FESS Sinus surgery for polyps - Post Op Nightmare

The moment I awoke from anesthesia I had a feeling something was wrong. After my first surgery which lasted about 45 minutes, my nose and sinuses felt a bit of stinging but there was no pain. However, I was breathing clearly without any problem.

This was different. As I woke up to the nurses calling my name, I immediately realized that I couldn't breathe through my nose. At all.

"Hmmm....that's odd", I remember thinking. Why was I so incredibly congested when I should be breathing freely?? And then it hit me. In my still foggy, hazy state of mind I realized (with no small amount of horror) that the doctor had to pack my sinuses. Something I never had done, even after my first reconstructive surgery to repair my septum and certainly not after my first polypectomy.

AAACCKKK!!!! Aaah well, what are you going to do huh?

My wife walked in, tears in her eyes because she knew how much I was praying this wouldn't happen and said, "Honey, I'm so sorry. He had to pack your sinuses". She was very upset for me.

Why in God's name did her have to do it?
Well, for starters, even though we knew my entire sinus cavity....all of them...were filled with polyps, crud and what not, what nobody knew was how difficult it would be for my doctor to remove them. So difficult that my 45 - 60 minute procedure took over an hour and half. And rendered the doctors surgical tool unusable in the process.

Next up!
Polyps made of "leather", teflon nasal tampons and my 3 day follow up

Nasal Polyp Surgery - The big day

On Monday, May 3rd I was scheduled to have my surgery. Unlike the first surgery which was performed at my (previous) doctors in office surgery center, this was to be performed at an outside surgery center that my current ENT uses. I was told to arrive at 11:15 am and no food or liquid 12 hours prior. Based on past experiences, I knew that if I was to be there at 11:15, I would probably not be in surgery until 1:00.

We arrived a bit early and I filled out the minimal paperwork that was required and then we pretty much settled in for the wait. It was not until almost 1:00 that they finally called my name and brought me into the pre-op area where I was treated very kindly by the nurses. Our expectation was that the polypectomy would last appoximately 45 minutes and the nurse confirmed this with my wife who was not allowed to go with me into pre-op. Once inside, I got into the surgical gown, laid down on the bed and proceeded to answer numerous questions by the nurses. "When did you last eat or drink, what allergies to meds if any, what previous surgeries...." The usual stuff.

Within a short time they me hooked up to a needle and the anesthesiologist came in to ask more questions. She then had me on a drip to relax me....it definitely worked quickly.

Shortly after that, they told me we were ready to go and off I went into the surgery room.

It's funny but I was not nervous at all. Having had the surgery previously, I knew what to expect, i.e. a brief procedure, an easy wake up from anesthesia and no pain or blood from my nose but just a raw kind of sensation.

We got into the surgery room and unlike my first polypectomy where my doctor was already in there, the only people in the room were the anesthesiologist and a couple nurses. By this time, the drip they had me on had me feeling pretty good. I couldn't have been in there for more than 2 minutes when the anesthesiologist looked at me and said, "Okay Mike..are we ready?" To which I replied, "Yep". And she then said, "Okay, here we go"

And it was an instantaneous lights out to nap land for me.

Next up: Post Op

Second surgery for nasal polyps

Anyone who has followed my minimal posts here has known that since October 2005 I've suffered from anosmia and nasal polyps. My first surgery for nasal polyps was in January of 2006. I'd say it was successful in regards to removing the polyps but as to returning my sense of smell, not so much.

I was told at the time to follow a strict regimen of nasal rinsing, allergy shots and corticosteroid sprays in the hope that the nasal polyps would not return and that my sense of smell would.

We can fast forward from 2006 until late 2008. During that time my sense of smell would come and go but I'd say that I had virtually no sense of smell or taste other than an occasional moment. I kept up with the nasonex and/or flonase sprays and nasal irrigation and also kept going for my allergy shots.

In November of 2008 my wife and I moved to a different area in southern California and I began noticing serious sinus issues. Extreme stuffiness, constant discharge, worsening of what few asthma symptoms I'd had and an overall feeling that my sinus situation was getting worse.

