Two Week Follow up Surprise

I forgot to post about my two week follow-up appointment, so I'm tackling it over lunch today!

Tuesday was a surprise. I thought that since I had gotten my splints taken out the week prior, that it was just going to be the doctor looking up my nose, saying ok you're good, and I'd be on my way. Not the case.

I arrived and followed the friendly nurse back. She sat me down and says "I am going to spray some of this numbing agent into your nostrils." Shit. She sprayed, and it didn't feel like anything was coming out at first, just air. I should have gotten a bitter taste in the back of my mouth, and didn't. So I had her spray some more. This time I felt liquid in my right nostril, but not my left. So I was a little nervous that it wasn't going to get numb.

The nurse then explained that the doctor was going to come in and remove some crusting. She asked me if I had taken a pain pill that day. Well, no. I wasn't expecting to get more nose-raping.

Anyway, the doctor came in and let me know what he would be doing, and my nose still didn't feel numb. The nurse started bringing in his tools, which were similar to the tools used to remove the splints, except there was one that was long and skinny, it had to be about twelve inches long. What the hell is that going to be used for?!?

When I told the Doc that my nose still didn't feel numb, he sprayed me some more and then left the room for a few minutes for it to set in. When he came back, the fun began. He took the super long thin tool, which was actually a scope with a little light on it, and began to peer into my nose with it. Very strange feeling. I imagined it going right through to my brain when he had it into my nose, it seemed to go in pretty far.

Luckily, he informed me that my nose was looking great and there was minimal crusting! Oh cool, I though, maybe I won't need to have anything removed! He grabbed his tweezers and said he was going to remove a chunk from the left nostril. Dammit. With my fear of not being numb enough, and him sticking more metal up my nose, I was frozen stiff as he began. He got up in there and grabbed the crust. I felt a good amount of pressure but no pain. Yay, it actually was numb! The only way I can describe what it felt like when he pulled the crust off is like having an embedded pea removed from inside my face. It was like a hole opened up in my nasal passages.

As he pulled it all the way out, I felt sick. It was the most disgusting thing ever. I was of course staring straight down at my nose, and saw it as it came out. It was black, covered in snot, and waaay bigger then I thought it would be. Realistically it was probably the size of a smushed pea, but staring at it from two inches away it looked like a grape!

Ok, so thankfully that was over. He inspected the other nostril once more and says "Well now that I look again, there is a small crust here." So he had to go back in. I felt prepared. He went in with the tweezers, and wasn't able to grab it because it was around a corner a bit. He swapped the tweezers out for a curved suction device, and sucked it out quickly. Not as bad as the removal of the other crust.

I tipped my head forward, glad that it was over. The doctor started talking, and I felt light-headed immediately. As he spoke, my field of vision started going to black. I announced that I felt like I was going to pass out, and he jumped to action laying the chair back, raising my legs up, and getting me a cold compress. Response speed was great! I also started really feeling like I was going to throw up. I had never come that close to passing out before, so I didn't know what to expect.

I lied there for a few minutes, and they took care of me until I felt better. That meant laying down for a bit, giving me animal crackers, and an apple juice. After a while, I was so glad my stomach calmed down. Vomiting is my LEAST favorite thing.

The Doctor was great, checked on me a few times to make sure I was feeling better, and the nurse was sweet enough to walk me out of the back of the office. I had to sit down half way to my car, but I made it there and was glad. Success! My plan was to get food immediately, as I had a very small breakfast, and go back to work. And sit.

By the time I got home, I could breathe even more easily then I had been before the appointment. My nose has been very clear and comfortably dry since Monday, only drippy and snotty when I use the sinus rinse.

I have gone back to doing my regular routine, not being as careful when washing my face, and allowing tap water to get on and around it. Before I was washing it very gently with a tissue or a hand towel.

So two weeks and three days later, my breathing has improved by at least 25%, which is major if you have had breathing problems for basically your whole life. My nose still has some tenderness, so I am still being very careful. Things like wearing sunglasses make it ache. The stiffness is going away, probably since I have been doing more things like wiggling it a bit and touching it more. I also was having some very slight front teeth pain, and that seems to be fading away. My sense of smell is a lot more powerful every now and then, which is a good and bad thing lol. It seems like my sense of taste gets heightened every now and then as well. Not consistently.

It keeps getting better and better! My next update will probably be in two weeks. We are going on a four day trip to Jamaica, so it will be interesting to see how my nose does when in a really humid environment, on a plane, and swimming!

Stay tuned....

