Seeking Moms Whose Child Has Had Sinus Surgery

Please get a second opinion. When I got an MRI, I was told that I had a mucous cyst which sounds very similar. Removal of the cyst can cause many more problems than it solves.
Jen

Mucous production is usually an allergic reaction. I would wonder what my child is allergic to. I would take her to an allergist.

Try allergy medicines, a neti pot or NeilMed sinus rinse bottle, and/or an elimination diet (you can find a description of an elimination diet in a health book called something like Nutritional Healing or something like that).

I don't have as bad a problem as your daughter but in order to breathe clearly I have to take 2 nasal sprays and zyrtec. Some of the time (seasonally) I also have to rinse my nose with the sinus rinse bottle to keep from clogging up.

The meds merely deal with the symptoms. If you have success with the diet, you might actually get to the root of the problem and find out what is causing your child to clog up.

It's possible she has both environmental allergies as well as food sensitivities. Seeing an allergist will help to discover the seasonal allergies. Experimenting with the diet may help reveal any food sensitivities/allergies.

For right now, the meds and rinsing will help with symptoms.

I find that eating too much wheat makes me cough. Wendy's Frosties also make me cough.

good luck

PS

See if taking her to a chiropractor will help with the symptoms. There are chiros that specialize on children - I've seen posts by several of them on Mamasource. You could go to the main site and research it.

PS I think the book's name is Prescription for Nutritional Healing

I must agree with the other 3 responses so far....I had this surgery in February - and it is not for the faint of heart. I can't imagine a 5 year old going through it - and TWICE??? Yes, please check into allergy testing first AND get a 2nd opinion. You and your daughter are in my thoughts and prayers.

They wanted to do this to my oldest after a really nasty CT scan also - packed completely, pussy, etc. We had also already had his adenoids out because of the same stuff. We ended up getting a 2nd opinion and with a pediatric ENT. He wanted to try allergy testing 1st. Apparently most sinus infections are caused by allergies. The allergy meds cleared everything up. He's now 10 and has only had maybe 1 sinus infection a year after spending @ 6 months with back to back sinus infections. He was 3 when we started all this. My advice would be to get a 2nd opinion and ask about allergy testing 1st. Then go from there. If allergies are not the cause, then you can make that decision on whether to do this surgery or not. If allergies are the cause then you've avoided a surgery at this stage. Good luck in whatever you choose. PM me if you have any questions !

I have a child who has a bad mucus cough. We've had adenoids out twice - yes, twice, he has a deviated septum, sleep apnea. We've removed the tonsils, which helped immensely. OUr doctor did not recommend any additional surgery - said he was too young. He tends to be on the conservative side.

Now, we are doing better, it takes him about a month to recover from a cold and breathing treatments are necessary, snot abounds in this child but we didn't do surgery on his advice.

Hi R.,

I have had trouble with my sinuses and allergies all my life and as a result, I have had surgery on my sinuses 5 times. The first time was when I was about 8 years old, and it was pretty bad. Although I will tell you, that was almost 30 years ago and the surgeries that I have had more recently used vastly better and less invasive techniques. Plus, after the surgery when I was 8 to straighten out my deviated septum, I was relatively healthy for about 15 years. A couple of times I have also tried some non-surgical treatments that worked pretty well to get the mucus to drain and bring my sinuses back to a healthy status for a while. For me the surgeries weren't plesant. My experience has been that if you stay on top of the disease and don't wait until it gets horrible to treat it, you have a better chance of avoiding future surgeries.

On the flip side, I have a friend whose 8 year old son had sinus surgery last spring and breezed through it without a problem. I think he was back at school within a couple of days.

I would reccommend getting a second opinion, though. When I was told I needed a third surgery 2 years ago, I got 3 opinions before I went through with it. I know it's misearable to be sick with sinus infections all the time. I don't know what part of town you are in, but if you need a couple of doctor reccommendations, just send me a message.

I have had six sinus surgeries without success. I am now on an inhalation therapy. I have only been on it for two days, but I do have high hopes. It has an antibiotic, fungusyde, and steroid. (as you can see I can't spell) The idea is it goes directly on the infection and not throughout the body. I have taken all of these medications orally and it did not work for me. I have been dealing with this for five years. The surgeries are not fun, but for me not as bad as some poster indicated. Relief from the nonstop infection would have made the surgery worth it. I will pray for your daughter and for you.

