Sinus op recovery time?

[orangeBloke]

I unfortunately have to go have an operation on my sinuses next week, which is bad timing as it's now well into the dive season.

Timing aside the op is to clear up some problems in the sinus and will aprrarently take me out of work for 7 to 10 days.

What I'm curious about is has anyone had this or something similar done before and if so how long is reasonable to wait before returning to the water? The last thing I want to do is push it too soon, the fish will just have to wait a while to see me again if necessary

 

[DocVikingo]

The Dr Decompression forum is described as: "Ask Dr. Deco questions concerning the scientific aspects of decompression." Dr. Deco is a Ph.D. research scientist.

As such, I have taken the liberty of moving your post to the Diving Medicine forum which is designed for medical inquiries.

Return to diving after sinus surgery depends upon what procedure(s) were carried out & how smoothly it all went.

Nonetheless, you might find the board archives (http://www.scubaboard.com/search.php?) informative in regards to your situation, such as the following thread:

http://www.scubaboard.com/t42152.html

Wishing you a successful outcome.

DocVikingo

 

[smay28]

Doc's right. Kinda depends on the nature of the surgical procedure.. Outpatient? Inpatient? and the severity of what exactly is taking place in the excavation of your squash.

Sub mucous resection of the turbinates? Full bi-lateral Sinusotomy? Septoplasy? All of the above?

The endoscopic outpatient procedure is a cakewalk. You should let everything heal up for a week or two. Avoid (dare I say it) alcohol or anything else that would promote the thinning or your blood, and too much physical activity.

Hitting the board and letting us know how things went is permissable and would be great!!

 

[pasley]

Been there, done that, twice. It really helped. Discuss it with your physician or DAN has a thread on this specific subject. DAN, if I remember right recommends about 6 weeks. The snoze will be tender for several weeks and you will not want to put a mask on it anyway. Follow your doctors instuctions and err or the side of caution.

Diving has seasons? Southern California divers dive year round. But the best diving is October through March.

 

[orangeBloke]

Thanks for the replies on this. The surgery is now two weeks past and I'm on the repair. It was done endoscopically so there was little to no marking on the outside, just on the inside.

The surgery was to fix a chroic sinusitis problem, which to be honest never felt too bad except for the odd squeeze whilst diving but I'm amazed at how much air I seem to be breathing in now.....so much so that small children are in danger of being sucked towards me if I inhale too hard

The surgery was relatively painless though the post op nasal cleaning is far from fun. (I'll spare you the details but boy does it make your eyes water) Thankfully that's only for about 5 mins, four or five times over the first couple of weeks and then less frequent after that.

Prognosis is that it'll at least be another month until I can dive so for now the closest I get to the sea is the saline solution I have to wash the nose out with (again I'll spare you the details). Until then I'll just get to know my camera a bit better, plan the next trips to all the places I want to go and try to get those winning lottery numbers to help finance it all

Thanks & Cheers

 

[DocVikingo]

That is very good news.

To quote from my prior post, "Short-term, given unremarkable surgery a wait of 6-8 weeks before return to diving should be anticipated,...."

As advertised on the Diving Medicine forum.

Stay on the mend & happy diving.

DocVikingo

 

[crpntr133]

Good to hear that everything went well.
I had similar surgery done back in December and can't believe the difference it has made for me with diving. Well, actually it made it possible for me to dive without equalization problems. I had to wait two months but that wasn't a problem since I live in Indiana.

 

[scubamax]

My sinus surgery was also welcome relief....diving is better and my wife says snoring all but gone! (which to her was worth the cost!)

scubamax