My Experience

I was having constant sinus infections; my doctor recommended sinus surgery to address the root cause. My doctor was terrific! He tried many interventions before deciding that surgery was necessary. Unfortunately, I needed the surgery, as one sinus infection would turn into another. He did share that it was a difficult surgery, but I agreed with him that it was the right decision.

Before the procedure I was told not to have food or drink. After receiving the anesthesia, I don’t remember anything until I woke up in the recovery room. I woke up crying. I was in a great deal of pain. The nurse gave me something for the pain, and I fell back to sleep.

When I next woke, I was nauseous and still in a great deal of pain. The nurse told me that it was time to get dressed and leave. My face hurt terribly. She walked me out of recovery to some lockers. I told her that I felt very nauseous and then proceeded to vomit all over the hallway. She told me that that was normal, as I had blood in my stomach from the surgery. I sat on the floor in the hallway for a while, with her urging me to get up. I don’t remember being brought down to the door where my husband was waiting with the car. I remember the look on his face as he got out of the car. He was shocked at the way I looked. As I learned later, I still had spatters of blood all over my face, and my nostrils had gauze over them, which was bloody.

I don’t remember much of the next two days, except that I was in a great deal of pain. The gauze was supposed to be changed, but I was in so much pain I couldn’t touch the gauze. My husband brought me in to see my surgeon. The people in the waiting room looked aghast. I still had the same bloody gauze on my face, and it was clear that I was in terrible pain. My doctor was very kind and was not happy when he heard about my recovery room experience and my release from the hospital. He said that he wished I had been more vocal about how badly I felt, and that I should have stayed in the hospital overnight. He understood that I was probably not my own best advocate after surgery, and expressed his concern about the recovery room nurse’s decision. I let him know that I would never go back to that hospital, which he assured me was fine with him.

I was still in pain four weeks later, at which point I was finally able to move the pain relief down to only Tylenol, no longer needing to use any of the stronger pain medications. As a result of the surgery I did have fewer sinus infections, which can be quite debilitating. After the surgery, the number of sinus infections decreased, though I still get them two or three times a year, but this is a huge improvement over almost constant infection. For me this was a difficult surgery. Fortunately my doctor was great at listening and responding to my needs and concerns.