So This is What Its Like to Breathe! Plano, TX

Dr. Pero performed septoplasty and turbinate reduction on me one month ago. I am already breathing through my nose better than any point in my life, and I'm in my 40's. He has great bedside manner, and he will give you as much detail about the procedure as you want. The staff is very friendly and professional. They made this about as simple as it could be to schedule. I recommend Dr. Pero without hesitation.

I decided to have septoplasty and turbinate reduction because I have been plagued my entire life with sinus infections. Breathing through my nose was often difficult, particularly on the left side. Many times these sinus infections blew up into an upper respiratory infection or bronchitis. Since my left side was largely blocked off prior to surgery, I could only sleep on my back or left side, as I could only breathe through the right side in bed. Many times when I exercised, I would be huffing and puffing through my mouth because I just could not breathe through my nose enough to get oxygen.

Post op was not bad at all, but different people will react to anesthesia differently. You will wake up with a gauze sling under your nose, which catches any residual blood that drains out of your nostrils. The pain level in general was not terrible except for some reason my upper front teeth really hurt. The nurse added some goodies to the IV and took care of that. Dr. Pero prescribed pain medication to help with this through the healing process.

The day of surgery and the day after are the worst, and I believe that is because the swelling really sets in inside your sinuses. You will not be able to breathe through your nose at all the first 4-5 days, however you will see rapid improvement after that.

Perhaps the single most important part of your recovery is to use the sinus rinses early and often. I did these 8 times a day, and each time was amazed how much stuff came out. You will see some blood in the rinse, this is normal. Each day the amount of blood in the rinse decreases. If you do not rinse often, all of this gunk will dry up in your sinuses, and that could lead to some agony on follow up visits, so I made sure to rinse often.

At the one week mark you should have the first set of stints removed along your septum, and that helps a lot. Dr. Pero also cleans out your sinuses during this visit with a small vacuum like device. There was a little discomfort, nothing terrible. One week after surgery I was already breathing as good as at any point in my life, and I still had a lot of swelling. Lots of room for improvement. I was able at this point to lay in bed and breathe through both nostrils. You will be advised to incline yourself in bed with pillows or whatever you can, this helps some with the swelling.

At the two week mark, a second set of stints that deliver medication come out. This was a remarkable experience for me, after those stints came out and Dr. Pero did the vacuum procedure, the amount of air I could breathe in through my nostrils was amazing to me, I had never experienced breathing like this before.

At my four week check up, things continued to slowly improve. I did have a little scar banding, which can happen when swollen soft tissues basically stick together. Dr. Pero got that apart and vacuumed out my sinuses. With each trip, the amount of gunk he has to vacuum out decreases. I was given the clearance to resume exercising, just ease back into it. The next day I rode an exercise bike for 30 minutes and never had to breathe through my mouth. This is something I have never experienced in my life. Truly remarkable.

Results will vary from person to person, but I can testify that this procedure did wonders for me. The overwhelming majority of people that have had the procedure done also saw great results as well. I would have this done tomorrow if I needed it without any hesitation. The few days of down time are trivial compared to a life where you can breathe normally.

It has been four months since I had septoplasty and turbinate reduction. My only regret is not having it done years earlier! Breathing has never been better in my life. Sure I still have allergies and occasional congestion, even had a sinus infection that required antibiotics, but at no point have I not been able to breathe through both nostrils. Before having this done, that didn't happen, once my allergies kicked in, I was clogged up and could not breathe through one or both nostrils, and more often than not, the allergies developed into sinus infections, bronchitis, etc.

I can go to sleep on one side, and wake up still on that side the next morning, able to breathe through both nostrils. Without hesitation, I would have this done again tomorrow if I needed it.