The Right Stuff - The Finale

Once those stents were out I began to follow the signs of healing that the PA had told me about. Slowly my sense of smell and taste would come back and even though it would feel like I had a really bad cold, that too would slowly abate.

A and I had plans with some friends of ours to try out a new sushi place by our house on Friday night and I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to taste any of the rolls. So I was happy when I slowly began to taste things again as Friday wore on. When we got to the restaurant I couldn't wait for the rolls to come. After eating about two or three I started to get a weird feeling so I opted to just stop. About 15 minutes later I got that feeling in my stomach. I made my way to the bathroom where I...well, you know. I couldn't figure it out and was hoping it was just a mixture of things and that it was a one time event. We soon made our way home in the freezing temps and with my stomach doing all sorts of weird things. I collapsed into bed feeling awful. Sometime in the middle of the night I awoke to that feeling again and proceeded to spend about 30 minutes in the bathroom hugging the toilet. "This can't be happening" I thought..."you're still trying to get over this damn surgery." Oh and I should mention that when one vomits it pulls on ALL the muscles in your face, so the ones in my nose that were already sore hurt even MORE.

Saturday morning came with horrible stomach pains and aches all over. A had to leave to go to work and I spent the majority of the day in bed sleeping. While I managed to keep whatever was left inside of me I still felt awful all day. Around dinner time I was able to keep some chicken broth down and also did my first sinus cleanse of the day, not caring that I was supposed to do three by that point. So, my nose was also very raw. After accomplishing all of this I took another dose of Theraflu and went to bed.

I awoke this morning not so achy but still a little off. I think my nose is finally on the upswing and I plan to take it easy all day again. There's the entire Golden Girls series on DVD that's calling my name.

The Right Stuff - Part Two

Once we got home A got me settled into bed and ran out to get a few things plus my all important pain meds. As soon as he left my nose started bleeding...heavily. I sent him a text and asked him to hurry as I was somewhat concerned and unable to get the bleeding to stop. He came home soon and was able to change my dressing and help get the bleeding to stop, for the time being. I quickly took two pills and was soon fast asleep. I will say that the best thing I did to help the healing process so far was to sleep. Although I'm a stomach sleeper I had to make sure I stayed on my back at all times so that 1) no blood would run out of my nose and 2) I didn't put any pressure on my nose, which would only cause more bleeding.  The rest of the day passed without even and I was even able to move to the couch and catch up on some TV and watch a movie.

Day two involved much of the same thing. Lots of sleep and down time on the couch but there was a lot less blood. By the end of the day I was ready for the stents to come out and not feel so much pressure on my nostrils. I couldn't wait for the next morning to arrive so that I could get them out.

Well the morning came and I was very eager to get to the Doctor. Once there I told his PA that I could care less who took them out as long as someone did. She laughed and began cleaning out each nostril so that it was easy for her to remove each stent. Once the area around each stent was cleaned she told me to take a deep breath in through my nose and exhale...as I exhaled she pulled out each stent. I wouldn't call it painful but it's not a very pleasant feeling to have something about three inches pulled out of your nostril. After the initial discomfort from this began to wear off I immediately felt a lot less pressure on the inside of my nose. What a relief. The rest of the day passed with hardly any blood and only the continued loss of taste.

Stay tuned for more on the healing process...

The Right Stuff

For years I've had a problem breathing out of both my nostrils at the same time. I've tried spray after spray and nothing ever worked. In the past few years I started to get frequent sinus headaches on the right side of my head that would render me immobile. I could never figure out why I only got the headache on the one side of my head and no matter what I tried to do to prevent them they would come out of nowhere, usually when I first woke up in the morning. After mentioning this to a few co-workers one of them said that he had the same thing happen to him. He stated that he was about to go in for sinus/nasal surgery and that I should talk to his ENT if the surgery worked for him. After said surgery the co-worker said that it was the best thing he ever did. He had no more headaches and could breathe out of both his nostrils. That was all it took for me to make an appointment with his ENT.

After an examination the ENT diagnosed me as having a deviated septum and a Turbinate dysfunction.  He advised that I could continue with sprays to relive some of the symptoms or that I could have surgery to straighten the septum and to shrink the size of the Turbinate. For obvious reasons I elected to have the surgery.

Leading up to the big day I wasn't nervous, I just wanted it over with. Years and years of not being able to fully breath were taking their toll on me and I just wanted a fresh start in that regard. The morning of surgery I had to be at the Surgery Center at 6am. I was told I would go into surgery at around 730am and it would last about 30-45 minutes with about 1-2 hours in recovery. After being taken into a room and put into a gown and a cap I was given a name tag and an IV for the anesthesia that I would receive. This was my first patient tag and IV and although I hate needles I was excited. Aside from a few winces I didn't have any trouble getting the IV in and was then left to relax in the room with Adam.

The last thing I remember is being wheeled into the O.R. and the Doctor asking for something. The next thing I know, I'm sitting back in the recovery room with Adam at my side. Apparently I was making comments about the hot nurse who kept walking by...something like "HEEEEY HOT NURSE." I vaguely remember this. After about an hour I was alert enough to go home and start the healing process. Stay tuned for part two...

Forget You

Do you ever stop and think to yourself that you're not at where you want to be in life? Are you in a job you hate?  Bored to tears? 

The past year at work has not been easy for me. While I'm grateful to have a job that is secure while so many do not it's become mind numbingly boring to me. I also feel that I am at the wrong airline for my personality but as I've told A recently I have no option but to continue where I am at for various reasons. The flexibility is great and the benefits are superb and I find that I have to constantly remind myself of these and other "positives" about my job. So a couple of months ago I decided that I needed to do something else in order to keep my mind fresh and going. With the amount of traveling that we've done (and want to continue to do) I am going to learn a language. A and I talked about Spanish and German and I finally opted for the later and am happy to report that it's coming along nicely. Hopefully this learning project will get me past this seemingly endless slump I've felt at work.