Day 5

Day 5 post-op:

I was nervous all the way to my Dr.'s office to get the stents removed and check on the healing. Well, I was nervous and worried for nothing. The removal of the stents wasn't even painful. Just... odd and gross feeling. I did take 2 of my Norco though (after a couple surgeries in the last 10 years and several medical issues that I've been prescribed narcotics I've built up a little tolerance to it so I need a stronger dosage to get the desired effect) about 1 hour prior to the appointment and made sure I ate something.

I got seated in a room and the nurse gave me a numbing agent that is sprayed 2x per nostril and they let that set in for about 5-10 minutes to take effect.
My Dr then came in and checked inside to make sure it was healing properly, even praised me for using my nasal rinse because he could see that I was and that it really helped the healing, clearing out the passages and would make the stent removal much easier.

So anyone reading this that's getting ready for nasal stent removal, word of advice, USE YOUR NASAL RINSE. I used mine 2-3x daily, depending how congested I felt. I feel like this made a huge difference.

He tells me, he's going to clip the stitch in my right nostril and start with removing the stent from that one and I immediately thought "Woah woah woah, I had a stitch in that nostril?! I only felt the ones in the left!" So he used whatever tool he grabbed and pushed against the septum then clipped and pulled that stitch out. That was slightly painful, probably because it was against my septum and the stitches from the left one were right on the other side. 

Then really quickly he pulls the stent out and then just as quickly pulls the other one out. The best way I can think of describing it is that someone was pulling a slug from the back of my throat through my nose. Really gross.

He then suctioned all the gunk, it hurt for a second or two when the suction tool pressed against the stitches and most likely where some of the incision was made. I looked at the video of it and that tool went in pretty deep, I'm still amazed about how deep our nostrils go.

Afterwards, a huge pressure felt like it had been pulled from inside my nose and the congested feeling was much better. 

There was some blood but not a lot at all. When I started breathing through my nose it was like a night and day difference; not only from being congested feeling during recovery but also from before the surgery. I can take deeper breaths and I can feel the air coming in through both nostrils. The only issue that I have is the left nose, I don't really feel the air leaving through it. Dr said this was normal and should resolve in 3 months. It's because that's where the incisions were made mostly so they've got to heal and that takes about 3 months. At first I was a little upset (like a toddler who can't have another cookie) that it would take so long but then I realized 3 months isn't that much in the grand scheme of things.

He didn't remove the stitches because they're dissolvable (I didn't know that, they feel harder than the dissolvable stitches I'm use to) and will dissolve in a couple weeks. I just keep picturing pieces of them coming out over time during my nasal rinse and the grossness of that image makes me laugh.

The left nostril, with the stitches, still stings a bit. The pressure like something is pushing down through my sinuses to the roof of my mouth towards my tongue is still there combined with the feeling like my front top teeth are getting pulled out (pressure not painful really). That's expected to go away in a couple weeks too.

I'm to expect a lot more clots with my nasal rinsing now that the stent is out apparently. Also with the stitch that was holding the stents in place creating a small hole the rinse will feel different.

No follow up appointments unless something concerns me but he said I can return to normal activities today. I think I'll give it a couple days though since I'm still pretty dizzy, it's worse when I go up the stairs and I can feel a pressure pushing on my sinuses when I go up there.

Since the main stuff is over I'm only got to post progress about once a week now until the 3 months are up (unless I'm healed completely before then).

We got video of the stents being removed so WARNING for those that are easily grossed out or get queasy.