septoplasty 7 months post-op
Last year I wrote about getting a Septoplasty procedure done (which is a surgery for straightening your septum, so you can breathe better). However, I never gave an update after I had the stents removed from my nostrils.
Stents are essentially giant pieces of plastic that the doctor sticks up your nostils for a week, to keep the septum straight during the healing process. I had those stents removed about 3 days after that previous blog post was published, and my breathing was 10x better than it had ever been my entire life. Brother, let me tell you - I was shook. The surgeon told me that my nose is probably going to swell again very soon, so the amazing breathing I was having was going to disappear for a bit and come back in about a few weeks, and that's exactly what happened
What also happened a few months later though, is that I noticed my breathing started to get progressively worse out of one nostril. After taking a look up my nose in March, I noticed my septum was not straight and became curved again towards one side!! I was so pissed because I spent so much money on the surgery! After speaking with my surgeon and consulting the Internet, it turns out that this is common, and your nose can absolutely become re-deviated even after getting a septoplasty. I found a good amount of people on Reddit that went for another or even 2 revision surgeries before their breathing was fixed.
So over the past couple months, I've been looking into some options. I went to another ENT doctor, who told me they can try a less invasive procedure called a Balloon Sinuplasty, which is basically where they inflate a balloon in your sinus to help keep your airways as open as possible.
That ENT also gave me a recommendation for a plastic surgeon, who I consulted with. He told me that he could try a revision surgery, but made very clear that it may not give me the results I want, so I had to think carefully about whether I wanted it.
So I decided to do the Balloon Sinuplasty as a first step, and I'm getting that done this Friday, July 18th. I'm hopeful, but not holding my breath that this will magically cure my breathing. After all, my septum is still crooked, so I'm expecting a slight improvement if anything.
Wish me luck!
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