My Sinus Surgery Experience and Recovery Tips

Welcome to part III of My Mysterious Migraine saga.  After seeing the neurologist for my headaches the MRI showed that I had a complete blockage of my sinuses – as I suspected. This called for the work of an ENT! But the problem was much worse than I thought. And today, I’m going to tell you all about the ENT and my sinus surgery experience. 

And before I get into it, I’d like to add a little preface.

• This post may be a little graphic, but I like to keep it real.
• If you need to have this surgery, I am not trying to scare or discourage you. Do not use this post as an excuse to back out. You are obviously getting this surgery because you need it. Unless you’re, like, a masochist who enjoys getting shit shoved into your face for fun. No judgment!
• I will offer you my personal tips on how I got through it.
• This is my own individual experience, so your mileage will vary.

…On second thought, maybe you just should come back to this post while you’re recovering.

Catch Up Here…

Parts I & II:

The ENT Visit

After suffering from daily migraines for 6 weeks, my Magnesium, Vitamin B2, and Co Q10 cocktail were starting to do the job.

The headaches started to go away and I was feeling much better. No thanks to the shitty neurologist.

But my sinuses were still completely blocked and wouldn’t get better on their own.

We were now moving into Autumn and I finally got an appointment with the Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT) specialist.

Let me tell you, this was a completely different experience!

The ENT was much better! Bend forward after the numbing spray so it doesn’t go down your throat.

The ENT was an awesome lady who really paid attention to my story and was sympathetic and extremely personable. Immediately I felt at ease with her and was overjoyed that someone was finally listening to me.

First, they sprayed my nose with some numbing stuff (which tasted terrible) and took a look inside with a camera.

She said that my head was so blocked she couldn’t even see all the way up!

*Tip: Lean forward to prevent the numbing spray from going down the back of your throat.

Then she gave me a CT scan, which was kind of cool. The CT scan involved me sitting in a chair while this machine spun around my head multiple times.

It was not scary like the MRI.

The CT scan was actually pretty cool (this is not mine).

I got to see the results immediately after, which was pretty amazing. It was basically like a 3D model of my head on a computer screen.

The doc said that the first course of action was to take a heavy dose of these horse pill antibiotics for 20 days, and we would see if that clears up the infection.

Twenty freaking days!!!

But I was hopeful that this would do the trick.

A Serious Infection

My course of antibiotics was done and I went back in only to discover that the treatment was not effective at all. Bloody hell!

The only other course of action was to have Functional Endoscopic Sinus Surgery.

I asked her if there were any other options. And here they are:

A. Either I get this procedure done right away

or

B. I keep on living with unbearable daily headaches and vertigo (which I assumed was all related) and harbor a dangerous, festering infection that could have further complications if left untreated.

So basically, no. No options.

I could either have the surgery now or have the surgery later. Great options!

It was settled. I had to have freaking surgery to poke a stick up my nose into my head and remove the blockage and the infection. Yeah. Fun stuff.

Being the hypochondriac that I am, I Googled as much as I could about this surgery.

This outpatient procedure is supposed to be about 1-2 hours long, but from what I read, the recovery is brutal.

I was a little bit terrified. But I was optimistic that this would be the answer to my physical head problems. We won’t talk about the mental ones right now.

The Sinus Surgery Experience

The surgery was scheduled for Weds 11/14/18 and I was to have the splints removed a week later – the day before Thanksgiving. Yay!

The doc doing the surgery was a different doctor than the one I was seeing at the clinic.

He was the “main guy” who owned the ENT practice and I had never met him prior to that day.

I arrived at the outpatient facility at 9:30 am. The surgery was scheduled for 11.

The electronic board that shows you the list of patients in the OR was packed. The “main guy” was doing like 80% of them all at the same time!

Actual photo of my waiting room (names covered for privacy). Was it surgery or fast food?

They finally took me back around 1:30 pm. Mind you, I had not had any food or water so my throat was super dry.

The nurses explained to me that my doc always uses two rooms at the same time, going from one patient to the next without a break.

