Getting surgery for chronic sinusitis ... is it worth the risks?

[occrider]

So I have chronic sinusitis that does not bother me at all except when I fly or dive. When I fly, I get what's equivalent to a pressure induced migraine ... it can get to be so bad that my eyeball starts to hurt. When I dive, it's impossible for me to descend more than 10ft without sudafed.

That being said, I've always dove with a combination of sudafed and flonase/affrin with excellent results. The worst I've had was minor discomfort on the occassional dive but nothing that didn't pass. I'm well aware of the possibility of reverse block but I never took it seriously since I took sudafed before every single dive ... up to 3 times a day for 3 tank dives.

I think I would be comfortable in such a situation where I'm doing 2 and maybe one 3-tank dives max in a day over the course of maybe 3 or 4 days, however, I'm about to go on my first liveaboard trip which is going to be multiple dives every day for a week straight. This is causing me some concern and I'm seriously considering surgery.

The planned surgery is Septoplasty, Turbinectomy, and Functional Endoscopic Sinus Surgery. My doctor said that the surgery is relatively short and serious complications are pretty rare, but didn't recommend it since my sinusitis is rarely a problem in my day to day life. However, I'm thinking about the worst case scenario of what could happen if it did afffect me when I dove. It's hard for me to gauge the potential risks of the surgery (it seems minimal) with the potential risks of a reverse block (never had anything close to it so it also seems minimal) if I didn't have the surgery. If anyone has any experience with this sort of thing, I would love to hear it!

 

[crpntr133]

Sounds like what my girlfriend and I had done. It has been three years now for me and I don't regret doing it. It literally changed my life in many ways. Might sound crazy but I wouldn't be diving if it wasn't for the surgery. I couldn't equalize good enough.

Times have changed and so have technics. My dive instructor told me about his sinus surgery and it was not that good, it was ten years ago with the same doctor as me. This was only my second every surgery in 35yrs so it wasn't something that I was really up for.

I had the packing material in my sinuses for three days. It makes it hard to swallow liquids without drowning. Other than that I was fine. The doctor gave me sleeping pills and I didn't use a one. I did use the pain killers and I was comfortable.

This is your decison but I would probably do it. For one thing if you get a head cold like I did about every year, you won't after this. Alergies, nope. Things even taste different. Flying is now possible for me as well.

Good luck on your decision.

 

[JessH]

Personally I would exhaust all other options before considering surgery. You might want to checkout the Netti method of sinus irrigation. It does wonders for me. When I started diving I couldn't dive without it. Here are a few links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jala_neti and http://www.jalanetipot.com/

If you do it on a regular basis it will definitely improve things for you.

~Jess

 

[Jcsgt]

I did it, several months before I started my basic OW classes (officially cleared by my ENT surgeon for diving).

At the time, when I came to after surgery, I thought man, I'll never do that again. The packing up the nose is uncomfortable, and it was downright painful when it was removed. However...

I don't have nearly the problems I used to, such as constant stuffy nose, sinus infection and bloody noses, which were getting worse over time. Best of all, I can dive, now, whereas I'm fairly certain that would have never happened had I not done the surgery.

 

[crpntr133]

One thing that I hear a lot about is when they clean out after removing the packing..OUCH!! My doc use to do it at the same time. Now he removes the packing and then a couple days later you go back in and they put you under. He said that was one thing that most people hated so he changed his procedure.

 

[Norm Cover]

I had sinus surgery 4 years ago to try and cure my sleep apnea. I could not breath through my nose for 2 weeks. No problem with pain. Even removing the packing wasn't that bad. I had no idea I could breath so well. I am very glad I did it. I irrigate my sinuses every day with a saline solution. It does wonders. I would recommend both the sinus surgery and the regular sinus irrigation. Check out neilmed.com or sinusrinse.com for information on the sinus rinsing. Good luck

 

[Web Monkey]

You might want to try this first.

If it works, you're all set.

If not, you're only out the cost of a couple of co-pays for a Dr. Visit.

Do your own research on the surgery. I don't have stats on the success/failure rate, but know that the failures can leave the patients screwed up for life.

Terry

The planned surgery is Septoplasty, Turbinectomy, and Functional Endoscopic Sinus Surgery. My doctor said that the surgery is relatively short and serious complications are pretty rare, but didn't recommend it since my sinusitis is rarely a problem in my day to day life. However, I'm thinking about the worst case scenario of what could happen if it did afffect me when I dove. It's hard for me to gauge the potential risks of the surgery (it seems minimal) with the potential risks of a reverse block (never had anything close to it so it also seems minimal) if I didn't have the surgery. If anyone has any experience with this sort of thing, I would love to hear it!

 

[lishen]

I contemplated sinus surgery during my divemaster class. I ended up not doing it and found some alternate ways to control my sinuses. I used to take prescription decongestants as well as nasal sprays when I dove in order to be able to equalize. I was diagnosed with sinusitis with nasal polyps by my ENT. I normally had problems equalizing at depth although my second night of DM class in 12 foot water I experienced severe pain after about 20 mins in the water. I did not normally feel congested on land, but only had troubles when i got down to about 65 feet or so.

I tried many options and found that I was able to control my sinuses by regulating my diet as suggested by my accupuncturist. After quite some time, I've found that staying away from dairy and wheat has helped me to cut down on my sinus congestion and allow me to dive without meds. It's a huge sacrifice, mainly because I love to drink beer which is very high in wheat, but it lets me dive without having sugery and without meds so I'm happy.

 

[JessH]

Lishen makes a great point. Despite what the dairy council says Milk is actually really bad for a lot of people. Cutting down on dairy can have a huge impact on things like sinusitis.

As I said before I strongly suggest Sinus Irrigation. I have tried a few different methods and this is one case where I find that the simplicity of the gravity methods(Netti) with saline solution is the best. Spraying saline solution up your nose does help some but it doesn't clean out your sinuses the way Netti does. There are also a number of companies selling various premixed solutions and mixes. These are a waste of money as there is nothing that works better than mixing salt with water. For the salt your best bet is pickling salt. It doesn't have the additives(iodine, etc) that table salt has.

~Jess