Sinus surgery tomarrow

My migs have never followed the typical symptoms and the only trigger is barometeric (air pressure) drops. I finally found an ENT doc and a thin slice CT scan found my right maxillary sinus is completely blocked. There is also a large cyst that will be removed. When the air pressure drops the sinus cavity expands and the cyst is right on top of my trigeminal nerve. That then sets off a domino reaction of blurred vision, temp hearing loss, tinitus and nausea.

So tomorrow may be a huge turning point in my life. Maybe the two years of head and face pain will be finally over.

The MRI image is a cross slice horizontally from my nose to the back of my head. The view is from my chin looking up to the base of my nose.

The right sinus is closed off and can be compared to the left (right side in the pic) which is open. Hopefully tomorrow I will have two nice open dark sinus passages and that big white cyst gone also.

I wish you an extremely successful surgery tomorrow, man! I'll be thinking of you a lot! This post gave me goose bumps, it is a real motivational thing to see. Best wishes to you!!

Yeah!
It seems that there are good chances to improve you pain, Brent!
I will keep my fingers crossed

Brent, I hope this goes really well for you. I have no reason either, but have suffered sinus problems for as long as I can recall.
Never really had it investigated, but will be watching with interest.
Fingers crossed for you....

Brent,

Best wishes for your surgery. I hope it will help. I work with someone who suffered for years, with no rhyme or reason. Saw a new doctor and had sinus surgery. She's no longer chronic...still is sensitive to the weather but she's able to lead a fairly normal life again.

Just hope it gives you some relief and perhaps gets them to go away

Yay, Brent!!!!!!! So happy for you.

Thanks for sharing, it gives us hope!

Charlotte

Brent,

Best wishes for a successful surgery and speedy recovery. I hope this completely resolves you're migraines. There is hope out there.....

Becky

I hope it all goes well. I have TN so I know how bad the facial pain is. My prayers are with you.
Alli

Brent,

Best of luck to you. I hope that this will end your migraine pain. Fingers crossed.

Chris

Good luck Brent! and speedy recovery!

Risa

Thanks for your kind words!

back home, spent several hours in recovery until the bleeding stopped. I trashed three surgery gowns and a blanket. Woke up before the breathing tube was taken out. O2 saturation after surgery. were below 95 since I was still out enough to not breath enough on my own. The surgeon found a blockage on the left side also and repaired it so now both sinuses are closed and bleeding down the back of my throat.

Trying to keep my mouth and tongue from drying out since I am stuck mouth breathing.

It was a very unpleasant mess but will be worth it in the long run. got Dilaudid for pain and Compazine to keep it down.

So now I am home changing the bandages every 15 minutes. nasty ugly clots. Tomorrow it's 30 miles back to the doc's office to get the packing out. Maybe I can breath through my nose again.

Oh, golly!!!! Sounds miserable! But, I think you're absolutely right, in the long run you're going to feel FABULOUS!

Thanks for posting and letting us know how it went. I was worrying.

Charlotte

Glad the surgery went well and they caught another problem. Recovery can be hard but hopefully it is all worth it.

Best wishes during your recovery.

Thanks! Waking up with the endotracheal tube still in your larynx is nothing short of horrifying. I flipped out and two nurses pinned me down until the anesthesiologist gave me more "sleep juice". Then when I started coming out of it I could not get enough air and was abdominal breathing and hyperventilating. That was setting off the alarm on the pulse oximeter. I remember being yelled at to slow down my breathing. That will give me nightmares for a long time I am sure.

Aside from the psychotic barbarians in the recovery room the rest of the staff was great.

Don't worry, I won't post any pics of sinus blood clots that pass.

Hi Brent-

I am sorry to hear about how traumatic your experience was!

I had a similar issue and had surgery about a year and a half ago. Weak stomachs read no further in this post...

Do not be alarmed, this really freaked me out when it happened and I thought that I would warn you so that it will not be so scary. For up to a year after the surgery, you might blow out large chunks of gray packing. It will look like a piece of your brain has come out your nasal passage.

It will feel wierd, and you will have NO idea how something that is so hugs and kinda hard but yet spongy can come out of such a spall passage.

I wish that I had the heads up about that. Happy recovery!

That's good to know. There is so much that docs don't tell you after surgeries.

wow brent, sounds like you are going through one heck of an ordeal.

my nose is a bit screwed up with a collapsed nasal valve and a very deviated left septum blocking off about 3/4s of flow on the left.

2 docs reviewed it including a plastic surgeon--i need a complete nasal reconstruction (lot of bone would need to be removed).

docs said absolutely not due to high risk (have to take plavix and aspirin for my heart issues).

thanks for the info--wishing a speedy recovery.

I hope you keep looking to find a doc that can at least improve it a little.

I posted this topic because a radiologist, three neurologists and an ENT all saw this MRI and two CT scans. Even after telling all of them that my only trigger was a drop in air pressure. Something in my head that is encapsulated is expanding when the outside pressure drops. All of them just "rubber stamped" me with a migraine diagnosis. My gut kept telling me it wasn't. Thanks to the mig forums it became more and more clear to me that it was something else.

Out of shear coincidence my wife works with a guy that has an inoperable pituitary tumor. He recommended his doc who specializes in baro-trauma and treats pilots and divers. He was also the chief of surgery at Madigan Army Medical Center.

As soon as he looked at the thin slice CT he saw the blockage. During surgery he also scoped the left side and saw that it was diminished and could close tight with only a minor amount of inflammation. Yesterday the barometer did drop considerably and I did not have the usual pre-pain attack symptoms so I am very optimistic that this is indeed the problem. Time will tell.

So I hope any of you that have atypical migraines keep looking, researching and asking questions if your gut is trying to tell you something.

In my case just going to one ENT doc was not enough even though they are supposed to be the sinus specialists. So if you have sinus problems and migs make sure you rule out the sinuses as the source. Dr Soulier said there are too many people out there with a rubber stamp mig diagnoses that actually have a sinus issue. An issue that may not necessarily be visible on MRI's or CT's.

Or worse yet visible but having apathetic and burned docs that just don't care.

I am so glad that it went well. I hope that it was the answer!!! good for you for never giving up! Let us know how you heal

Mary Anne