Warning, the following is not for the weak of stomach.



Sinus surgery was in the morning last week, the fifth. I was supposed to be there at 7 AM, but due to delays, I didn't have the operation until about 10. I was put under a 'twilight' anesthetic, but to be honest, it felt like I was completely asleep. The poor nurse who tried to hook up my IV first tried my right hand, but couldn't get any of my blood vessels to cooperate, so she had to settle for my right wrist.

The procedure could not have lasted long - I was awake again about an hour later. Polyps were removed out of my affected sinuses, and my septum was cut and realigned. I woke up with absorbent packing stuffed up both nostrils, and gauze taped under my nose. Not long afterwards, the blood started flowing. They had to change the gauze pad several times. They gave me two baggies of 4" gauze pads and two rolls of 3M medical tape.

My mother got me home again, and I spent the rest of the day in bed. She rigged up my trash can with a large black trash bag so that I could just spit, bleed, and toss gauze pads right into it as needed. I observed later that I had never seen so much blood, nor thought that I could lose that much without serious consequences. The bleeding was pretty serious for the first three hours, then let up a bit. The doctor said it should taper off by that night, but it didn't. Sleeping that night was laborious. I had to breathe entirely out my mouth, and everything simply hurt.

Thursday morning I went back to the surgery center (all of this was outpatient), and the packing material was removed from both nostrils. This relieved a lot of the pressure from having them up there. After that, the bleeding resumed, but I went home and kept gauze on. But I was also on my feet too much that day. The bleeding should have slowed to a stop on Thursday, but didn't. It didn't really slow until Saturday, and I quit wearing gauze over the weekend, except at night.

Monday night I got through the night without any gauze on at all, and no bloodstains on my pillows. This morning (Tuesday) I started finally being able to breathe through my nostrils for the first time in about a week. This morning I went in for the first 'cleaning.' They told me to have some of my prescribed Tylenol+Codeine ahead of time, then numbed both nostrils with lidocaine. The splint that was holding my septum in place was removed, then a vacuum was
placed up either nostril one at a time, and he removed the scabs and gunk that he could. He's also got me using a saline solution poured through both nostrils to loosen up more gunk.

So that's where things stand. I have another cleaning appointment on the 18th, the last will be on Nov. 1st. Going back to work tomorrow morning. I'm told it may be a while before I notice a difference, as the swelling in the sinuses have to go down first.

dadaist - I am glad that you made it through this far! I don't know that I could have handled all of that stuff. I had to have a test done where they had to poke something up my nose and scrape my sinus... I think it was for whooping cough or something like that... that really sucked and I truly wouldn't want to do it again.

Rest up...soon you will notice a difference in your breathing!

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A blessed thing it is for any man or woman to have a friend, one human soul whom we can trust utterly, who knows the best and worst of us, and who loves us in spite of all our faults.

The phrase "stuck pig" comes to mind.

I just hope this is all worth it in the end...

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On the kinkometer, my kink measures as a sine wave.

Actually gekko in one of the first phone calls I made after the operation "bleeding like a stuck pig" is exactly how I described my situation. I was originally only going to take Wed-Fri off (yesterday was a holiday, as far as work was concerned), but I wound up taking Tuesday off too, as I was unsure about the cleaning. I'm glad I did. THAT HURT. I probably won't have that luxury for the next two cleanings, but at least I know what to be prepared for.

you weren't kidding! *gag* *heave*



take care and heal up!

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Trees give peace to the souls of men * Nora Waln

The forest would be very quiet if no other birds sang than those who sing the best * Henry van Dyke

some fairly sordid tales, rambles, and anecdotes
Hypothetically Speaking * Something More * Cammy Interrupted * An Experimental Vacation * Masked * so..damn..hot * Thank You * My toy, his idea * no.19 Maple Lane * I Have A Surprise For You * Yesterday * In a Quiet Kitchen * help me decide * untitled prose * more untitled prose

I thought everything was going well, but at 2:30 in the morning I suddenly started bleeding profusely out of both nostrils. I grabbed a box of tissue as fast as I could, but wound up getting a lot of blood on myself (bare chest actually, managed not to get any on my clothes this time), and tried and tried to get it to stop. After it kept going on for 15 minutes, I went to the ER. BOY ARE THEY SLOW. I wound up staying there until 4 am, at which time the ER doctor said they'd scabbed over enough that he thought he shouldn't mess with the scabs to attempt to reinsert packing, and I should see my Ear-nose-throat doctor later today (whom they called and talked to, he's the one who did the surgery). Not sure what he can tell me, except I guess to make sure that laying in bed I didn't accidentally roll over and mess something up, like my septum. But I'm going in to see him - I skipped out on work again obviously, and I've been wearing gauze on my face all over again....

dadaist,

Sorry to learn of your setback; hope things stabilize soon. Good luck!

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Eudaimonia

Well at this point I survived a full day of work. It seemed a bit strenuous (probably just because after a few days off I wasn't used to doing an eight hour day again, plus my sleep schedule's been quite a bit messed up though this whole process). Though I was able to do quite a bit of the work I needed to from my desk, through remote network connections. Met a friend for Chinese after work, then went to my tap class, and actually participated for the full hour. There've been no further nosebleeds, and hopefully there won't be in the middle of the night tonight either (my ankles are going to hate me tomorrow though).

Glad to hear that part. Seems like you've been going through a bit much of late.

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On the kinkometer, my kink measures as a sine wave.