Day 10: First Day Back at Work

Since I have been feeling so much better, I decided to just go for it and went in to work today. The morning went well, just dealing with the typical congestion I've been having, and I was a little tired because I've been sleeping in until noon for the past week and got up at eight today. The first couple hours of my day were good, mostly spent going through email, sitting at my desk, updating docs.

At lunch is when it started going downhill. I had to run to the vet to pick up our high-maintenance dog's food. I drove over, grabbed a 15lb bag of food, took it out to my car, and put it in the trunk. I was immediately 10X more tired. I'm not sure if it was because I hadn't eaten for a while or what, but I was really tired!

I went and got lunch and returned to the office. I was ready to go home at that point. I didn't, and made it until 4:30, slowly loosing juice every minute that passed. I didn't have much pain, but I was tired and felt weak.

I left a couple hours early, and when I finally got home I went straight to the bathroom and rinsed my nose out. TodaI am so sick of boogers. I took a bath and relaxed the rest of the night, and now feel a million times better. It's strange to be so...inactive. I am hoping that on Tuesday my doctor gives me the go ahead to resume all regular activities.

I did have a baby scare today - Chris bumped my nose when he gave me a kiss...I panicked for a split second...but then figured that couldn't have done any damage. If it did I am going to be pissed. Pissed at how weak the human body can be, not at Chris.

Tomorrow is game day at work, so I expect it to go a little better since I'll just be sitting at my desk playing a game all day.

I think it's about that time when all the days are going to be the same for a while, so I am going to wait to post again until Tuesday, when I go see the doctor. After that, I'll probably do weekly, then monthly updates. Unless of course, something exciting happens.......:).

Have a great weekend!

Day 9: Recovery

I can't believe it's only been nine days. It feels like a lot longer then that! I have to keep reminding myself to be careful with my face.

So yesterday I was having a little difficulty lowering my dose of pain meds. Well, I took the last pill of the day around 9pm. I realized that I usually go about ten hours without taking one, as I didn't wake up to take them overnight, so I decided to see what would happen if I just didn't take anything after I woke up. Noon rolled around, felt fine. The day went on and it seemed my plan had worked, no anxiety, no issues. I did have some anxiety that kept waking me up last night, about three hours after my last dose. That was pretty consistent with the problem I was having earlier in the day, so I just pushed through it. That makes today my first official day with no pain meds! I finished the antibiotics I was on yesterday as well, so I don't have to take eight pills a day anymore. That's nice!

The thing that is starting to get slightly irritating is the persistent congestion. It seems like when on the pain meds, or maybe even the antibiotics, they dry you out. I didn't have nearly as much congestion when I was taking them. Now, I have boogers. All the time. The saline rinsing helps, washing out any clots and getting a lot of the ick out of there, but then it just comes back. I'm curious how long that will last. I have resorted to using Q-Tips to gently nab the gooey strands that I can see just inside my nostrils, careful to not go any deeper. That seems to work well, although I'm not sure if my Doctor would approve.

I took the dogs out for a very very short walk today, and once again I was amazed at how the lowest level of activity can be somewhat exhausting when you haven't moved a lot for over a week. It was easier then when I tried a couple days ago though, so there is progress.

Tomorrow I am going to try going back to work. I figure if I start feeling bad I'll just go home early. I sit at a desk most of the day, and the most movement I HAVE to do is getting up and going to conference rooms for meetings. If I keep it that simple, I don't think there will be a problem. There are two things I am not looking forward to: Not having my ice pack (Although, now that I think about it I could just take one to work), and not being able to do a sinus rinse mid-day. I suppose I could, but there is almost always that little well that captures some amount of the rinse, inevitably spilling out later at the worst moment. I'd hate for that to happen at work, the risk outweighs the benefit this time. I will be so glad to get out of the house!

My next follow up appointment is on Tuesday, I am looking forward to hearing what the doctor has to say. He was on vacation when I got my splints removed, so this will be the first time I see him post-op.

Well off to bed, here's hoping tomorrow goes well!

Day 8: Recovery

Nothing particularly exciting has happened today, except that I feel significantly better! I am starting to think it is in comparison to yesterday, because as the day has gone on and I have been a bit more active, my nose has started to get sore.

