My Experience

I had a severely deviated septum that my doctors believed to be contributing to recurrent sinus infections and migraines. They recommended a septoplasty.

The procedure took place in my surgeons’ office in his medical suite. I had to be there about an hour before the procedure was scheduled to begin, and when I arrived a nurse took me back to a small, comfortable room to get me ready for sedation. My surgeons came in to talk with me to see how I was feeling and let me know how everything was going to go.

The anesthesiologist then came in and gave me an IV. I remember very little of what happened next, but the surgeons later told me that I was intubated and then taken into surgery. I believe the surgery lasted about two hours. I remember waking up in the recovery room, and the discharge nurse was taking care of me. She gave my sister the discharge instructions and my sister took me home.

It was a pretty painful recovery, so I spent the first several days sleeping and taking a lot of pain medication. My sister was there to take care of me, so she would wake me up whenever it was time to take my medicine in order to stay ahead of the pain. I did very little during the first week after the surgery, I just rested a lot.

After the first week I still had splints inside my nose, which may have been the most uncomfortable part of the recovery. The splints came out after about ten days. I just had to take it easy for a while after that.