Sinus Surgery

[shelly43]

Well, we've done the scans and the ENT doctor suggests sinus surgery. We scheduled for two weeks from now. He has sinus disease and but not the polyps, she said it would be like removing anchovy paste most likely.

Have any of you had any experiance with this yet? I watched one on You Tube and it made me more nervous really. I know most of the CFer's here are younger then my son. But the ENT doc said she usually sees CF kids starting around age 2. I'm worried this will be very painful. She said we would be there for 4-5 days, she hinted that we would need to be there that long for pain management and removal of the stuffing? The clinic nurses have given me that look but not really said much because Collin was close enough to overhear.......There are times when I wish we could talk without him present.

So ladies can any of you tell me anything? Any clue as to how long he will feel bad? Is this procedure really helpful? Thanks

[campmom27]

My son has had his adnoids removed and a sinus rinse about 4 yrs ago (age 7) then sinus surgery with a tonsil removal 2 years ago.  The tonsil removal caused an ear ache that lasted 7 days.  That was horrible for him.  But with both surgeries my son was home the same day, with follow up visits to the ENT, and pain meds given to him at home. 

The mucus in his sinus' were very thick both times, common for CF kids.

Good luck.

[angelique142]

Sorry I dont have any advice but Im sure we will be there in a few years, because my son has a lot of sinus problems. I hope he recovers quickly and that it is not to painful for either of you!

Good Luck!

Angelique

[SonwithCF]

Hi Shelly as I type this your son may have already had this done but in my experience with sinuses is my son just gets the polyps he has had 4 surgeries thus far and he is 9.  The last one was the worse than the rest as one was as big as a golf ball that dangled in the back of his throat.  He is on anti biotics here again and has to go see his ENT in a few days and may need to go back in the OR for more removals.  When he gets his done is he laid up for a few day just with polyps.  Good Luck with everything but sinus problems are VERY common in CF.  I have an awesome ENT  I trust him very highly and getting polyps removed you know he is inches from the brain I didn't know that. 

[shelly43]

Thanks for the replies. My son did very well with the sinus surgery. We started IV's at home the week before because of pneumonia. But my son was a trooper through it, luckily he has a high pain tolerance. He stayed on the hospital for 5 days but mostly because his urine turned dark and he has had blood in his urine before, he also had diarrhea from the IV's, so just to be on the safe side.

They didn't have to do much packing and I hear that's painful. We found out through this surgery and all the scans that Collin doesn't have bone between his sinuses and his one eye and that he doesn't have bone between his sinuses and his upper palette....... Strange! So his sinuses are unusually shaped. Of course nothing can be the way it's supposed to be with my son.

We finished another 9 days of IV's at home and it was back to school. The ENT reduced some of Collins meds and switched him from a sinus rinse he hated to just using a sinus spray several times a day, so he's pretty happy all in all, lol

Thanks

[campmom27]

I am happy your son did well.  My son had his surgery at a day op center and was home a few hours after surgery.  We also do sinus sprays more than sinus rinses.