This is Part 2 in a series of articles dealing with septoplasty surgery and my first-hand experience with preparing for the surgery, the day of the surgery, and post-operative recovery.
I want others who will have the surgery to understand what it entails. Hopefully these articles will make it easier and less mysterious to others who have to go through it.
Don’t miss the other 2 articles in the series. Part 1 – Preparing for Septoplasty Surgery and Part 3 – Recovering from Septoplasty Surgery.
As I write this article, it has been exactly 4 days since I returned home from my Septoplasty and Turbinoplasty surgery. I wanted to ensure to write these articles as close to my surgery as possible so that I could remember everything as it happened.
I am still in recovery mode and it has been a little tougher than I expected because I happened to get a cold around the same time as the surgery. I know a simple cold doesn’t sound like much but on top of having splints in my nostrils from the operation I can’t even blow my nose which adds to congested sinuses.
I still have the splints in my nostrils which are used to keep the septum in place after it was straightened out by my doctor. So, I still cannot breathe cleanly out of my nostrils because the splints stay in the nose for a week before they are removed. They represent an obstruction but there is a clear need for them staying in there for at least a week after surgery.
Anyway, this article is meant to talk directly to the day of my septoplasty surgery and not recovering from it. There will be a separate article devoted to that topic. Please make sure you read Part 1 which is about Preparing for Septoplasty Surgery. You can also check out my septoplasty before and after article that is essentially a compilation of all three articles and also includes a video of me before and after surgery.
My surgery was scheduled for Thursday, December 5th, 2019 at 10:30AM. I was called a few days before by the Surgical Coordinator to let me know the exact time that the surgery was scheduled. I knew it was on that day for a while now but I just didn’t know the exact time.
I was happy that it was at 10:30 because I could just drive down with my wife in the morning since we live almost 2 hours from the surgery facility. I was asked to arrive at 9:30AM for the 10:30AM surgery. Here is a quick layout of the timeline for the day to the best of my recollection.
Timeline of Septoplasty Surgery Day
- 9:30AM – Arrive at the One Day Surgery Center for the 10:30AM surgery. I arrived with my wife who could drive me home afterwards. This was a requirement – to have someone with you before and after surgery. I then filled out some basic paperwork with electronic signatures at the check-in desk.
- 9:45AM – Nurse asks us to come back into a room where I change into a johnny or hospital gown.
- 9:45 – 10:00AM – Nurse asks a number of questions especially about whether I have eaten anything past midnight the night before. I told her I had not and only had my daily blood pressure medicine in the morning. I also had a black coffee, which is allowed, about 2 hours earlier.
- 10:00 AM – Anesthesiologist enters the room and explains to both of us that he will be administering the anesthesia prior to entering the operating room.
- 10:15AM – The nurse administers an IV drip by inserting a needle into my right forearm so that I am properly hydrated during the procedure.
- 10:20AM – My bed is rolled out into the corridor where there are 3 nurses awaiting to wheel me into the operating room. I remember nothing after this until I am in the recovery room.
- 12:00PM – I realize that I am now in a recovery room being asked questions by a nurse. The surgery is over and I am wearing a moustache dressing under my nose to collect blood from my nose after surgery. (An image of me wearing the moustache dressing can be seen below.)
- 12:30PM – I am wheeled into the original room where my wife has been waiting during the procedure. We wait there for about 1/2 hour until I am cleared to leave the hospital.
- 1:00PM – My wife goes and pulls up the car while a transporter comes and picks me up in a wheelchair and wheels me out into our car.
- 1:10PM – The nurse had given us a prescription for pain meds (hydrocodone – acetominiphine tablets) which we picked up in a drive-thru just outside the hospital exit.
- 3:00PM – Arrived back at our home.
(I wore this for the first 24 hours)
Needless to say, after the surgery I was pretty much out of it due to the anesthesia and I had already been administered pain meds for the ride home. When we got home I pretty much sat on a recliner with my head raised for the rest of the day. Here is my youTube video showing me before and after!
The image on the left here is me with my moustache dressing. There are 3 pieces of gauze that are rolled up and placed under my nose. There are loops that go around my ears to keep it in place.
This had to be changed multiple times especially for the first 24 hours. After that time the amount of bleeding had subsided substantially. I basically slept on this recliner that night so that my head was raised sufficiently.
Any questions or comments please leave them in the comments below or contact me directly here.
Don’t miss the other 2 articles in the series below.
Part 1 – Preparing for Septoplasty Surgery
Part 3 – Recovering from Septoplasty Surgery