This did not make me comfortable. Was he a man or a machine?

“Main guy” came out and talked to me briefly and explained that the surgery takes about 10 mins. They basically stick a scope in my head and this creates an opening that allows the sinuses to drain.

The majority of the packing material they use dissolves on its own. And the material is freaking red, so it was hard to tell if my nose was bleeding or if it was just the packing.

Brilliant idea, people.

I also had a brief visit from the anesthesiologist and I told him that anesthesia makes me throw up. So he promised to add an anti-nausea medication to it.

Then he stuck a needle in my arm and I was out like a light as they were rolling me out. Fade to black…

The sinus surgery only took 10 mins, but I felt like I was hit by a truck.

Next thing I knew, I was in recovery with my husband by my side. I felt like I was hit by a truck.

I was extremely groggy and just remember cussing at the nurse for waking me up, like a drunk hobo on a street corner. In fact, I think I may have offended her.

My throat felt like glass and I asked for something to drink. I think they gave me a soda, which made me dry heave.

So much for their anti-nausea medicine.

To top it off, I had a sexy maxi pad under my nose and was told to leave this in place for a few days while everything drained freely. Hawt!

Now it was time to heal…

The Brutal Recovery from Sinus Surgery

⚠ Warning. This might be a little graphic for some readers. If you’re squeamish, skip to the end ⚠

The first week after was probably the most miserable I have ever felt physically in my whole life.

There was just so much pressure in my head from the packing.

It was like having a boulder pushing against the inside of your head trying to escape through your forehead and eyeballs. Then you top that off with your nose being completely blocked off so you can’t even breathe out of it.

And I couldn’t eat or even drink anything because of the pain in my throat from that stupid tube – this pain alone lasted for a week.

The only thing I could tolerate eating was soft bread with butter.

*Tip: Keep an assortment of soft, bland foods available for the recovery period (bread, rice, soup, noodles, etc)

Actual photo of me looking sexy after my sinus surgery experience.

I think what made it worse was the fact that I was dehydrated by the time I had the surgery at that late hour, so when they stuck that tube in my throat, it was like scraping a rusty, dry pipe.

*Tip – schedule surgeries first thing in the morning!

You can’t take ibuprofen because of the bleeding risk. But they gave me Vicodin and I could also take Tylenol.

The Vicodin was a huge fail because it wore off after 2 hours so I switched to Tylenol. But the Tylenol wore off after 4 hours. – and you can only take it every 6 hours.

So those extra hours were pure agony. All I could do was spend each day watching the clock until I could take my next dose of Tylenol.

OMG, there was just so much pressure in my head! I couldn’t even read words or look at my phone because text hurt. I felt like a caged animal just pacing, pacing, pacing.

Did I mention, that you can’t blow your nose for the first week? This was really hard.

I found that a warm washcloth on my face really helped. But unfortunately, it got cold super fast.

Hell, if I had known, I would have just bought myself a heated eye mask like this one instead.

I wish I would have had one of these heated eye masks to recover from sinus surgery. Why the hell is she so happy!?

Also taking a hot bath was nice. Plus it also helped to break up the day so I wouldn’t sit around staring at the freaking clock.

*Tip: For the first week, warm compresses on my face provided the most relief.

The First Follow Up Visit

Exactly one week later, I had my first follow up visit 11/21/18 – the day before Thanksgiving.

They took most of the packing out and it was much better. But I was still congested and a complete mess.

The doc (main guy) said that it could take up to 6 weeks to heal completely. Blah blah blah.

Needless to say, Thanksgiving sucked. I couldn’t smell or taste anything. What a waste.

Thanksgiving sucks when you can’t smell or eat anything.

On the plus side, I lost a few pounds and I was allowed to finally blow my nose – gently.

The results of the surgery showed that what I had was a fungal infection.

Looking back to my first major bout with vertigo, I was thinking that this must have been festering for a really long time.

Turns out, I had a Fungal Sinus Infection.

Counting the Days…

I had not gotten a full night’s sleep since the surgery because my nose was still completely congested and I was practically sitting up to sleep.

