John's Story: Balloon Sinuplasty

I’m John Todd. I retired a few years ago from IBM. And we have two daughters and four grandchildren here in Birmingham, and my wife and I enjoy taking care of the grandkids. I had not had sinus problems all my life, but the last few years, I had started having pretty serious infections.

Well it generally would come on with severe pressure around my left eye, and it was excruciating pain. All I could do was put ice packs on it until I could get to Dr. Robertson. Well my sister-in-law had come to Dr. Robertson for an ear infection and she just really loved him and recommended that I try him for treating my sinus infections. I had heard about Balloon Sinuplasty. I knew I really didn’t want to have serious surgery if I could avoid it, and this sounded like a procedure that would be good for me.

I came in and he gave me a pill to kind of reduce the anxiety and tension and numbed me up a little bit, and after about 30 minutes we went into a different room, and had the procedure. And, quite frankly, I don’t remember much about it. It was over in 20 or 30 minutes. I felt no pain; I was not under any kind of general anesthesia or sedation, which was a good thing.

After the procedure, my wife took me home. I just kept it easy for two or three days, and then I was pretty much back to normal. Since then, I’ve had no sinus infections, no headaches. I would have that procedure and I would recommend it to anyone else who’s dealing with sinus issues.