Being that I am loathe to see a doctor, it took some time before I had my allergist take a look at me. Sometime in late 2009 I scheduled an appt and he saw a large polyp in my left nostril plus what he described as a sinus infection and got me back on Flonase which I'd pretty much stopped using at that point.

For the next few months, my condition worsened to the point that I was spending most nights in a sleepless state due to the congestion in my nose. Breathing was almost impossible and life since early 2010 has been somewhat of a depressing state.

As I've blogged about in the past, the fact that I enjoy more than my share of cocktails and cigars did not help matters. It's obvious that any alcohol is a vasodilator for me and only worsens congestion.

Matters only got worse so about 8 weeks ago I finally went to a new ENT in my new area. He did some observations and scheduled a CT scan which revealed massive polyp growths in both nasal passages and all sinus cavities filled with both polyps and infection. He was pretty astounded that I'd been living this way for the length of time I had been.

Needless to say, surgery was scheduled! May 3rd 2010 was the big day! 5 days prior I started a 50mg/day dose of prednisone which of course had a nice effect but considering the condition of my sinuses, very little olfaction returned.

By Sunday night, May 2nd I was so tired of feeling the way I had been for so long that even though I was nervous, I was ready for surgery.

As a side note, my current ENT had informed me that while he uses FESS and rarely needs to pack after surgery, it is always a possibility. Since I'd been down this road before and my first surgery was FESS and required no packing, I was looking forward to a quick recovery.

Almost 2 years since my last post??!!!

Okay, let's not say I don't at least check the blog from time to time as I do moderate all the comments that come in but good lord...2 years since I checked in with any updates of my own? Seems like there should be some kind of punishment for that like permanent exile from all social networks or something.

Well, there have most certainly been developments in my condition and will be posting my latest situation shortly. Suffice to say for now that I'll be going the surgery route yet again in a few short days!

Luxury cruise for an anosmia sufferer

My wife and I have been on 4 or 5 cruises over the years but the last one was about 6 years ago which was before my anosmia occurred.
Well, we recently went on an Alaskan cruise aboard the Princess cruise line. We had a spectacular time, saw great sites and of course one of the big attractions or draws for people who cruise is the vast amounts of food that is served on board a cruise ship.

Well, let me tell you, it pretty much sucks to have all this super high quality food being served and not being able to smell or taste it! As a matter of fact, since I became anosmic in the fall of 2005, I've probably only had a handful of meals in really good restaurants because I really don't care anymore. So this was the first time in this situation.

Just a note from the very strange life of an anosmic!!

More thoughts on smoking, allergies and anosmia

Well it's been some time since my last post so I thought I'd at least get on and give yet another update and some thoughts. As it is, I still am not able to smell or taste anything. I am still getting my allergy shots although I'm doing once a month now. How long does this last anyway??

I will say that my allergies are definitely better. I had a little episode the other day of some stuffiness and I was really shocked as I've had virtually no allergy symptoms for some time. I had a couple glass of wine the night before so it could have been due to that. The allergy shots have not helped my anosmia however which is unfortunate.

I had posted some time back about not smoking cigars for a while and seeing if that would help but it didn't but something dawned on me recently and I'm giving it a shot again.

Here's what I was thinking: For years I smoked cigars occasionally. Maybe on a Sunday afternoon while relaxing in the yard. In May of 2005 I started smoking a cigar every day. Or if not, close to it. I continued this pattern throughout the summer and into the fall of 2005. Those who have read my earlier posts know that I was on vacation in New York in October of 2005 when I lost my sense of smell.

Since that time, except for my experiment with giving up cigars, I've continued to smoke them to one degree or another. Sometimes only on the weekend but (being honest with myself here) for the most part, I have smoked a cigar a day for some time. And it just keeps nagging at me: Is this the main factor for my anosmia? Is it possible that the cigar smoke is enough of an irritant to cause inflammation which in turn blocks any aroma from getting up into my olfactory region?

So, I've once again stopped smoking cigars. When I first tried this I honestly can't remember if I truly stopped or if I cheated once in a while. It's been about 10 days and nothing has changed but my wife feels IF it's the reason, it might take some time for olfaction to resume. I will continue to post here occasionaly to let people know the results. If anyone has any input or info on smoking and anosmia please comment.

