SHARE Having Nasal Surgery? with....

1) ENT Doctors and Plastic Surgeons.
2) Libriarians.
3) Family and friends.

Now before reading further (or after reading further if you wish), please take a moment to visit my professional website, which complements this blog, at http://www.emptynosesyndrome.net. That site was significantly updated on November 25th. Thanks!.....OK, now read on....:)

ENT Doctors and Plastic Surgeons

As I began marketing Having Nasal Surgery?, my early concern was that some people might approach the doctor who caused them harm and angrily present my book to that doctor. I was concerned that instead of garnering doctor interest and sympathy, this might cause backlash. However, now I am convinced more than ever that these doctors are in fact the ones who need to hear the message of empty nose syndrome (ENS). It is these doctors who might be unknowingly causing ENS.

Here's how I recommend to approach the doctor: Approach the doctor in a graceful manner, and remark how you found Having Nasal Surgery? useful for your situation, as it help you put the issue of ENS in perspective, from a political, scientific and personal perspective. You then proceed to state what you really appreciated about the book is that you found solace from another ENS sufferer, and now your once-skeptical family and friends can respect and understand your condition. I recommend especially approaching plastic surgeons regarding this book, because there is no literature in the plastic surgery field on ENS. So they very much need to hear the message.

Librarians

Librarians need to hear the message of Having Nasal Surgery? This book has been highly recommended for libraries, through various professional reviews, and it is exactly what I want them to buy. I want people to have free access to information, and a library is where they can get this book free. Although many libraries face budgetary constraints, it shouldn't put librarians in a crunch to buy a single copy of my book! If they are resistant, inform them in depth regarding this book, and then offer to donate a copy to the library (after you have read it). Libraries really should have a copy of Having Nasal Surgery? Don't You Become An Empty Nose Victim! Otherwise, they are missing out.

Family and Friends

Share my book with family and friends. Doing so adds authenticity to the message, and you might feel better understood in the process. Word of mouth is one of the most important vehicles behind increasing awareness of a book.

Bookstores and Health Food Stores (if you have passion to do so...)

Frankly, I encourage you, if you have a heart for promoting word of my book through bookstores and health food stores, to please do so. Unfortunately, while I have had a great experience with one local bookstore (Park Row, who has invited me back for a 2nd book signing), and anticipate future book signings with Borders, I have generally found bookstores and health food stores to be less receptive to buying copies of Having Nasal Surgery? The reason, as I see it, is too many managers are just downright ignorant of ENS and need to be educated; they assume it is a rarity, even though I know it is not. And bookstores will not buy a copy of a book unless they believe it will sell in good enough quantity. So I promote my book on the Internet and people can order through any bookstore they want, but it won't be on the shelf of that bookstore. Health food stores generally don't sell many books and are reluctant to do so. My local health food store indicated it would buy a copy of my book, but by and large, most health food stores are not jumping at the opportunity to buy new books, whatever they might be. It's not as good of business for them as selling health food. Again, if you do have a desire to sell through these venues, please go ahead and do it...

Now post your comments by clicking on the time link below...

Foreword Clarion Review

The final of my professional reviews are complete. Granted, some of these reviews were paid becuase I am self-published and it is impossible to get reviews from some sources (such as Publisher's Weekly, Library Journal or Booklist) otherwise, but all 5 professional reviews have been very favorable toward this book. I would rate the Foreword Clarion Review, which is below, as a very accurate review. Befoe showing you the review, though, here are some interesting developments of late:

-The Vice President of the American Rhinologic Society heard from a fellow ear, nose and throat specialist who was pleased with my book.

-A fellow sufferer from California went to his doctor who remarked how Having Nasal Surgery? is having a "real impact in the ENT community." This comment was very encouraging to me and leads me to believe this book is accomplishing its objectives. And that is a wonderful thing.

Here is the Foreword Clarion Review by Joe Taylor:

HEALTH

Having Nasal Surgery?
Don’t You Become an Empty Nose Victim
Christopher Martin
Cold Tree Press
209 pages
Softcover $12.95
978-1-58385-197-5
Four stars (out of Five)

In July 1997, shortly before going away to college, Chris Martin underwent surgery to remove turbinate tissue from both sides of his nose. An ENT doctor had recommended the procedure, called a bilateral turbinectomy, to relieve the chronic stuffiness the young man had been experiencing as a result of allergies and sinus infections. In the weeks and months that followed, Martin realized that the surgery had not helped him. The cycle of sinus infections had not only continued, but had intensified. His nose was perpetually dry, his throat sore, his mucous membranes inflamed. Before long, he was also experiencing panic-inducing shortness of breath, disturbed sleep, and intolerance to cold air. He became anxious and concerned. His discomfort led him back to ENT specialists and almost into another surgery, until, by accident in 2003, he discovered a Web site that defined “empty nose syndrome.” He now knew that his problem has a name: ENS. Its cause is summed up by Dr. W.S. Tichenor, a New York City sinusitis specialist: “Too many surgeons today believe they can indiscriminately remove large amounts of turbinate tissue.” Martin and his fellow ENS sufferers are the unhappy victims of these surgeries.

For the past four years, Chris Martin has been learning how to live with ENS. With this book he has fulfilled a major step in his mission to help educate sinus, allergy, and post-nasal drip victims who are considering surgery, as well as ENS sufferers and ENT professionals and plastic surgeons, many of whom have not been exposed to the scant literature about the syndrome. In August 2006, Martin met Dr. Steven Houser, an ENT specialist in Cleveland, Ohio who has been treating ENS sufferers—at times by rebuilding the remains of their turbinate tissue. Dr. Houser has performed two implant surgeries on Martin in order to decrease the nasal airway volume. The lesser amount of air entering the nose results in more resistance to airflow, thus less dryness. A second important effect of Dr. Houser’s implants has been to partially restore the pulmonary functioning that was impaired by the “empty” or too-open nasal passages.

