days the splints were removed and I have been fine ever since.  As I said, I did not start on the CPAP until '07 so I am not sure what that effect would be.

I would encourage you to have the surgery.  I had mine done in January of 2003 and it has been great.  I've had quite a few surgeries for things over the years and the only one that went the way it should without some new problem was the repair of my deviated septum.  I had the packing and that really sucked, but looking back it has been worth it.

I had surgery for deviated septum a year ago, and am still having numbness and pain in the roof of my mouth behind my front teeth.  My doctor told me he couldn't tell me how long it would take for this to go away.  From what I am reading here, no one else seems to have had any problems like this.  If anyone has, what was the cause??

To Melika... My doc told me I might have that kind of numbness for a long time; something to do with having cut a nerve...but now in the 18th day after surgery...all numbness seems gone.  I'm surprised you're still having that...maybe you need a second medical opinion.

To the others who have talked about their apprehension before having the surgery and the success after the surgery, let me add my 2 cents worth.  Yesterday the splints were removed...and I breathe through my nose, easily for the first time as far back as I can remember... last night the cpap was a dream.  Didn't have to use any kind of nasal spray to open things up... slept 8 hours for the first time in a lonnnnggg time.  I am more than hopeful, and so far agree with all those who say the surgery was definitely worth while.

Do it...

I had gone to my PCP with migrane headaches that would not go away.  After ordering an MRI of my head and sinuses he referred me to an ENT.  After reviewing the MRI, my ENT wanted a CT in case surgery was indicated.  He also sent me for a sleep study - his thoughts were that I may have OSA, and if so he wanted to be ready to do a septoplasty before titration.  While my septum was deviated such that it actually touched to side of my nose, turns out I needed a wee bit more than just the septoplasty.  In August I had septoplasty with concha bullosa, nasal turbinectomy, and some other things that I cannot remember the names of (other than a good old basic scrapping to get built up stuff out that was just sitting there).  The packing was removed the day after surgery (everyone had told me that the pain would be intense, but it wasn't.  I think I took a total of 4 or 5 of the pain pills over a 3-4 day period.  Almost immediately I noticed that I could actually breathe t through my nose - something I don't know that I had ever really been able to do.  After a 2 month recovery period (sleep center request), I went in for titration.  The spetoplasty had helped my OSA, but not enough.  I still needed cpap - but the good news is that with the improved breathing, the pressure needed was reduced (thank goodnes) - I was put on an APAP set for 7-13 - imagine what it would have been without the surgery!

SO far - not only has my breating improved, but so has my sense of smell.  Before, it had to be a really strong odor for me to be able to smell at all, and even then I could not always determine what the odor was - just that it smelled good or bad.

I have been on my cpap for only a week and can already tell a difference.  For me, so far, the biggest thing is that I am waking up in a good mood, ready to face the day.  I have not fallen asleep during the day (or durign the evening while watching TV) since.  Not to say I don't get a little nappy after lunch or dinner, but at least I am not having to get up and walk around to stay awake!

So....would I recommend this surgery?  You bet.  To be honest, I thank my lucky stars for those headaches (which have pretty much gone away) and my ENT.

Congratulations to dazedandconfused... My situation not quite as serious, but still...what an amazing relief and even joy it is to be able to breathe through my nose...something I too have not been able to do since as long as I remember.  And, though no question I still need the cpap... it is now such an easy pleasure to deal with it.... If you out there are contemplating this septoplasty surgery...my recommendation; find the best ENT surgeon you can, and get it done... recovery is (at least for me) miserable for a few days to a week... but once those splints are removed... it is a transformational experience(to quote a popular political phrase).

melika57 wrote:

I had surgery for deviated septum a year ago, and am still having numbness and pain in the roof of my mouth behind my front teeth.  My doctor told me he couldn't tell me how long it would take for this to go away.  From what I am reading here, no one else seems to have had any problems like this.  If anyone has, what was the cause??

I had this feeling post surgery and it was sinus pressure.  This should be gone in 2 weeks or less.  Hang in there!