Looking into having this procedure done in the next few months. Wondering if anyone here has gone thru this process and how long the recovery was? Cost (have BCBS)? Was it worth it? Thanks.

I did along with rhinoplasty, full roto rooter of my sinuses (stolen from another poster), and had my tonsils and uvula taken out.

With that being said I couldn't tell you how bad the septoplasty was considering the tonsils and roto rooter led to a pretty horrible recovery. In the end though, it turned out to be the best medical decision I've ever made. From terrible apnea and terrible snoring to no snoring and sleeping like a baby all night - waking up fully refreshed.

Had it done June 30th (Friday) along with a polypectomy (the roto rooter procedure). My sinuses were completely shut down prior to the procedure, better the first day after the procedure, but obviously groggy/tired the first and second day after. Felt good enough to go out to eat/up and around on Monday and could have gone to work, but didn't return until Wednesday July 5th because of the holiday. Splints came out after a week and a half along with a little bit of the dissolvable packing, visit every week for 3 weeks to have packing/scabbing (if any) removed. By week 3 I was pretty well healed to where most if not all of the packing was gone and I started to get my sense of smell back (it had been gone for ~3 years, so it may take less time for someone whose never lost it).

The whole procedure wasn't really painful at all. My septum was deviated in two places, and it took about 5 days to be almost completely pain free. Got 30 low dose hydrocodone pills and took about 8 of them just to be sure I didn't get to the point where it hurt. Tossed the rest.

Cost hit my max out of pocket of 4k with 1250 deductible and 20/80 split thereafter (me/insurance). Total bill was somewhere between 25k and 30k. The polypectomy was probably the more expensive if the two procedures as they use a radiation marker to track where the spinning blades are in your head so they don't perforate your sinus cavity and stab you in the eye/brain. If you're gonna just do a septoplasty I'd expect it to be cheaper by a decent margin.

Was totally worth it.

94DallasAG said:

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I did along with rhinoplasty, full roto rooter of my sinuses (stolen from another poster), and had my tonsils and uvula taken out.

With that being said I couldn't tell you how bad the septoplasty was considering the tonsils and roto rooter led to a pretty horrible recovery. In the end though, it turned out to be the best medical decision I've ever made. From terrible apnea and terrible snoring to no snoring and sleeping like a baby all night - waking up fully refreshed.

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Got mine done just over two months ago. I'm still amazed at all the snot that comes out of my nose. Realized I'm not nauseous all the time anymore. Because I don't have a constant stream of drainage going down my throats.

Also, snot smells really bad. I never realized it had a smell because my nose was always so blocked up.

Very quick procedure. You'll have splints in each nostril for a week. As long as you don't have any side effects or complications or whatever you should have no issues doing your workouts after the splints get taken out. If you like gross things, have someone record the splints being taken out. I'll never understand how those actually fit in a nostril.

I'm very glad I had the procedure done. I had no idea how little air I was able to breathe through my nose while sleeping and running.

There is really no good reason in general to put in splints after a nasal septoplasty, and without splints the procedure is really not very uncomfortable. They aren't difficult to put in at all, but anyone who has had them in will tell you what a pain they are to have in place and sometimes their removal is painful. I think a lot of people just put them in out of habit, but I would specifically ask your surgeon if he or she routinely places them. Tons and tons of saline, running a humidifier at night, drinking water, etc., are the keys to an easy recovery. Best of luck.

Had it done last year. The first couple of days are miserable. The stints are very uncomfortable and when doc pulls them out you can't believe how they fit in your nose. Pulling out the scabs is crazy as I took a pic to show my wife and still grosses her out. Before the surgery if I got a cold it lead to an eventual sinus infection. Since having the surgery I've been sinus infection free and able to breathe better.