Septoplasty: Stories

I broke my nose as a child and have had a crooked nose and difficulty breathing since. The breathing seemed to be getting worse, so I finally went to an ENT doc, who suggested I also talk to a plastic surgeon about fixing the crookedness of my nose.

I did, and decided on the above procedure. The doc also suggested shortening my nose, so the profile would look a bit better, which he did.

Overall, I'm fine with the rhinoplasty part of this. Nose is still swollen, so it's a bit hard to tell for sure, but I feel like I still look like me, so that's good.

But, as to the septoplasty part, I am very concerned. I'm told my septum was in an S-shape, cutting off air to both nostrils, and that my turbinates were too large. Surgeon was supposed to straighten the septum and reduce the turbinates.

That was two weeks ago. The septum appeared straight for the first three days, but then appeared to start obstructing the right nostril, as it had done before, by the 4th day. Further, the outside of the right nostril starting to become concave, instead of convex (I think I'm using those terms correctly).

I'm now two weeks out from surgery. My surgeon agrees there might be a problem with the septum, and I'm worried. Aesthetically, I don't much care - I'd prefer my nostrils to be generally similarly shaped, but I'll live. I'm more worried about function. It's hard to tell for sure how much it's affecting my breathing right now, because my nose is still a bit swollen and still pretty stuffed up from dried mucous in the nostrils leftover from the last couple of weeks.

So, I'm not sure if the septoplasty part of this was worth it or not. I really hope it is, that was the driving force in me getting this surgery.