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Empty-nose syndrome sufferers feel invisible
I cannot understand why ENTs don't comprehend this condition. I have had ENS for 6 years. My turbinats were reduced when I made a comment to a doctor that I snored. To "fix that" he cut out a portion of my inferior turbinates, mucosa and all. I had no idea what turbinates were at the time. I could have just used Breath Right strips for God sake as I had a perfectly healthy nose with no breathing problems whatsoever! It took a while after the surgery for my Turbs to atrophy into Empty Nose Syndrome which I think is why they think this condition is "rare". I know some people who didn't get the severe ENS symptoms til 8 years after their surgery. I think it depends of how fast your remaining healthy tissue deteriorates and atrophy's. The hardest part of this for me and many others is not being able to get proper or any sleep. Because of the nerve damage we don't feel the air so our brains wake us up all night thinking we need air. Like this article says, Its not that we don't think we are breathing, we have just lost the facial sensation of breathing. So when we are awake, we intellectually and consciously know we are breathing but when we doze off our brain is not feeling the sensation and signals us to wake up. The sleep deprivation is acute and fatiguing. Then there is the suffocation feeling (thank God this only comes and goes for me for now) It feels like you cant ever get a deep satisfying breath. I've heard it described that it's like when you put your thumb on a water hose the water sprays much further. Take your thumb off, and the water drops to the ground. We've lost that "thumb", and without that pressure, the air looses its momentum pushing it into our lungs. That made a lot of sense to the way it feels. ( I swear a car mechanic could understand this better than these ENTs!) Then there is Gerd because you are swallowing air wrong (I believe) and constant maintenance of dry eyes, dry mouth, dry nose, sore throat and just having to be conscious of breathing instead of it being a natural thing you don't notice. All smells and tastes have been diminished or altered which takes away a lot of quality of life. I have zaps of nerve pain because the Trigeminal nerve was affected which I've heard of others having as well. I could go on, but you get the idea. People need to know the risks and doctors need to stop selling this surgery!!!— July 18, 2016 12:11 p.m.