I should have kept my deviated septum

[BigV]

The saline solution used in that rinse bottle comes in little packets, but I ran out of those. I switched to a small amount of regular salt in warm water. I use a little pile in my palm about as big around as a quarter and this is mixed in a cup that holds two bottles' worth.

The squeezing and swishing and snorting and coughing and snotting and spitting... all totally worth it. I usually do two bottles each time, in sequence. I bend over the tub or the sink when I'm doing it. It's gross. But it cleans out that area in a way that just blowing my nose does not. Really, follow your after care instructions, especially if they include this step.

As for why I want to do this again, I think the sinus did get uncorked, did get drained, turbinates did get resectioned... but. But there's still a lingering chronic infection of some kind (fungal perhaps? that word was used at the beginning of this whole ordeal).

This part's gross. . . you might want to move on to the next post.

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Ok.

Sometimes, my left sinus fills up with mucus, sometimes very watery, like water. But it's not clear, like normal, it's the color of a manila folder yellowy, sometimes with a greenish tinge. The hell of it is, I can't tell it's filling up until I lean over like you might when you would look under the table for something that's fallen on the floor. Then I get a pouring out of this mucus, drip drip drip, at the pace of a good nosebleed. Sometimes I can smell/taste it, not really appetizing. urgh.

Blowing my nose is necessary at this point, but it's usually just a temporary measure for a couple reasons. The biggest one is because of our anatomy. It's very difficult to get a sinus to drain because of the tortuous shape of the passages from sinus to nose/throat. Also, as more of the mucus actually flows through my nose, over the course of hours, it gets more exposure to air (more than in the sinus where it's generated) and it thickens, giving me half a snotty nose from hell. Blowing and rinsing and wiping and rubbing... ugh. The combination of breathing difficulty and running/dripping snot... I want another plan to cure/cauterize/fill with epoxy/I don't fucking care, just do something. It's misery.

(really gross part)

Sometimes, when I blow my nose, I get great relief. I find a giant, flat-ish mostly crusty booger in the tissue and it often has a wet hole in it. This is the not-quite-fully-cemented-shut opening of the ostia from my sinus to my nasal passages. This has happened enough for me to know that the crap is coming from the sinus like a goddamn ever-flowiing artesian spring of snot. Something's going on in there that has to be stopped. It never happens on the right side. I'm not sick. There's something IN THERE causing this reaction.

After I have a thorough rinse, I always have water stuck in my nasal passages. Sometimes even hours later, when I tip my head this way or that, drops of water pour out. It takes awhile for the water to get out, either from my nose or my throat.
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Ok. I don't know why you had your surgery done Clod. Were you having breathing problems? Sinus trouble like mine? Something else? Right now, I don't have the same problem that sent me to the doctor in the first place, but I do have basically the same symptom, some uncontrolled source of trouble in my sinus that my body responds to as described above. Additionally, I find that the turbinate reduction I had done on the right side *has* improved my ability to breathe through that side. It does still sometimes close up, as happens to everyone. The swelling of those tissues is not controllable. Some swelling, periodic and temporary is normal. But I have less tissue on that side so it doesn't swell shut as often or as easily. When I go back, I'll have the same thing done on the left side as well as whatever needs to be done to clear up the "infection" in the sinus.

Here are a couple links to useful information about what's going on in your nose/sinuses/throat/etc. Also, a couple videos that I found useful for helping me visualize what the shapes inside my head looked like.





http://www.surgery.com/procedure/end...-sinus-surgery

http://www.ask.com/wiki/Semilunar_hiatus