Nose surgery successful

Life Health & Fitness
1

Long story short, and if any of you have any more specific (not TOO specific, keep those to PM mind you) questions feel free to ask.

So for as long as I can remember in my short 27 (birthday was last week and ugh why do I feel old?) years of life I had trouble breathing through my nose. I suck at swimming and while I know it’s not 100% because of my deviated septum I think it had a lot to do with it. If I ever had even a small cold I had to breathe through my mouth as it was useless through my nose, and even with a clear head breathing through my nose never felt 100%.

Mid last year I got a referral to a good doctor at a hospital here in Kaohsiung (Chang-Gung) Got an X-ray and good golly miss molly, to me at least, I never knew my septum was as deviated as it was. Also got a CT-scan but nothing else was wrong.

Finally a few months ago set up an appointment for just last week to get the surgery done.

Decided to get it done here for a few reasons: 1) Hah, even with insurance back home in the States it would probably cost an arm and a leg (pardon the pun) for such a small surgery to be done and 2) I wanted to get it over with.

Checked into the hospital last Monday. Surgery was on Tuesday. Was awake the whole time, local anesthesia, couldn’t see anything as they covered my eyes but I was talking to the doctor the whole time. Didn’t feel a thing, only un-nerving part was when he used what felt like a chisel and hammer on my nose a few times. Otherwise it only took an hour.

Afterwards didn’t hurt as bad as I expected. Was actually only taking acetaminophen and a few other drugs. By Thursday they pulled all the gauze out of my nose, it wasn’t bleeding and after a few hours they sent me home.

I’m still on real basic drugs but have had no pain at all and best of all: GOOD GOD I can actually breathe! It sounds corny but I don’t care, this surgery has changed my life for the better. I actually have to remind myself I don’t need to breathe through my mouth any more.

And best of all, all told was less than NT$2,000. The only thing I would have changed would be to ugprade to a nicer room, as I just got the standard room and of course on the great dice roll of life I ended up next to an old Ah-gong who was so deaf he shouted when he spoke to people.

So, as far as my surgery and experience went, 100% flawless and would do it again in a heartbeat.

I can breathe!

2

Yay, that’s brilliant! Congratulations!

3

Calm down. Take a deep breath–in through the nose, out through the mouth.

Take your time and smell the roses.

Okay, sorry for the cheese, but I really am happy for you. Glad you had a good experience and hopefully you’ll have a better quality of life.

Yes, Taiwanese health care can be incredable. In the States you would have paid through the nose.

Sorry. :stuck_out_tongue:

4

I need exactly the same surgery, so I’m very glad you posted this. Thank you.

5

congratulations! I know how you felt, I’m sure it will make a big difference in your life. I’ll bet you start sleeping better!
I was born with a seriously screwed up nose, couldn’t breathe at all. it wasn’t until middle school that I even realized that most people breathe through their nose, not through their mouth, I had no idea that such a thing was possible. After four surgeries (2 when I was really little, 2 in high school, for both the nose and a cleft lip), I figure I’m probably about where you started off. I would love to be able to really breathe! In the past few years I’ve thought about trying to see if anything more could be done; it would have been way too expensive in the US, but now that I’m in Taiwan and could afford it, maybe I should really consider it…
How much did you get to talk with the doctor before the surgery? Did he explain exactly what he was going to do, go over the scan results with you, etc?
I am still a little wary of the medical system here, with the kind of high-turnover, short amount of consultation time stories that I hear. It seems like doctors can be quite good at dealing with fairly common things, but I’m wondering if they’d take the time to properly deal with a more complicated or unusual problem…

6

[quote=“zyzzx”]congratulations! I know how you felt, I’m sure it will make a big difference in your life. I’ll bet you start sleeping better!
I was born with a seriously screwed up nose, couldn’t breathe at all. it wasn’t until middle school that I even realized that most people breathe through their nose, not through their mouth, I had no idea that such a thing was possible. After four surgeries (2 when I was really little, 2 in high school, for both the nose and a cleft lip), I figure I’m probably about where you started off. I would love to be able to really breathe! In the past few years I’ve thought about trying to see if anything more could be done; it would have been way too expensive in the US, but now that I’m in Taiwan and could afford it, maybe I should really consider it…
How much did you get to talk with the doctor before the surgery? Did he explain exactly what he was going to do, go over the scan results with you, etc?
I am still a little wary of the medical system here, with the kind of high-turnover, short amount of consultation time stories that I hear. It seems like doctors can be quite good at dealing with fairly common things, but I’m wondering if they’d take the time to properly deal with a more complicated or unusual problem…[/quote]

First off I know how you felt, while my nose wasn’t as bad it took me a long time to realize as well that most people breathe through their nose and not their mouth.

As for your questions:
I was referred to this doctor from another doctor who I really trust. The doctor that did the surgery is one of the higher up’s so to speak of the doc’s in the ENT area at the hospital.
I actually first went to talk to the doctor for consultation about my nose probably in March of '08, then had Xrays done not long after. Then a month or so went in for a CT scan, but after that I didn’t talk to him for a while as I knew I’d be out of commission for at least a week if not two, and didn’t want to take that much time off work or my studies of Chinese. When I realized we’d get this week off for CNY, last December went back in to talk to him and scheduled the surgery.
As for the scan results he showed me them (and even emailed the X-ray to me right after I was done talking to him) and explained what he would do in the surgery.
I personally haven’t heard many stories about the medical system here, so all I have to offer are my personal feelings and experiences. After the surgery the doctor himself checked in on me a few times as well as another doctor from time to time, and the nurses were very friendly and helpful. As I said out of all of this the worst part was my neighbor in the hospital room, so if that’s all I have to complain about then to me it was a total success.

I’m not sure where about in Taiwan you are but if you’re even close to Kaohsiung or would be willing to travel let me know, I can refer you to the doctor who did my nose if you would like. Oh and Stray Dog same for you.

As for everyone else thanks for the well wishing and I actually appreciate the corny jokes.

7

Thanks for the info. It sounds like the doctor was pretty thorough and attentive, which is reassuring. I’m in Taipei, so I’m afraid your doctor is way too far, but after some poking around, I did find that the Chang Gung Memorial Hospital has a craniofacial center that specializes in clefts and other facial abnormalities, so I’ll probably go check them out.
It’s so nice to actually be able to afford medical care now, I can finally take care of things that I’ve been putting off dealing with for years…

8

Wonderful news! I have had my nose broken twice (from going blah blah blah to people twice my size), and this sounds like a breath of fresh air. I want!

9

I need the same procedure as Golfmade had (at Chang-Gung Hospital in Kaohsiung) to help me breath through my nose, but he never mentioned the doctor’s name. I sent him a PM a while ago, but he hasn’t been on Forumosa.com for almost a year. Does anyone know how to get in touch with Golfmade or find out the name of the doctor that operated on him?

Thanks in advance for any info!