I woke up hourly with a dry mouth and a full nose and had even been using a cool-mist humidifier as well, but it didn’t help very much.

They also instructed me to do a regiment of 2-4 saline rinses a day. I was doing more like 6.

So I decided to ditch the Navage I used before and just go with the Neilmed Sinus Rinse since it was easier to clean and I was going to be using a shit-ton of saline packs.

I used the NeilMed Sinus Rinse to clear out my nose. Still using it today!

The stuff that was coming out of my nose was yellow and really thick. The rinse provided temporary relief (use warm water), but my sinuses were still blocked.

In fact, I was actually wondering if I might have caught a cold but just couldn’t tell the difference. I was also incredibly fatigued.

My gut was telling me something wasn’t right. Hell, I went through 2 huge boxes of Kleenex in just 7 days.

But I had to wait until the following week for the big “debridement“.  I couldn’t wait!

Follow Up Visit #2

Finally, I went back for my 2nd follow up on 11/30/18 to remove the rest of the packing and to suck out everything else that was inside my head.

But get this – Main guy said that I still had an active infection!

My sinuses were completely full of pus (so that’s what that junk was) and were extremely swollen.

No wonder I had been feeling like crap!

I was so disappointed to hear this. Like WTF was the point of the surgery, right?

I knew something was wrong. I still had an active infection.

He said the operation was to allow drainage primarily and that he has had the surgery done on himself three times! Uhh, remember what I said about being a masochist?!

He had to take a culture of the stuff in my nose to determine if I have a bacterial infection that’s resistant to antibiotics – I did.

So he put me on a really strong antibiotic and also prescribed some steroids (tobramycin/mupirocin/budesonide) to go inside the nasal rinse to help the swelling.

The steroids were capsules that I had to break open and pour the powder into the rinse. In really big letters, I wrote “FOR NOSE” so I wouldn’t accidentally swallow them.

This concoction stung my nostrils but it did the job. After the first use, one side of my nose finally cleared up! Yay!

He also told me to add a drop of baby shampoo to the sinus rinse to help dislodge the gunk in my nose. Wish I knew about it sooner.

Adding a drop of baby shampoo to your sinus rinse clears away bio-films.

I’m not gonna lie, the baby shampoo in the rinse felt really nice. Like everything just slides out. *Good tip!

I still had to go back each week for 6 weeks to make sure that I was healing and that the infection was under control.

WTF, Nose!?

For the next 2 weeks, my nostrils felt completely empty. They were so dry and hyper-sensitive, I couldn’t even go into a store because the smells and even the air hurt my nasal passages.

I was scared that this was going to be a permanent thing. So, of course, I Googled empty nose syndrome – which was a mistake.

The doc assured me that I didn’t have this, but that my nose was just a little dry and it would get better over time.

After finishing that heavy antibiotic (now at 4 weeks post-surgery), the infection finally cleared up and I was able to breathe out of both nostrils again.

Hallefreakinglujah!

Finally Recovered

Six weeks later, and I had finally felt back to normal.

Now to prevent this from happening again, I went through allergy testing, per the doc recommendation.

The tests showed that I had a reaction to like 80% of the allergens tested (mostly trees, flowers, and mold).

I am allergic to several native trees, plants, and mold. Boo!

But I decided to wait on getting allergy shots for now. Allergy shots are a major commitment and I didn’t have the time to go in once a week, every week, for 18 months.

Maybe later.

Was this the Answer to My Mysterious Daily Migraines?

At the time of this posting, we are now at 7 months post-surgery and exactly 1 year since the mysterious migraine headaches began.

My sinuses feel fine – although they never really bothered me before anyway. But the damn headaches are back.

They are definitely not as intense as they were, but they last for several days at a time and ibuprofen and Tylenol only take the edge off.

What if it was just migraines after all and the sinus surgery was for nothing? OMG.

All I know is, I don’t ever want to have another sinus surgery experience again.

You can read Parts I & II Here:

Have you ever had allergies or sinus surgery? How do you manage your pain?

Leave me a comment and let me know!