Allergies gone but 2 years of not smelling

I have been terrible at posting lately (an understatement) but as I passed a somewhat dubious milestone in October of this year I thought it would be a great way to announce it!

It was 2 years ago, October 5th 2005 to be precise, that after years of terrible
allergies, sinus congestion and sinus infections, I lost my sense of smell and taste. My wife and I had gone to New York for a vacation and it was there that I noticed my sense of smell had disappeared. Some of the best restaurants in the world and I can't taste the food?? At least we made it through the better part of the vacation before it happened.

Well, as past readers of my Anosmia blog have read, I had subsequent nasal polyp surgery which didn't help, I'm currently in a maintenance phase of allergy shots which haven't helped (although they have done wonders for my allergies), I tried abstaining from all alcohol and cigars, I've learned to actually love nasal irrigation, have been on a steady regimine of Nasonex, Flonase, Veramyst or some other sinus spray and yet, I still cannot smell anything nor taste anything.

A dose of prednisone does bring back my sense of smell and sense of taste of course that goes along with it, but as we know, you can't live on prednisone. So the doctors (primarily my allergist) feel that there IS olfaction. It's not like a virus killed off my olfactery nerve. But why I can't smell after all this time is a mystery.

I can say that my allergies and sinus congestion has all but disappeared thanks to the allergy shots and nasal irrigation I do and I'm thankful for that at least but
I truly feel for anyone who has just developed this condition and I always try to talk with anyone who wishes to discuss it. I've learned to live with it yet still hold out hope that one day I will be able to smell.

Update on being alcohol free

Well, I haven't had any liquor in my system at all for a month and while I was convinced that this would help me smell (even after my last experiment yielded no results), I still am anosmic.

I have however noticed a few things: For starters, even though I cannot smell anything, I do notice that I am much less congested in my sinuses.

Also, while I cannot taste. Or for those sticklers out there, while I cannot taste FLAVORS, my sense of taste of bitter, salty, sour, sweet etc is a little better. Olives for example do give off more of a tang than they did.

So even though I still suffer from anosmia, stopping drinking or even imbibing less, has had a benefit.

The only problem is that we are going on a wonderful motorcycle rally this weekend where there'll be about 75,000 other bikers. It's quite the party and anosmia or not, I'm going to enjoy some beers, some martinins and some cigars!

Upon return I think I'm going to give accupuncture a try.

Strange sense of smell

I'm not sure if this has anything to do with the fact that I've discontinued all alcohol intake for some time but a few days ago I had a strange sense that I'm smelling something. It's not any kind of definable odor or aroma nor is it unpleasant. It just seems that I'm getting something.

Now, this could be all in my mind or it could be what is known as "phantosmia". If I'm not mistaken, some people who suffer from anosmia also have this condition where they seem to smell scents that aren't actually there. Although unless I'm mistaken, those "smells" are usually very unpleasant if not repugnant. Again, it's hard to say what's going on here and in fact it only lasted a few days but it was interesting to note.

I've run out of my prescription of Nasonex and haven't used it for about a week so I imagine it would be an opportune time for me to call my ENT and get my prescription refilled. Maybe it will help!

Allergy Shots helped during the dry winter

Well, southern California has finally ended the driest winter in recent memory and my sinuses held up fairly well. I was figuring that with all the dry Santa Ana winds we had this year and very little rain, my sinuses and allergies would be at their worst but they actually held up.

I think the allergy shots are helping with reaction to allergens but I am somewhat disappointed that they have had no affect on my anosmia. I'm in a maintenance phase on the environmental part of my shots (dust mites, dander, etc) but am still working up with the grass and pollen shots.

I've also totally stopped drinking, mostly due to just getting lazy and happy sitting around watching tv but also because it really was having an effect on my sinuses. I tried stopping before to see if it would help my anosmia which it didn't but I can honestly say that my sinuses are much less congested in the morning. Who knows, maybe somewhere down the road my sense of smell will return. I still wake up every morning and get out of the shower thinking I might smell some coffee but it hasn't happened yet.