Sinus Crap

I've been having sinus issues since December. I was on a couple courses of antibiotics and my doctor said if that didn't work, I'd need to go for a CT scan. It, of course, didn't clear up and I, of course, didn't go get a CT scan done. (Have you ever heard that nurses make the worst patients?)

A few months went by and my sinus infection went from tolerable to miserable. I went in and she made me go for a CT scan. It turns out that I had blockages everywhere. My ethmoid sinuses (in between your eyes) were completely blocked with inflamed tissue as was the ostia (openings to my sinuses.) The ostia to my maxillary sinuses (by your cheeks) were blocked and the turbinate (where the air goes in and out of your nose) on my left side was blocked.

She referred me to an ENT doctor. He put me on antibiotics and a course of steroids (yuck and double yuck. I hate taking medicine.) Things improved for a little while and then I started feeling crappy again. I opted to go in for surgery and had it done May 25th.

I hope to never have to do that again. It was awful. The surgery, itself, lasted two hours and was outpatient. I came out of anesthesia okay but was super nauseous because I was swallowing blood. Gross! I made it home and was greeted by the kids. The poor things ran to the car and I was half passed out. I remember them all staring at me. Mia kept asking if I had my nose cut off. Ethan and Riley asked if I was okay, which was so sweet.

I went straight to bed and slept for four hours. My nose didn't hurt that bad but felt like it was burning. I could breathe in and out of my nose and that's the best I had breathed in a long time. Then, the swelling started.

It wasn't so much my sinuses that bothered me (it felt like a sinus infection times ten) but my throat felt like it was on fire. It turns out that when they intubated me, they either traumatized my uvula (the hangy thing in the back of your throat) or the ETT was in directed contact with it during my surgery. That sucker swelled up to 4 times its normal size and was touching my tongue. I also had white ulcers develop on it that hurt like hell. It felt like strep throat times ten (I actually went in to acute care that next morning and had a strep test done which was negative.) And, I couldn't breathe out of my nose, so I had to breathe out of my mouth which made my throat feel even worse.

I didn't get any sleep for the next week. I was supposed to go back to work on Tuesday. (Why I thought I only needed three days off after surgery is absurd!) I did make it the rest of the week but should have called in.

I'm two weeks out and am feeling much better. It's still hard to breathe out of my left side because it's still stuffy. The ENT doctor said I'm healing well and it could take weeks for the swelling to go down. I still can't smell much but he thinks once the swelling is gone, that will get better. I asked him about the incident with my uvula and he said he only sees 3 cases a year. Go figure that it would happen to me.