sinus surgery
Jan. 20th, 2015 10:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mellowtiggerSurgery took longer than expected, but I am recovering well. I have a slight fever tonight (just 99.3F), but I'm continuing antibiotics for a few more days.
The surgeon found more polyps than showed up on the x-ray, so she worked on me much longer than the expected 2 hours. I think it was more than 3 hours. One of my landlords drove me to the hospital at 6:30am on Wednesday morning, and he came back to take me home again. I arrived in the living room around 1pm. For days, I felt like I had been punched in the gut, chest, and throat. Apparently that muscle soreness was the result of spending so much time with them using the breathing apparatus in my throat, inflating my lungs more than I normally would. My diaphragm, chest, and neck were sore.
For the first 24 hours, they had packing stuffed up my nose to absorb all of the blood. Every time I stood up, though, I would start bleeding again. My face was a mess. The hospital nurses showed me how to roll up a face mask to use it as a belt to hold up the bandages on the outside of my nose. After a few times going to the bathroom at home, I finally looked at myself in the mirror. I realized I resembled "Hannibal Lecter" from Silence Of The Lambs where he's wearing that face mask to keep him from biting people. Pretty, isn't it?
I didn't take any painkillers the next morning, so I could drive myself to my 1-day followup exam. The doctor removed the internal bandages. She told me the surgery ran so long because I was "very good at growing polyps". There were no problems at the exam, although I had to wash my shirt when I got back home. The bib they gave me didn't absorb all the blood, so it soaked through to my work shirt. I resumed painkillers, so I mostly slept from then onward. I slept a lot. I probably spent 2/3 of those first few days asleep.
I had my 1-week exam this afternoon. It also went well. I've been washing out my sinuses several times a day, and she said I had done a very good job. I'm avoiding stairwells and heavy lifting for a while, but I think I'm out of danger now. I have a 3-week exam in February, and I expect to get a "clean bill of health" then.
My throat/voice still seem a bit out of whack. I should probably talk more, so my vocal cords get some use after that breathing tube. I just wish I could knock the last of this soreness in my sinuses... and the mild fever. It doesn't help that the air here is so dry from the cold temperatures.
Better days ahead, at least, since I can breathe normally again.
The surgeon found more polyps than showed up on the x-ray, so she worked on me much longer than the expected 2 hours. I think it was more than 3 hours. One of my landlords drove me to the hospital at 6:30am on Wednesday morning, and he came back to take me home again. I arrived in the living room around 1pm. For days, I felt like I had been punched in the gut, chest, and throat. Apparently that muscle soreness was the result of spending so much time with them using the breathing apparatus in my throat, inflating my lungs more than I normally would. My diaphragm, chest, and neck were sore.
For the first 24 hours, they had packing stuffed up my nose to absorb all of the blood. Every time I stood up, though, I would start bleeding again. My face was a mess. The hospital nurses showed me how to roll up a face mask to use it as a belt to hold up the bandages on the outside of my nose. After a few times going to the bathroom at home, I finally looked at myself in the mirror. I realized I resembled "Hannibal Lecter" from Silence Of The Lambs where he's wearing that face mask to keep him from biting people. Pretty, isn't it?I didn't take any painkillers the next morning, so I could drive myself to my 1-day followup exam. The doctor removed the internal bandages. She told me the surgery ran so long because I was "very good at growing polyps". There were no problems at the exam, although I had to wash my shirt when I got back home. The bib they gave me didn't absorb all the blood, so it soaked through to my work shirt. I resumed painkillers, so I mostly slept from then onward. I slept a lot. I probably spent 2/3 of those first few days asleep.
I had my 1-week exam this afternoon. It also went well. I've been washing out my sinuses several times a day, and she said I had done a very good job. I'm avoiding stairwells and heavy lifting for a while, but I think I'm out of danger now. I have a 3-week exam in February, and I expect to get a "clean bill of health" then.
My throat/voice still seem a bit out of whack. I should probably talk more, so my vocal cords get some use after that breathing tube. I just wish I could knock the last of this soreness in my sinuses... and the mild fever. It doesn't help that the air here is so dry from the cold temperatures.
Better days ahead, at least, since I can breathe normally again.
