I am considering having surgery to fix my deviated septum. The doctor said if i get it fixed it could help with my CH. I don't think it will but I want to get it fixed so I can breath better through my nose. I was wondering if there was any one who had heard of this surgery making Ch worse?

All I can do is scream!! that such a doc could get out of medical school.

That's not much to offer, since you are asking for medical advice.

Therefore, spend a few dollars and consult with a real headache specialist. You need solid medical information and not our collective rants.

He is a ear nose and throat specialist I went to see him for my nose and was surprised he had even heard of cluster headaches. I got a good headache specialist I wll call and talk to befor the surgey. I just wanted to ask every one here what they thought.

Yikes.

Cluster headaches aside......there are way way too many of these operations done in this country. Even I was told that I should have one because I have 25% less capacity in my snoot. Really? in my 62 years, I've never known about it! No way. Ridiculous and I know that the sawbones that recommended it is one of those that makes a ton of money doing unnecessary procedures.

Let me guess.......they told you that it's not a big operation and easy to deal with.... It is a bloody mess from everyone I talk to.

If you really need this by all means have it done but never for CH. It never works for that and the same for dental approaches. It just doesn't work.

Please get several opinions about this kind of surgery. I'm sorry if I sound nuts but recently, I've done a lot of reading about how we are overtreated, overtested and over-prescribed. Please take your time.

Good luck in any case.

Charlie

The reason I am considering the surgery is because the right side of my nose is almost completly blocked and my nose is mostly on the left side of my face. I am hoping it will help with sinus infections and constant nose blowing.

Remember, no matter what anybody tells you, this is MAJOR surgery and quite painful.  I doubt that it will affect your clusters (my husband had this surgery done many years ago and it had absolutely no afffect in his headaches).  You're also looking at a recovery time of 4-6 weeks.

research before you make any decisions.

Carolyn

Thanks every one, 4-6 weeks is a lot longer than the 2 weeks the Dr. told me I dont know if I want to be laid up that long.

I had sinus surgery in January to try to "fix" my headaches. At this point I don't know if I have clusters or migraines or TN. I do know that I have pain that knocks my left eye out. I had a huge series of these headaches last fall. So I opted for Surgery in January. My left ethmoid sinuses were completely blocked by my middle turbinate, so my ENT went in and cleared everything out. Since then, I have been able to breathe much better and my nasal drainage is much better. However, in March I was knocked out my the headaches again. So I can tell you that in my case the surgery did absolutely nothing for the headaches. I would tell you to get the opinion of your headache doc. I would honestly do the surgery again. Because it feels wonderful to breathe and I my sinuses have cleared up.

If you need this for breathing, fine but do yourself a favor and don't do it so you can breathe perfectly through both nostrils at the same time. Nobody does. They take turns being clear. My specialist lied about it and did it unnecessarily on my cousin. It hurt and took a long time to heal. My retired RN aunt said that years ago, this was an uncommon operation. She saw several of them and told me how invasive it is.  You have to wonder just why it's so "popular" today........I have my suspicions.

I'm old enough to have experienced a few pretty nasty doctors that recommended me for stuff like exploratory brain surgery for CH....Yikes! No one should suggest such "exploring" in relation to this horror. You don't go digging around in the brain unless you have something specific to deal with.

Sad to say, but there are too many doctors out there that do lots of unnecessary procedures because they treat us as consumers rather than patients.  We are taught to think that everything said by them is gold. It isn't.

I'm not trying to give you a hard time but letting you know that it's good to go slowly with this kind of thing when you can.

Good luck though and let us know how you're doing

Charlie

Ok, here's the deal.... I'm going to have to have this surgery also.. BUT it's to help me breathe ONLY. My left side is blocked by a broken bone that splintered (a little fall a few years ago - been putting it off because of no insurance - am now on medicare and can AFFORD to have it done).

My doc said it will help me breath better (left side is totally blocked) BUT it PROBABLY won't help the CH (and yes, he's heard of CH). He said it's painful and I'll get to be a wimp for a couple of weeks, but I'll be able to breath again.

So have it done if you need to breathe, but don't expect it to stop your headaches. Keep your O2 handy to ABORT them... maybe someday we'll find something to STOP them, but right now we can only ABORT them...

Hugs BD :-*