Runny Nose

[Susan in Tennessee]

I know I have been told that runny nose and hiccups, etc. can be tells that one has eaten all they should and to stop. Hiccups are mine.

My question is: I have a runny nose all the time, I mean ALL the time, since surgery. It's not just after eating, (any amount of eating, small or a bit too much). Sometimes I'll lean over to do something and it will just flow out my nostrils like water! I don't have allergies and I don't have a cold, in fact I haven't had a cold since surgery. Last winter I had one after the other, but so far (knock on wood) I've had nothing this year so far.

Anyone else have "chronic drips"? I'm not stuffed up or congested at all, things are wide open and flowing freely. The inside of my nostrils get irritated from it though and burn and also, it gets rather annoying at times. Would this have anything to do with the vagus nerve?

 

[southernlady]

I know I have been told that runny nose and hiccups, etc. can be tells that one has eaten all they should and to stop. Hiccups are mine.

My question is: I have a runny nose all the time, I mean ALL the time, since surgery. It's not just after eating, (any amount of eating, small or a bit too much). Sometimes I'll lean over to do something and it will just flow out my nostrils like water! I don't have allergies and I don't have a cold, in fact I haven't had a cold since surgery. Last winter I had one after the other, but so far (knock on wood) I've had nothing this year so far.

Anyone else have "chronic drips"? I'm not stuffed up or congested at all, things are wide open and flowing freely. The inside of my nostrils get irritated from it though and burn and also, it gets rather annoying at times. Would this have anything to do with the vagus nerve?

Sounds like you need to see an ENT (Ear, Nose, Throat) doc. It might be due to anesthesia from surgery or the vagus nerve but start with an ENT.

 

[CaraOC]

Oh girl. I could talk for years on this subject. I too had a drip drip snout but years back, long before surgery. It bothered me so much I went off to see first an ENT and then a neurosurgeon and about twenty others.

So. After many many tests and diagnostics I was told I had a CSF leak due to a tear in the dura as a result of a cribaform plate malformation. Say what now ???? Holy crap I thought I had a drippy friggan nose!!

First surgery by ENT. They took cartilage from behind my ear and transplanted it up my nose to reline the sinus cavities. Re thatching the roof from below. That worked like a charm. NOT!!

2nd and 3rd treatments was an inswelling lumbar spinal drain and weeks in the hospital. Theory was relieving intracranial pressure would seal said whole in dura. Also worked a charm. NOT!!!

Next surgery was with neurosurgeon. I had a VP shunt placed. Then revised, then replaced, then revised again.

Probably I missed a few more interventions so I'll jump forward to present day. I still drip. Sometimes more than others. I found a specialist at Columbia Presbyterian hospital in NY and he told me people just learn to live with it. I sure wish I'd seen him first!!! Anyway. I just now need to be vigilant for signs of infection because of the opening between my brain and the rest of the world. Signs of infection are to be avoided or checked.

The moral of this rambling story is don't listen to the first doc you see!! You could end up with twenty scars and still have a drippy snout

 

[southernlady]

I had a VP shunt placed. Then revised, then replaced, then revised again.

Hubby has a VP shunt for Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus. Found totally by accident when a radiologist who had not SEEN him or his birthday looked at his brain MRI after his stroke (and even that fact depends on which neuro you ask, one said yes, two others said no but I saw ALL the classic signs of one). NPH is supposedly something that can happen AFTER age 60. In fact I fired a neuro in Wilmington NC in 2007 for stupid..insisting that he didn't have NPH cause he wasn't old enough. He had it placed in Feb 2006 in Ohio.

When hubby had his DS in New York with Dr. Pomp, Dr. Pomp had a neuro scrub in in case he was needed at the abdominal end of the shunt. But before that he had it replaced while out in San Francisco for almost 6 months and surgically checked/revised in 2009 at MUSC in Charleston.

 

[Susan in Tennessee]

Oh girl. I could talk for years on this subject. I too had a drip drip snout but years back, long before surgery. It bothered me so much I went off to see first an ENT and then a neurosurgeon and about twenty others.

So. After many many tests and diagnostics I was told I had a CSF leak due to a tear in the dura as a result of a cribaform plate malformation. Say what now ???? Holy crap I thought I had a drippy friggan nose!!

First surgery by ENT. They took cartilage from behind my ear and transplanted it up my nose to reline the sinus cavities. Re thatching the roof from below. That worked like a charm. NOT!!

2nd and 3rd treatments was an inswelling lumbar spinal drain and weeks in the hospital. Theory was relieving intracranial pressure would seal said whole in dura. Also worked a charm. NOT!!!

Next surgery was with neurosurgeon. I had a VP shunt placed. Then revised, then replaced, then revised again.

Probably I missed a few more interventions so I'll jump forward to present day. I still drip. Sometimes more than others. I found a specialist at Columbia Presbyterian hospital in NY and he told me people just learn to live with it. I sure wish I'd seen him first!!! Anyway. I just now need to be vigilant for signs of infection because of the opening between my brain and the rest of the world. Signs of infection are to be avoided or checked.

The moral of this rambling story is don't listen to the first doc you see!! You could end up with twenty scars and still have a drippy snout

Thanks for the comforting details! What an ordeal, Cara, that all sounds very harrowing! I did not have this at all before surgery so my instincts say it's somehow related.

One of these days...hope to hang out and drip with you!

 

[Svetlana Leigh]

I know I have been told that runny nose and hiccups, etc. can be tells that one has eaten all they should and to stop. Hiccups are mine.

My question is: I have a runny nose all the time, I mean ALL the time, since surgery. It's not just after eating, (any amount of eating, small or a bit too much). Sometimes I'll lean over to do something and it will just flow out my nostrils like water! I don't have allergies and I don't have a cold, in fact I haven't had a cold since surgery. Last winter I had one after the other, but so far (knock on wood) I've had nothing this year so far.

Anyone else have "chronic drips"? I'm not stuffed up or congested at all, things are wide open and flowing freely. The inside of my nostrils get irritated from it though and burn and also, it gets rather annoying at times. Would this have anything to do with the vagus nerve?

I have the same issue. It doesn't matter if I'm eating or not my nose will randomly start running. Eating will then make it worse. I was diagnosed with allergies about 10 years ago but the weird thing is that my nose didn't start running like a water faucet until I got the DS. I take two Zyrtecs daily but my nose still runs at random times.

 

[DianaCox]

Gustatory rhinitis. I haz it. If I eat to the point of slightly past satiety, my nose starts to run (which kind of spoils the ability to taste all the lovely yummy desserts ...).

 

[Clematis]

In March I told @Susan in Tennessee in PM that I have (had) this too and wondered if it was allergy related. Then life went on and I forgot about it.

I thought I was getting gas from milk and stopped that in April, and sure enough, gas went away when I stopped milk. (Yogurt, cottage cheese don't bother me.) It's just now occurred to me that my runny nose is gone too!

 

[k9ophile]

The other night at dinner:

DH: You're done? I didn't hear you sneeze.

Me: My nose is running.

I foolishly take just one more little bite, then "Snork", which is a sneeze I never experienced until after surgery.

What an exciting life we have! LOL