My ENS Story


My name is James R. Skinner and I have had Empty Nose Syndrome (ENS) since 2011. This is my story.

I first started developing allergies around 2000. This was the first time I had any problems with my nose. In early 2007 something changed. Over the course of a day or two developed terrable nasal inflammation. This was a real problem as I was already having trouble breathing due to a constricted hypopharyngeal airway.

In 2009 a local ENT suggested I have turbinate sugery to reduce the inflammation. Due to long wait times in my home province of Nova Scotia I went to a famous nasal surgon in Cleveland, Ohio. He operated twice on my nose, first removing a stepal spur and reducing my inferier turbiantes using radio frequency (RF). The second time he did a submucosal resection due to the risk of damaging the turbiantes too much with RF. After the second surgery he said he had reduced my turbinate as much as was safely possible and warned any more surgery could cause permmanent damage

I continued to have trouble with inflammation in other parts of my nose and my constricted hypopharyngeal airway continued to cause breathig problems. In 2011 I visited a local ENT, he suggested a third turbinate reduction. I questioned weither this would be safe given my past surgies (and what I had been told) but he assured me it would be fine. He proceeded with an another RF turbinate reduction which resulted in empty nose syndrome as warned.

You can find a longer version of my story here. This website is my contribution to the ENS community.

James R. Skinner
james@nasalcripple.com

Related:
Help: What to do if you think you may have ENS