I slept in today, which resulted in me taking my first pain pill at a later time then usual. I decided since I feel so great, to start weaning off and take half my dose. I was taking 5mg of oxycodone with 325mg of acetaminophen every four hours, so I lowered it to 2.5 and 162.5. Seemed to go well up until a couple hours after my second dose. I have become very anxious and extremely jumpy, which I am assuming is due to the reduction. I took another quarter of a tablet to see if that would help. I am usually very sensitive to medications, so it doesn't surprise me. The downside is that means I will have to wean off a little more slowly then I had originally planned. Not the worst thing that could have happened.

Since I was feeling better today I thought I'd do a few things I have been neglecting. I started laundry, and made dinner. I know, not a lot, but it was more than I've done in a week! It actually made me pretty tired by the late afternoon. It's a strange limbo: I feel good, which makes me want to do things - I do things, then realize I don't feel very good anymore. I guess that's the indication not to push too much.

Today I made a point to pay attention to how I breathe more. I can feel much more air going in through my right nostril, which is where the septum was deviated. Also in general, I can feel an amazing amount of air going through my nose. That is of course when it's clear, there is still a good amount of congestion that comes and goes. Most of the pain that I still have is due to this, and just a general sense of pressure right between my eyes.

I discovered it's very strange to wiggle my nose in the slightest, since I haven't done it for a week. All those bits are tough to move. I have been so careful not to touch or move my nose at all, I am just starting to see what my limits are. I was avoiding washing my nose, as I am not supposed to get tap water in it, and have just been washing all of my face around it....up until yesterday. I started gently putting my facial cleanser on it, then ever so gently wiping it off with a hand towel.

I just realized that any other time, if I were to focus my writing on things like this, people would probably look at me funny. With that, I'll be heading off to bed.

Night all!

Day 7: Splints Out!

I think I might be getting cabin fever. Today was particularly annoying for some reason.

The biggest thing today was going to get the two splints out that were holding my newly constructed septum in the correct position. I had read in other people's experiences that the splint removal wasn't too bad, nothing compared to the packing removal (which luckily I didn't have). I think a lot of times they will numb you a little bit when they take the splints out...that was not the case for me.

We got up early to drive to Bellevue for my appointment. I checked in and we both went back when I was called. A Nurse's assistant came in to do a blood pressure check, and to set up the tools the regular Nurse would be using. This is what she prepared:



At this point, I wasn't horrified, I didn't expect it to be very comfortable. What I wasn't prepared for is how foreign it felt, and how painful it was!

The Nurse came in and let me know that she was going to cut the stitch that was holding the two splints together. I don't even know how to explain how strange the feeling was, it didn't hurt but it just felt so...wrong.

Next, she went in and loosened up the splints. This is when I started to understand that this would be worse then I thought it would be. The initial loosening was a little painful, and not being able to see what was happening was very unnerving. After the splints were prepped for removal, she let me know that she was going to finish taking them out. She gripped them steadily with one of her tools, and pulled them out in about three seconds. Ow. If you've ever pondered childbirth, specifically how something so big comes out of something so small, you can easily imagine what this was like.

Chris was sitting watching the removal, and all I heard him say was "Woah....," in awe and disbelief of what had just come out of my little nostrils. Below is a picture of them, just after they came out so they are a bit icky. I'm guessing the size of them was about two inches wide and 3.5 inches long. I tried to take a picture with my finger in it for scale, but it didn't help much:





Without any numbing agent...the aftermath was very painful. It felt like someone had drug a rusty nail down the top of the inside of my nose. It burned. I felt lightheaded, which the nurse said almost everyone does, so she promptly reclined me and gave me a little bit of water. People will just straight pass out apparently, something to do with the shock to your system and being on meds and what not.

After the work was done, they wheeled me out of the building in a wheelchair to where Chris was parked. I knew I needed some additional meds when I got home, and couldn't wait to get there.

When we got back to the house, I immediately took another half of a pain pill. From this point on, I felt like I was going to throw up. No matter what I did, nothing seemed to make me feel better. I took one of the uber-anti-nausea pills, and it didn't seem to work as well as it did a few days ago. I was miserable. Too hot then too cold, nothing that I put in my mouth helped my stomach, and I had to take more pills four hours later. Finally I tried slowly sipping peppermint tea, and that worked wonders. By the time Chris got home I was up and around a little bit.

I have to say I immediately noticed a huge difference in my breathing. When my nose is clear, it's REALLY clear and I can really get air in through my nostrils! Rinsing now is a little easier, and more productive. Still not a ton of stuff coming out, but a little more than before. I also forgot to mention a couple things yesterday - I noticed that when it's about time for a new pain pill, my front teeth and gums hurt a little bit. Also, my sense of smell and taste seem to be muddled, they go in and out. I hope that goes away when I am finally done healing.

