I had surgery a week ago. Fixed a badly deviated septum, sinus surgery on both sides, right maxillary and left maxillary. ethmoids, and left middle turbinectomy.

So far, so good. Went for post -op cleaning two days ago... the most unpleasant part was the numbing of the nasal cavity, but I'm not complaining! Getting the packing out of the left side after surgery was rather painful, but it lasted a few seconds.

There has been a definite improvement. For one thing, the left side is now wiiiide open. The right side gets a bit intermittently stuffy now, but the doc said that everything is still a bit swollen in there, a bit raw, and that things will only improve from here. The sutures along the septal wall at the nostril are dissolving, and don't hurt as much. I really can't blow my nose yet, but I am letting my self exhale through my nose somewhat more vigorously and that helps. In the mornings I am somewhat gunked with bloody mucous, but I am spraying with saline and spitting, which seems to help loosen stuff up. I have a regimen of care for my postsurgical nose that I am meticulously adhereing to- spray with saline, swab with peroxide on a q-tip followed by bacitracin. I do this at least six times a day. There are crusts that develop that are somewhat uncomfortable, but spraying helps keep things moist.

As far as drugs go, the antibiotic I was given was Duracef (cefadroxil), a very mild antibiotic used mainly for skin infections, presumably to prevent wound infection. I didn't have an active sinus infection at the time of surgery so a big gun like Augmentin wasn't needed.

So, to answer the question in the title of the thread: It's still been only a week since surgery, so I'm not completely healed, but so far, so good. I'm back at work today, with a only a very small amount of discomfort. The septal repair alone was worth it. In fact, that was the main cause of my sinus problems, the obstruction.