Has anyone here ever had a septoplasty and/or turbinate reduction operation?

When I was little, I had a lot of trouble breathing in my sleep. Once I almost stopped breathing altogether. I had my tonsils removed when I was 5, the doctor saying they were the biggest he’d ever seen. I would have had my adenoids removed as well but at the time they thought this would leave too big of a gap and it would give me a very nasal voice among other things.

So up until now, 13 years later, I’ve had almost a constant runny nose but just learned to live with it. Mum every once in a while mumbling something about chronic sinusitis. In the last couple of years I’ve been having trouble sleeping, and I’m an awful snorer, so we started talking about sleep apnea. My mum, a nurse, had also seen a teenager who they thought just had chronic sinusitis but actually had an infection behind his nose that spread into his brain and now has to be fed through a tube. That was when we decided to go see a specialist.

So luckily it’s not an infection, but my septum is majorly deviated to one side, and my turbinates are inflamed. The specialist also explained that they must not have taken my adenoids out with my tonsils because the shape of the roof of my mouth is the opposite to most peoples, there is supposed to be a small ridge in the middle that sticks out, but I have a concave ridge instead, so this would have made the big gap.

So anyway, after this ramble, I’ve been booked in for a septoplasty operation, and I’m having my turbinates trimmed, and also my adenoids shaved just a little bit. I was excited at first, because I will finally get to sleep properly and I will no longer have a runny nose.

However, now that it’s getting closer (2 weeks or so), I’m getting scared. It sounds painful, and wikipedia says I will have to have splints in my nose for 7–10 days after the operation, though the specialist didn’t mention this. I have to have gauze changed every hour from the bleeding, then have saline irrigations and am not allowed to blow my nose or anything. There is a possibility of sneezing the stitches out (that’s what the specialist did say).

I’m also just scared of the operation in general- what if they don’t give me enough anesthetic and I wake up? How much would it hurt if I did?

Also, what are the chances of the operation leading to empty nose syndrome? What if they shave too much of my adenoids?

So basically I’m just wondering if anyone has had this operation and could give me some advice or comfort, or if anyone else knows the answers to these questions or just in general about operations and how likely it is for me to wake up and anything like that.

I’m scared!