My out of pocket was $3600 I literally couldnt breathe very well for the past several years. My nose always felt stuffy and i suffer from vertigo and light headedness. After having tons of test, my diagnoses was geared towards vertigo from migrains. I went with this for 4 years up until 3 months ago. Going to Dr Girgis, i was quickly tested for hearing issues (another vertigo issue) and had 2 ct scans. My scans showed serious swollen turbinates, some broken bone area (from school soccer 2 decades ago) and how one side of my nostrals were so thin compared to the other. After trying sprays to no avail, i opted for surgery and since my insurance covered the billed $25k for Septo and Endoscopic surgery, this would probably be best and least expensive time to finally fix my extremely crooked nose and remove the dorsal hump that has plagued me for decades Updated on 15 Dec 2015: Here is the Lowdown. I'm not sure if others just had this Pleasant kum ba ya moment on their first day out of the surgery however mine was anything but! Since I've have turbinate reduction, septoplasty and rhino, there are stents and plastic tubes in my nose. When the anesthesia began to wear off, I recalled my previous surgery and opted not to take the pain meds.... I ate one slice of pinapple and through up for 5 minutes ... Everything in my stomach was gone. Also, I couldn't go back to sleep although I was still sleepy. Why? because we throw up blood and anesthesia and the meds used to help wake you up seem to be laced with Heroin or some other strong narcotic that keeps you up (in almost panic mode for me) the tube in your throat causes dryness but it's like a behind your throat feeling so nothing helped. I did finally get some Biotene Spray and he helped a Lot more several hours into my Walking While Sleepy within the wee hours. .. Day of Surgery was ROUGH ... NO SLEEP ! Updated on 15 Dec 2015: Ok Guys, I am not going to lie. I could barely think about looking fabulous when I'm dripping blood out of my nose like running water. My nose is still puffy but I learned from the previous night that my eyes were starting to swell. What helps? Constant NON STOP Icing. I iced my forehead, my eyes, my cheeks, EVERYTHING.. ALL DAY because this is the only thing that kept me going. As far as pain goes outside of the pressure headache and my tear ducks closing up (because of my nose stuffed ) Icing helped relieve anything before it got bad, I literally had 1 small dark circle but it went away in a matter of hours because I started icing. I didn't have anything else to do and I couldn't sleep.. By night, my throat was extremely sore (we all know why here) I did sneak and sucked on 1 cold-eeze and the soreness went away within 20 minutes. Haven't had a sore throat since and I'm currently on day 5 as I type this. Believe it or not, Yesterday even with all of the stuffy tools, I could somewhat breathe through my nose when I cleaned it out and used the nasil spray sent home with me. ( I'm sure you're asking, how do you get the spray in when everything else is hanging out ? , You find a way, some how, the small opening inside of your nose, you make it work, you're desperate at this point) Updated on 15 Dec 2015: Nothing new, I'm getting the hang of cleaning out my nose with Simply Saline, Using Q-tips and hydrogen peroxide to clean all of the crust that has accumulated around my nose. I'm breathing much better even with all of the packing. my Friend suggested Liquid Melatonin sleep aid from CVS.. It tastes like cherry and it actually work. As far as pain meds, I've only used Tylenol 500mg (2 pills every 6 hours) and I haven't had any need to use the narcotics prescribed and I don't tolerate pain very well.. I still can't think about the beauty aspects of anything because my nose looks wider than it ever has in my life! My eyes are still a bit painful because of the stuffy nose. I just dream about Wed morning AM at 7:50 which is more than 24 hrs per day and that seems like eternity for right now.. I 'm wondering how all of these people shift their thoughts of how pretty they will be when all I can think about is WED and pulling this Mess out!!! my face isn't as swollen and it's because I've put ice in ziplock bags covered with towels and literally have gone to sleep like this Daily. I live in a Victorian and everyone including our new puppy we adopted (the night before surgery .. right!!) is in their rooms. I sleep on a chaise in our parlor Everyday and have been here since Friday. I manage to soak in the tubs but remember to not have water as hot as I like because I fear any unecessary Swelling. Also, my appetite hasn't been there. I go through 1 can of soup per day (eating 1/2 within 2 meals) and this is it. You don't really want to drink a lot, eat a lot. I try to snack on pineapple rings, Drink pure pineapple juice to reduce the swelling, with the Prescribed CPack before surgery, arnica after surgery, icing, pineapples (juice ) .I haven't had a ton of swelling. having PMS the day after couldn't have come at the worst time, I seriously was in panic mode. I'm sleeping for 2-3 hrs longer during the late morning, and napping on and off a few times per day. It's not my bed and not a full 8 hrs but I'm finally sleeping and breathing through my nose when I'm not stuffy with my nose currently packed. I did plead with both nurses who called (one from office and surgical center) about removing everything Yesterday, They both insisted it's Wed at the earliest. I even had contemplated pulling everything out myself but that couldn't have happened as I have no idea how far up the stents are and would hate to start a surgery all over again. only thing nice so far today is that I've been in PJ's all day and refuse to leave my house looking like this :) Updated on 15 Dec 2015: I forgot to say that my surgery was almost 4 hrs. Remember this wasn't just for some beauty treatment. I couldn't breathe very well. Everything always seemed Dry, Could barely smell and wanted to smell fresh air again (if this makes sense) even with cleaning my nose, I have to admit, you sometimes Snort. Blowing your nose is discouraged but I can't help but to snort and I spit up blood and mucus that would cause your chest to feel congested, I couldn't dare have another situation on my hands so I've spit up a few times and sometimes it's the dry blood that is stuck inside of your pathway. I think i'd rather spit it up than it be pulled out tomorrow. I will find out tomorrow if this was such a horrible thing. Also my cast is starting to slide off. I have oily skin and It doesn't feel like the cast is going to make it as I keep pressing it down lightly to keep it hanging on. Tomorrow can't get here fast enough.. I'm a bit scared of the pain associated with pulling everything out. After asking the nurse could I pop 2 tylenols and show up alone, I was told absolutely NOT! Take the strong stuff and have someone bring me... (this screams Painful ) .. I will post my results and more pics of things that I used for my surgery.. Arnica Gel on the puffy cheek area when my eyes were starting to swell helped a lot with the icing. Updated on 29 Dec 2015: I guess I haven't posted pics because i'm awaiting my dr's appt tomorrow. The Tip of my nose is much larger than it was before I had surgery, I can't tell that I had any work done except for the hump was shaved down a little. It still appears that I have a dorsal hump.. The tip isn't defined.. nothing is defined.. It looks like i have a huge nose.. Thats it.. I was thinking that after 3 weeks , I would see some definition and all I can think about now is the $5500 that I will have to pay to fix this as well as go through the not breathing etc for another week or so. ... Frustrated today
