I'm having Surgery. What will I do during recovery? Blog about it!

When I was first told that I might want to think about having a Septoplasty to improve my breathing, I thought "that sounds awesome." I thought that because the prospect of being rid of the constant congestion, mouth breathing, dull headaches, and postnasal drip would be like the first time you eat ice cream as a child. Pure bliss.

I originally went to my general practitioner because I seemed to have a cold that came and went for months. She gave me antibiotics, which didn't seem to do much. After about the third visit, she recommended I go see an ENT, or Ear Nose and Throat Doctor.

The first step at the Ear Nose and Throat Doctor was a hearing test, and then a simple nasal exam. I aced the hearing test, so no worries there, but when he stuck his fancy metal nasal pliers up my nose to get a good look, he immediately identified something: "Your septum is significantly deviated, and your passages are extremely inflamed." Basically, the combination of the two leaves me almost no room to breath due to swelling and obstruction. In the image below, if you look at the blue crosshair on the top and bottom graphics, you can see how far off the septum is to the side. It's supposed to line up with that line!




The next step was to get some allergy testing done to make sure the inflammation was not due to environmental irritants, or any types of foods. After two testing sessions, I was in the clear. No reactions whatsoever. So what was the culprit? Something called Vasomotor Rhinitis, which basically means the nose reacts to pretty much anything as if it were allergic to it when there is really no allergic reaction happening.

The final step was scheduling surgery. I nervously called, expecting to get in within a month or so, and the scheduling assistant says, "We can get you in less then two weeks from now. You'll need to take a week off work." Wow. Ok. I guess it is better to get it done then put it off! I will be having a septoplasty and a turbinate reduction, which I guess is pretty common to do together.

So here I am, just about two days away from having my nose violated while I am unconscious. Am I scared? Yes. Each day I get more and more freaked out. I go in on Tuesday late morning, and the procedure itself only takes about an hour. Chris and I will be there between 3-4 hours total, and he will have to babysit me for 24 hours afterwords.

Of course, no matter how freaked out I am, I have a few things in mind that are keeping me going:

1. I will have painkillers
2. I can sleep all I want for a week
3. I should be able to breathe better than I ever have
4. I will have painkillers!

So join me on my journey to better breathing. I'll be posting pictures before and after, and throughout recovery. Keep your fingers crossed for me!