u/SgtKcwb

Tuesday morning, I went in for a septoplasty and turbinate reduction. The first two days of recovery were hell, but I got through them. Today I had my stents and inner-gauze removed, and they cleaned things up a little bit inside by reintroducing wet gauze several times to get anything that would stick to it to come out. They insisted it wasn't that painful, but it was definitely so far the most painful thing about the recovery, I've never felt anything hurt that bad. I was also instructed to start doing rinses. Now about 10 hours after that, I still can't breathe out of one side pretty much at all (sometimes it changes and one side opens a little and the other closes) and I'm also having a little headaches. It's also hard to do the rinse, to keep the seal and get it done. Is this normal to have this much swelling? Does anyone know when this will get better and I will actually be able to breathe out of both sides comfortably? A little worried something went wrong or I did something wrong. Thank you.

I've had a septoplasty and turbinate reduction done today in Argentina. I moved here from the US a year and a half ago after being in a long distance relationship with my now-wife. Was very grateful to get it done here for free, zero cost. Except the pain of course. Im on day one, and I thought it would be good to keep people updated. They put stents in my nose, and packed them full with gauze. Then there is an outer gauze taped to the top, left, right, and bottom of my nose that I was instructed to change after it gets wet from either mucous or blood. In two days I will return to the hospital and get my inner gauze removed. All they prescribed me was ibuprofen 400 every 8 hours. Very uncomfortable, very high pressure, and probably a 7 on the pain scale as of right now on day one. I will be updating when I can. Also, I already suck at swallowing pills, and this makes it about 10x worse if not impossible. I was able fo get my first ibuprofen down, and in 2 hours I get to try again but with a slightly larger gel kind. Less hopeful about getting that one down with my nose closed like this.

Day 1: Not fun. 7/10 pain, 6.1/10 pressure, 3/10 headache. Haven't had to change the gauze since I lef the hospital. Nervous as hell about getting the inner gauze removed. Glad to know im not alone though. Anyone reading this also suffering, I feel for you.

Day 2: Less painful, more discomfort. Pain at a 5/10 unless my wife made me laugh or something similar like yawning. Overall the main gripe today would be the pressure.

Day 3: Today I went in to do my first post-operation doctor visit, 48 hours after surgery. They said it looks really good, and removed the plastic stents and the gauze. They said it wouldn't hurt too bad-- but with me not being on pain meds, it hurt like hell. I've been told that each person varies though, and I guess I was just unlucky hahaha, most people report it as satisfying more than anything. I was in tears, and I generally have a pretty high pain tolerance. I'm now supposed to be doing nasal rinses 5 times a day, but after my second one, I'm realizing that it's really not coming out of the other side? My nose is still very swollen both externally and internally. I'm not able to breathe really much at all, maybe a little air every now and again, usually only through one side (and it has changed occasionally) but I'm hoping that as the swelling goes down, things get easier, both the rinsing and the breathing. I thought the rinses would be painful, but they have only been maybe uncomfortable at best, they're kind of refreshing afterwards. Not sure what to do if the nasal rinses don't start flowing out of the other side in the next day or two though.