Martin, now a family man and school psychologist in his late twenties in upstate New York, writes not as a doctor but as a survivor. He presents here a working definition of ENS and a primer on surgical as well as other medical, dietary, and environmental ways to treat its symptoms. He includes a layman’s guide to turbinate functioning and to the science and politics of turbinate surgery. Having learned to manage his condition, he tells a compelling personal story that adds passion and authority to his presentation.

Martin grants, as his research shows, that “conservative” turbinate surgery can often alleviate chronic stuffiness, but his presentation implicates the many doctors and plastic surgeons who continue to remove excessive amounts of turbinate.

Joe Taylor

Read the Kirkus Discoveries Review

I had the following review of my book, which is posted at the Kirkus Discoveries website (http://www.kirkusdiscoveries.com). Kirkus Discoveries has a reputation for offering "tart" or "critical" reviews, so I was pleased to see that not only did my book go unscathed, it was praised. The Discoveries service allows authors who are not traditionally published to pay for a review and have it done by a professional Kirkus Reviewer. Below is the review (I put in bold the statements I thought were important):

HAVING NASAL SURGERY?
Don't You Become an Empty Nose Victim!

Author: Martin, Christopher

Review Date: NOVEMBER 12, 2007
Publisher:Cold Tree Press
Pages: 236
Price (paperback): $12.95
Publication Date: August 30, 2007
ISBN (paperback): 978-1-58385-197-5
Category: AUTHORS
Classification: NONFICTION

School psychologist Martin explores a little-known condition that has lifelong detrimental effects.

In direct, instructive language, Martin examines the devastation of Empty Nose Syndrome (ENS), a term coined by a Mayo Clinic physician in 1994. ENS is characterized by a “cluster of symptoms” that occur after too much of the airflow-regulating bony structures in the nasal cavity called turbinates are surgically removed, usually from efforts to assuage sinus pressure, headaches or nasal stuffiness (“turbinate reduction” surgery). The author believes that post-surgery, people with ENS go on to experience a wide array of harrowing symptoms including nasal dryness, sleep disturbances, excessive mucus, nosebleeds, diminished sense of smell and fatigue. Martin became an ENS sufferer after an overly aggressive partial turbinectomy performed in his late teens to improve a chronic nasal inflammatory condition. But before his ENS diagnosis, Martin endured numerous allergy injections, CAT scans, bacterial infections and the possibility of additional surgery. Determined to find answers, the author channeled his disillusionment, anger and psychological distress into increasing awareness about the condition and by positively dedicating (and educating) himself on the possibly devastating side-effects of nasal surgery. His comprehensive research has produced illustrations, tips, charts, glossaries and case studies about ENS, all presented in a straightforward manner, making the information more accessible to average readers with limited medical knowledge or experience. Martin smartly counterbalances the negative experiences (and clinical politics) of ENS with a host of beneficial natural remedies (chicken soup, humidifier, etc.), non-surgical options, as well as a chapter on the author’s own approach after suffering the debilitating effects of ENS. He had enlisted an ear, nose and throat physician to attach two restorative implants inside his nasal cavities, a procedure he advocates as beneficial in improving his own quality of life.

This slim but potent book is tremendously important and informative not only for those considering nasal surgeries, but for the specialists who perform them.

ENS is Widespread - my book signing

If you are like most ENS sufferers, you are led to believe we are just a rarity. I strived to prove this statement incorrect by showing logic and research, that ENS is a terrible problem with the possibility of low millions suffering from it in the US. But I only had numbers. Yet after my book signing, I am more convinced than ever that my estimate is correct -- too correct. ENS is alive and well in my small city in Upstate New York I don't want others suffering from this terrible problem and it is so hard to know it is still being created right around me. Right under my nose! Yet you would never know it, unless you were an author like me running into a reader/neighbor who has ENS or a doctor treating these patients.

My heart broke today when I ran into another ENS sufferer who lives just down the road from me. (She and other patients were created from a different doctor than I had, as mine has passed away.) The first words out of her mouth were "I have all the same symptoms as you." Hearing her voice that sounded in some ways like my own, I could tell she suffered as I had. I felt so saddened to know that others are suffering like me. Then came the next patient who stated her daughtered suffered from the same problem as me from a surgery just one year ago. Next the confession that empty nose patients who have their inferior turbinates overly reduced is happening all the time locally. It is sort of like when I told a colleague about my book who immediately knew of 2 ENS sufferers who suffered all the same symptoms as I had. This is all upsetting. Then I got some customers with the genuine curiosity as to whether ENS is real, to which I should have replied if you removed your fingers, would you still have them? Just because you can't see my amptutation because it is internal, does it mean it is not there? There is such a strong scientific basis for ENS, it is not funny. Just because ENS is not talked about much and it has not been given much attention anywhere does not mean it does not exist. It exists more than we think.

Obviously, there is a real need for public awareness on ENS and I just hope those reading this blog will take interst in empty nose and please feel free to post a comment by clicking on the time underneath this message. My heart is very heavy right now...

*Listen* to my welcome message

Please consider listening to my newly added audio message at http://www.emptynosesyndrome.net It is a 7 1/2 minute audiotape where I welcome readers of my website and talk a bit about my condition of empty nose syndrome. I am not a great public speaker, as I am often short of breath and sometimes have to think twice as hard before I talk due to difficulties with concentration, but hopefully it will provide a glimpse into my world of empty nose syndrome.