So it was a pretty eventful day! Here is a before (left) and after (right) picture from this morning. I'm not sure if anything looks different, I am still a bit swollen.



And now that I finally feel well enough to go to sleep, I am going to take full advantage of that.

More to come tomorrow, thanks for visiting!

Day 6: Recovery

Mornings are always the worst. I think it's because I don't wake up every four hours to take pain pills. I wake up with a stuffy head, headache, and upset stomach. After taking the pain meds, and using the saline rinse, I feel generally good. It seems that at this point most of it is painful congestion and headache, and that only happens when the pain meds are wearing off. I am curious how it is going to be when I run out, which will probably be mid-week.

Not a very eventful day today. I slept a lot for some reason. I did have a little luck in the bathroom today; I have been taking something to give me a little extra help and it is still.....a struggle. But I guess you take what you can get when you can get it ;).

When rinsing my nose, not very much is coming out. This surprises me, because when I read other people's experiences they talk about big chunks of yuck coming out for weeks after. I had maybe a couple blood clots come out, and that was it. I think it might be because I have been drinking like two gallons of water per day pretty consistently. This is partly because I have had really bad dry mouth off and on. So we'll see if my nose stays clear for the next couple weeks.

Something I am curious about is coming off the pain pills. I have heard that I need to wean off of them, which I plan to do, but I am not quite sure what to expect. When I switched over to Tylenol the other day, I noticed some anxiety for a while. I suspect it was from not weaning off appropriately. This time around, I will do whatever the doctor says and we'll see how it goes.

The exciting news for today is that I left the house...to walk down to the mail box. All I did was go out my door, down the steps, and walked the 1/20th of a mile or less down to my mailbox, then back up to the house. Chris came with me and we took our dogs. I felt pretty woozy before we had left, but I thought 'whatever.' It was sort of like walking in an invisible layer of Jello. If I looked around I got dizzy, and borderline motion sick. Half way down the hill, my mouth went completely dry. I couldn't breathe out of my nose. And we still had to get the mail and go back up the hill. When we got back up, my legs felt weak, and I B-lined it to the couch to chug water and sit down. Hopefully my next excursion won't be as unsteady!

Tomorrow is the big day when I go get the nasal splints out (Yay, first actual outing since last Tuesday!). Chris has to drive me since I am still on the pain meds. Apparently they are quite large, so I am interested to see them. I am a little nervous about how they get them out, I believe they just pull them with a tool similar to pliers. I'll try to keep them and post a picture tomorrow.

I am scheduled to go back to work this Thursday, so here's hoping I won't be so whacked out by then!

Stay tuned!

Day 5: Recovery

Today was not the best day...comparable to yesterday. Today's problem was the issue of nausea due to the Percocet (I thought it was Vicodin that I was taking, but it's actually Percocet) and my antibiotics. The first dose this morning wasn't too bad. When I did my second dose, the Nausea set in pretty bad. Now, my doctor prescribed anti-nausea medication that I have been taking, called Hydroxyzine. That seemed to work when I was taking the prescription meds immediately after the surgery, but it didn't seem to work to well today. In the case of still feeling nauseous, he also prescribed a dissolving tablet called Ondansetron, which sounds like the name of a transformer. When I took that, I guess due to the fast absorption, it hit me like a ton of bricks with dizziness. I couldn't tell if it was helping at all, so I went upstairs and lay down per my Husband's recommendation. I went in and out of sleeping, and a few hours later I felt great. Then I had to take my next dose of Percoset and antibiotic :/. I am an hour into that dose and feel slightly nauseous, so hopefully the dissolving tab will keep it at bay - it's supposed to last eight hours.

Eating has been relatively easy, however I get sick of the soft cold foods that I have pretty easily. Jello cups, Pudding, yogurt, rice, potatoes, Saltines, and fruit Popsicles. One of the problems with these foods is that they aren't very filling, so I end up eating a steady stream of stuff all day. I have to eat something with each of my four doses of medicine per day as well, so I can't imagine how many calories I am actually eating. I'm also getting tired of drinking Ginger-Ale, but I am convinced it is helping my nausea.

So below is a picture of what I look like at this point, sans gauze-stache:




Pretty normal looking, right? Well here is what I actually feel like (before the meds, which reduce it about 80%):



The worst parts are the headaches, pressure in my forehead, and some ear/throat pain I have been having. Speaking of pain, my meds are wearing off right now. Off to take some pills and go to sleep!

New post coming tomorrow.