Greebo said:
What does this involve and what does it do?
I've heard of sinus operations (I'm an allergy sufferer and am perpetually clogged, thus the regular infections) and am curious.
Please to be enlightening me!
First, my problem is frequent acute sinusitis that is NOT allergy related. So the cause-effect path for your situation may be completely different. Definitely, YMMV.
A septoplasty is to cure a deviated septum. Mine was deviated when I broke my nose in a car accident many years ago. It was slightly deviated and the advice from several MDs consulted over the years was that the deviation was too small so that repairing would not make a material difference. I respected that advice for years but finally went forward out of desperation.
The turbinates are the fleshy gizmos in your upper nose. Some of them were removed.
The operation was outpatient. I was home that afternoon. Pretty darn painless; I had a bandage on my nose for a few days and looked like WC Fields for a few days until the swelling went down.
I went from 8 - 10 infections per year (MD diagnosed and treated, I don't count the little ones) to maybe two per year. I consider the operation a succss and I would have it again knowing what I know now.
Mostly when I get hammered with an infection now, I can't believe that I felt this bad for all those years before the operation. As you well know, they are very debilitating!
-Skip
Greebo said:
Hmm - I wonder - is there anything out there one can use to ... I dunno.. flush ones sinuses?
Snort a saline solution. I've done it many times and it doesn't seem to help!
I have also had my sinus cavity irrigated. This was done by a doctor who was legendary among medical professionals. Dr. Max Som, now deceased. He was 85 when he worked on me.
The treatment involved inserting a thin tube into the sinus through the natural opening and flushing it out with a medicated saline solution. As a profession, the ENT guys (that is what they used to call themselves, now they are Otolaryngoligists and can charge more because of the more impressive title
) gave up on this treatment because the results, although good, were temporary and the procedure was so painful that the patient would march out of the office never to be seen again.
Dr. Som was a craftsman among those in his profession. There was some discomfort but no pain. And ... infection free for 6 months!
Then he had to go and die. I'm sure he would have rather been irrigating sinuses....
-Skip
Going to try to work from home and go to the doctors today.
Had to go to DC yesterday for work with a fever of 102.1.
Hope you are all better than I am right now. 
See you soon.