R., There is a great nutritional supplement that is safe and effective that I am sure will help your little girl and avoid the surgery. I will be happy to connect you with other moms that can share their result with the products. The body can repair and heal itself given the right balance nutritional.

A.
mom of two kids

R.,

I know it is important to keep this mucus down, so it doesn't affect her brain.

With that being said...

Please, please, please go and get a "Neti Pot". They are around $15 at Wal-Mart. If you can't find them there, check out Walgreens or CVS.

With the Neti Pot, you fill it with a warm salt water solution, tilt your head, and pour the water up your nose. I know - it sounds horrid. It is NOT though. It doesn't burn or anything. But it WILL clean out that mucus!

My sister had the sinus surgery done and it did her no good.

Please try the Netti Pot first!

Hi, R., I had children who were sick with sinus, ear and throat infections as young children. My youngest started at 3 weeks old. She was on 37 rounds of antibiotics in her first 3 years. We found a doctor in Plano, an allergist, that did extensive testing for food allergies on our whole family. We were allergic to numerous different foods, especially dairy products! She told me had I known about this earlier and I had eliminated ALL DAIRY from MY diet, she would have been so much healthier. Anyway, when we eliminated the dairy, she got so much better! We were antibiotic free for years.

If you give this a try, you could buy yourself some time and see if she improves. If you go with the surgery, I would do the elimination diet so she does not just begin the same build up all over again. Getting to the root of the problem is always necessary to really change things in the future. Good luck.

K. Voigtsberger, CD(DONA), AAHCC
Certified Birth Doula (DONA)
Bradley Method Childbirth Educator
Mother of 3 daughters, grandmother of 4 and another on the way.

Wow, that is young. I had the surgery four years ago and it is not an easy one so I can't imagine a child doing it unless it is absolutely necessary.

I had it done for recurrent sinus infections that never cleared up with antibiotics which would then get into my lungs and cause pneumonia. They went in and cleaned out all sinus cavities. It took about four hours. Did not have anything done after except to have the cotton removed a week after the surgery. I still get sinus infections, but they easily clear up with vitamins/herbs now and are much shorter in duration.

I went to Dr. Gregory Rohn in Plano who does a lot of work with children as do the other doctors in his office. He was great. If you would like a second opinion I would highly recommend them. My pulmonologist is who sent me to him.

Good luck. I know how scary it was for me so I can only imagine what you are going through.

R.,
I know how you feel. My son had sinus surgery a few years ago when he was 5. All went perfectly well. He spent one night in the hospital for observation and went home after breakfast the next morning. I think it was 100% worth it. Pre surgery he was sick, sick, sick all the time, always on antibiotics, post surgery I think he's had antibiotics one time and is hardly sick anymore. Best of luck. PM me if you have further questions.

My 6 year old daughter had sinus surgery over the summer. She had a chronic cough with mucus for 3 years. Her local doctor kept saying everything was a separate cold. We took her to a specialist at Childrens Hospital in Pittsburgh and they were great. They tried to treat her for a year prior to the sinus surgery starting with the least evasive procedure but nothing worked including adenoids. They also did a biopsy of the nose, throat, and lungs to make sure nothing else was going on and we were referred to a lung specialist to rule other factors out first. After a certain period of time medications stopped working. Finally a CT scan was done and the doctor felt sinus surgery was our only option. This condition was embarassing for her as she was coughing up mucus on a consistent basis including in school and she could not play like a normal child without coughing up even more mucus. We chose to have the surgery done and the doctor said it was so bad the sinuses were diseased which left untreated could have lead to more complications. Due to the diseased sinuses the surgery took much longer than expected but we were able to leave that day and she had virtually no post op pain and did not need any pain medication. She was finally symptom free after finishing her course of medication after surgery. Just recently she contracted H1N1 and her sinus symtoms reappeared and have not went away after weeks and two doses of medication. We are going back to Childrens Hospital next week to find out what is going on. It could be allergy related. If I had to do it all over again I would. I have absolutely no regrets to having the surgery scheduled. For several months she got to live like a normal healthy child free of embarassment and knew what it was like to sleep a complete night without waking up coughing up mucus. The benefits to this surgery far outweighed the risks as far as our situation.