Age: 26
Sex: Male
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 120 kg
Smoking status: Smoked for the past 2 years, recently stopped
Hi everyone,
I’m looking for medical suggestions on what to investigate next. Since around November 2025, I’ve been dealing with a sudden cluster of symptoms, and I still don’t have a clear explanation.
Before November, I was generally healthy and had no major issues. Then this started quite suddenly. It began with nasal inflammation and strange nasal/breathing sensations. My nose felt inflamed, my breathing felt “off,” and I also experienced some heart palpitations / fight-or-flight type symptoms around that time. I later found out my nose was inflamed.
Eventually, I had septoplasty + turbinoplasty/turbinate reduction around early March 2026. I am now around 2 months post-op. My ENT has examined me and said that structurally my nose has healed very well, with no obvious ENT issue.
However, I still sometimes get strange nasal sensations. At times it feels like I am not getting air properly through my nose, even though I can breathe. Other times it is just an odd sensation that is hard to describe. It feels more like a sensory mismatch / hyperawareness of nasal breathing, not panic. The sensation changes in character and is not constant. I currently do nasal rinses twice daily.
The bigger issue is that since November, and especially over the past few months, I’ve had the following symptoms. A lot of this actually started a bit before my surgery but has continued to persist after as well:
- Extreme fatigue / exhaustion, to the point that it is difficult to work. I feel like lying down most of the time and have trouble concentrating.
- Very poor/non-restorative sleep: my sleep feels extremely light, I wake up 3–4 times per night, often wake around 3:30 AM or after 4–5 hours, struggle to fall back asleep, and do not wake up refreshed.
- Feeling mentally “not myself”
- Emotional numbness / emotional blunting
- Low drive, low enthusiasm, and poor motivation
- Things not feeling the same emotionally
- Muscle twitches at times
- Acidity, bloating, and gut discomfort
- Occasional acne/skin issues
- Ongoing awareness of breathing, especially around the nose
Before surgery, there was a period where I had a lot of anxiety and was very hyperaware of my breathing. However, I do not currently feel anxious about my health in the sense of thinking something life-threatening is happening. I just feel physically and mentally very different from how I used to feel.
So far, my tests/checks have been mostly normal:
- Bloodwork mostly normal, including thyroid
- Vitamin D and B12 have been low historically
- Chest X-rays normal
- Lung function test normal
- ENT says post-surgery healing looks good
- Sleep study showed very mild sleep apnea
- 0 Allergies
What I’m trying to understand is how this suddenly unfolded from November when I was completely fine before that. I don’t know whether the main driver could be poor sleep, mild sleep apnea, nasal sensory changes after inflammation/surgery, nervous system stress, gut issues, something neurological, or something else entirely.
I honestly don’t know what direction to investigate next. I don’t feel like I have an obvious psychiatric issue to talk about, because I don’t have major life stressors or emotional problems outside of these symptoms. But I also don’t know how all of this started or why it has persisted.
Pls help.
Since it's all sudden including the swelling up of my nose , plus I have not much allergies I believe there's a root cause for all this and I am missing that, even the docs are missing it. What could it be? Since the root cause is still present and hence the symptoms?