u/mxtherofdogs

Hi all.

I had a septoplasty and turbinate reduction 3 and a half weeks ago.

My healing is going great except my dissolvable stitches will not dissolve. They seem to be slowly pushing out of my nose as opposed to dissolving and becoming really solid.

I called the ENT dept on Monday to get an idea of when they would dissolve and they asked me to come in the next day. They tried to pull the stitches out, but it was agonising and so the nurse stopped and gave me some cream to apply with instructions to go back next Wednesday if they hadn’t dissolved to have them pulled.

I am by no means a wimp when it comes to pain, but even touching the stitches causes me extreme pain, so I am pretty determined to avoid this happening.

Has anyone been in this situation and if so, how did you speed up the dissolving? I am already using a saline spray hourly and doing 3 saline rinses per day, as well as running a humidifier at home and taking longer than normal showers.

Any advice much appreciated!

I enjoy playing in Squads and Duos. Recovering from surgery with a lot of time on my hands! UK but I’m on and off throughout the day.

Username is ‘Snuggle Snoot x’

I wanted to share my NHS septoplasty, turbinate diathermy and spur removal experiences as well as my first week’s recovery with you all as I couldn’t find many UK based posts when researching for my own surgery.

Of course, the days following surgery are different for everyone, but this is my personal experience.

I had my surgery on June 29th and with waiting time, surgery and recovery I was in the hospital for around ten hours.

My surgery was at a different hospital to usual and when I met with the surgeon he seemed to not have access to much information from the ENT clinic. He told me that I may benefit from a septorhinoplasty as well but wouldn’t be able to perform it on this day. I told him I just wanted to crack on with the surgery as I had mentally prepared for it and had 2 weeks approved off work for it.

Waking up - the surgery lasted around an hour. I woke up in the recovery room and unfortunately was in there for some time due to a lack of beds on the wards. I didn’t feel any pain, only facial pressure and obviously, being unable to breathe through my nose. I was then taken to a ward where I had something to eat and drink and was then allowed to leave two hours later with a prescription for paracetamol, ibuprofen, saline rinse and a sexy pair of stockings.

The first night’s sleep was incredibly broken and I would wake up what felt like immediately after falling asleep in a panic because my body had tried to switch to breathing through my nose and failed. After a bit of frustrated pacing and reassurance from my partner I did manage to get about two hours.

Day 1 post op: I was in a bit of pain and very congested. I needed to change the gauze under my nose every 1-2 hours. Some of my dissolvable packing came out on this day.

Day 2: the same as the day before with marginally less bleeding/leakage. This was the worst day for me, mostly because I felt a lot of regret for going through with the surgery (discomfort). My first saline rinse produced no results. My nose was still super swollen.

Day 3: Things started to improve a little bit. My facial pressure began to ease and my nostrils would alternate unblocking (very) marginally and reblocking.

Day 4: A bit of a mixed day. I could breathe through my nostrils the tiniest amount (not enough to not mouth breathe). As the evening progressed my congestion came back and was quite painful. My nose began to bleed on/off throughout the night. Debated going to A&E but I was simply too exhausted.

Day 5: Woke up very congested and frustrated, but the bleeding had stopped. I had a warmer shower than normal to loosen mucus/crusts and did my saline rinse in there. Got some disgusting yet relieving gunk out and congestion eased again. Nose really cleared towards the end of the day. I could breathe through both nostrils but still required mostly mouth breathing due to lingering congestion/noise when breathing. I choose to continue wearing my gauze as I noticed without it my nostrils would become dry and bothersome.

Day 6: Woke up feeling similar now to what I would have before the surgery if I’d had a cold. This was the day when I felt I could be fairly self sufficient around the house in terms of cooking, tidying up etc. A lot of congestion in the evening led to a poor night’s sleep.

Day 7 (today): Some slight congestion this morning but it has eased. I am able to breathe about 70% normally through both nostrils. The only frustrating aspect of my recovery at this point is the lack of sleep. I have not been able to get more than 5 hours per night.

My advice:
-If possible, get a humidifier, mouth spray, lozenges and some tapeless gauze strips in advance. The gauze tape provided by the hospital gave me a rash and now my skin is peeling in those areas.
-Sterimar nasal mist was a godsend at keeping my nasal passages moist. The hospital also recommended a little Vaseline around the outside of my nostrils after 48 hours to alleviate soreness.
-Distract yourself by any means possible. I didn’t want to spend all day watching TV so I invested in a puzzle book and colouring book.
-If you smoke/vape, starting cutting back as early as possible before your surgery. My surgery date was 4 days after my pre-op assessment which meant that I had very little time to adjust my body to not vaping and this added to my overall anxiety/frustration.
-The NHS recommended that my partner was home for 24 hours, but I relied on him quite a lot for the first few days.
-Sleep upright for at least a week even when congestion eases. I found on nights where I’d rolled on my side that my nose clogged up and it would take hours to feel any relief.
-Wet some cloths and freeze them. They helped with facial pain and are more mouldable than a silicone ice pack.

Hope this helps those of you who are looking to have the surgery done.

I had my surgery yesterday on the nhs. I had a septoplasty with turbinate diathermy and a (spur?) removed. I was seen pretty late in the day meaning that when I was sent home from the hospital at 11pm, there was a very quick debrief with an ENT doctor - I only got to speak to the surgeon beforehand.

The only advice I was given was meds and to sleep propped up for 2 nights minimum. Of course, there’s so much more that I know I probably should be doing after looking online, but I am struggling to find advice on things such as showering etc, where exactly to apply ice etc.

I have also already have/have ordered the following to try and make this as seamless as possible: beaded ice packs, a wedge pillow, a humidifier, saline solution, lozenges and a moisturising mouth spray.

I also have dissolvable packing - any tips of speeding up the process of it getting out of my face would be appreciated!