Nose/Throat Surgery suggestions

[IrishBLE]

Well, I work at our local hospital as a ENT surgical tech, and just had my tonsils yanked a year ago, and my septum fixed 2 yrs before that...I hope I have some good advice. If you aren't particulaly prone to bleeding, I found that Ibuprofen helped more than the prescribed pain meds. And force the water...It won't be pleasent, but it is very important. I was a bit lax on that, and bought myself a night in the hospital with a tonsil re-bleed. Gargling with cold saline solution then rinsing your nose with some more saline, and blowing your nose should help bust up some of the hematomas or whatnot. I asked a doc I work with, and he said these things should work for you...Just try not to use warm water, as it could bust up the healing factors on your tonsil bed and start you bleeding again. Hope this helps...get well soon, and force the water...It'll be loads worse for ya if you don't. Any problems, rouse your doc pronto.

[mudd]

giving you some relief from what my daughter calls 'nose sharpies.'

My daughter calls ‘em “nose pokies”.

[646guy]

Thanks for all of the advice...I've been doing some hot steam baths where I stand in the shower full of steam and breathe in from my mouth and nose and I can definitely feel things loosening up and opening up my passages. I'm also using the saline spray which is helping a bit as well but not to the effect that I thought it would. I set up my follow up appointment with my doc for Monday at 9am so he can take a look at how things are going and figure out what the next steps are from there...I figure I can last until then before I want to beat myself over the head.

The only freaky thing that's happened during the steam infusions (AND IT'S KINDA GROSS SO STOP NOW IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW) is that all of the coagulated blood that is either in my throat or nose or whatever is also being spit out during this time. It's like I can now tell when a big "blood ball" of spit is gonna come out when I do one of those steam therapies. However, it does feel better after I get them out of my system so I'm hoping that's a good sign and that I'm not doing myself major damage.

[bjcustard]

In 2004, I had bad things removed from my sinuses (think 'thumb'), had good things taken out to improve airflow, and had my deviated septum fixed. They did not pack my nose or anything. I, too, had the 'sore throat' feeling. I presume it was from the breathing tube.

The faint-of-heart should stop reading HERE.

The short answer: suck it up. It'll pass in a week or two.

The long answer: Hydrate as much as you can stand. Use the saline as much as you can stand. Ask your physician if you can use something akin to this: one liter of distilled water, with 3 spoons of Sea Salt and 1 spoon of Baking Soda added (check my figures... doing this from memory). I had to use that (it's like saline, but more 'briny'), and it helped get all the cr@p out after a week or so. I must stress that you should TALK TO YOUR PHYSICIAN before you use something like this, because you could be removing clotting material that you shouldn't.

Hope all is better soon.

[646guy]

In 2004, I had bad things removed from my sinuses (think 'thumb'), had good things taken out to improve airflow, and had my deviated septum fixed. They did not pack my nose or anything. I, too, had the 'sore throat' feeling. I presume it was from the breathing tube.

The faint-of-heart should stop reading HERE.

The short answer: suck it up. It'll pass in a week or two.

The long answer: Hydrate as much as you can stand. Use the saline as much as you can stand. Ask your physician if you can use something akin to this: one liter of distilled water, with 3 spoons of Sea Salt and 1 spoon of Baking Soda added (check my figures... doing this from memory). I had to use that (it's like saline, but more 'briny'), and it helped get all the cr@p out after a week or so. I must stress that you should TALK TO YOUR PHYSICIAN before you use something like this, because you could be removing clotting material that you shouldn't.

Hope all is better soon.

Yeah trust me....I'm sucking it up as well as I can....at this point I'm just glad that I can get a good night's sleep or at least cat nap for a few hours. I'm seeing my ENT doc on Monday morning for a follow up so I figure three more days isn't going to kill me.

They told me in the hospital that it was probably from my breathing tube as well and I'm drinking as much water and apple juice as I can althogh having to go to the bathroom every hour is starting to get annoying. I'm also wondering what they cauterized in my throat as well to see if perhaps I have skin that is healing back there as well. I hope to be back on normal food by the beginning of March because I am craving pepperoni pizza BIG TIME...

[minimalistix]

I just had some intense nose and throat surgery done yesterday and was hoping that someone on here has gone through the same thing (or at least one part of it) and can give me some advice: I have mild sleep apnea and I had my tonsils removed, my uvula removed (UPPP) and my septum fixed.

They did not pack my nose with cotton and the saline solution isn't helping clear up the dried blood and stuff up there which means I have to breathe through my mouth and my throat is still quite raw. On top of that swallowing is a problem too. The pain meds have dulled the pain but not gotten rid of it (which I was told would be the case)...

Has anyone else gone through this and what did you do to make it a bit more bearable?

Yeah. Had my septum straighten out, but none of the rest of the stuff which sounds extremely painful. The septum surgery was great. I would do it again for the benefits. As far as the pain, I feel for you, but I think your just going have to suffer through it. Get someone to buy you Popsicles and ice cream to help with the soreness in your throat and obviously keep taking the meds. You should be better in about 5-14 days depending upon how much work you had done in your sinuses and who did you surgery. I was up running around at 4 days.