It was a doozy. I also had a massive polyp in one of my sinuses and a bunch of infection in all the other ones. My surgery lasted over 4 hours. If all you're getting is the septoplasty, then it shouldn't last nearly that long. I had surgery on a Friday and had planned on returning to work on the following Tuesday. I wasn't able to return to work until Thursday.

The surgeon will stick splints up your nostrils to keep the structure in place. These splints and the packing will ensure that you'll be nice and clogged up until it is all removed. He'll probably make you do a saline flush as often as possible to get all the bloody gunk out of your sinuses. It took me a few weeks to get all of that out. During that time, everything I ate tasted like iron. I went to our corporate Christmas party where they served a 5 course meal with filet minon and sea bass. I was bummed that it all tasted gross to me.

It was worth it for me because my airways are more open than they've ever been. Before, anytime I got a cold, it was extra miserable because it didn't take much to completely shut off the airway. Now, I can maintain the airway open just by blowing my nose.