dadaist
10-11-2005, 09:04 PM
Warning, the following is not for the weak of stomach.
Sinus surgery was in the morning last week, the fifth. I was supposed to be there at 7 AM, but due to delays, I didn't have the operation until about 10. I was put under a 'twilight' anesthetic, but to be honest, it felt like I was completely asleep. The poor nurse who tried to hook up my IV first tried my right hand, but couldn't get any of my blood vessels to cooperate, so she had to settle for my right wrist.
The procedure could not have lasted long - I was awake again about an hour later. Polyps were removed out of my affected sinuses, and my septum was cut and realigned. I woke up with absorbent packing stuffed up both nostrils, and gauze taped under my nose. Not long afterwards, the blood started flowing. They had to change the gauze pad several times. They gave me two baggies of 4" gauze pads and two rolls of 3M medical tape.
My mother got me home again, and I spent the rest of the day in bed. She rigged up my trash can with a large black trash bag so that I could just spit, bleed, and toss gauze pads right into it as needed. I observed later that I had never seen so much blood, nor thought that I could lose that much without serious consequences. The bleeding was pretty serious for the first three hours, then let up a bit. The doctor said it should taper off by that night, but it didn't. Sleeping that night was laborious. I had to breathe entirely out my mouth, and everything simply hurt.
Thursday morning I went back to the surgery center (all of this was outpatient), and the packing material was removed from both nostrils. This relieved a lot of the pressure from having them up there. After that, the bleeding resumed, but I went home and kept gauze on. But I was also on my feet too much that day. The bleeding should have slowed to a stop on Thursday, but didn't. It didn't really slow until Saturday, and I quit wearing gauze over the weekend, except at night.
Monday night I got through the night without any gauze on at all, and no bloodstains on my pillows. This morning (Tuesday) I started finally being able to breathe through my nostrils for the first time in about a week. This morning I went in for the first 'cleaning.' They told me to have some of my prescribed Tylenol+Codeine ahead of time, then numbed both nostrils with lidocaine. The splint that was holding my septum in place was removed, then a vacuum was
placed up either nostril one at a time, and he removed the scabs and gunk that he could. He's also got me using a saline solution poured through both nostrils to loosen up more gunk.
So that's where things stand. I have another cleaning appointment on the 18th, the last will be on Nov. 1st. Going back to work tomorrow morning. I'm told it may be a while before I notice a difference, as the swelling in the sinuses have to go down first.
Sinus surgery was in the morning last week, the fifth. I was supposed to be there at 7 AM, but due to delays, I didn't have the operation until about 10. I was put under a 'twilight' anesthetic, but to be honest, it felt like I was completely asleep. The poor nurse who tried to hook up my IV first tried my right hand, but couldn't get any of my blood vessels to cooperate, so she had to settle for my right wrist.
The procedure could not have lasted long - I was awake again about an hour later. Polyps were removed out of my affected sinuses, and my septum was cut and realigned. I woke up with absorbent packing stuffed up both nostrils, and gauze taped under my nose. Not long afterwards, the blood started flowing. They had to change the gauze pad several times. They gave me two baggies of 4" gauze pads and two rolls of 3M medical tape.
My mother got me home again, and I spent the rest of the day in bed. She rigged up my trash can with a large black trash bag so that I could just spit, bleed, and toss gauze pads right into it as needed. I observed later that I had never seen so much blood, nor thought that I could lose that much without serious consequences. The bleeding was pretty serious for the first three hours, then let up a bit. The doctor said it should taper off by that night, but it didn't. Sleeping that night was laborious. I had to breathe entirely out my mouth, and everything simply hurt.
Thursday morning I went back to the surgery center (all of this was outpatient), and the packing material was removed from both nostrils. This relieved a lot of the pressure from having them up there. After that, the bleeding resumed, but I went home and kept gauze on. But I was also on my feet too much that day. The bleeding should have slowed to a stop on Thursday, but didn't. It didn't really slow until Saturday, and I quit wearing gauze over the weekend, except at night.
Monday night I got through the night without any gauze on at all, and no bloodstains on my pillows. This morning (Tuesday) I started finally being able to breathe through my nostrils for the first time in about a week. This morning I went in for the first 'cleaning.' They told me to have some of my prescribed Tylenol+Codeine ahead of time, then numbed both nostrils with lidocaine. The splint that was holding my septum in place was removed, then a vacuum was
placed up either nostril one at a time, and he removed the scabs and gunk that he could. He's also got me using a saline solution poured through both nostrils to loosen up more gunk.
So that's where things stand. I have another cleaning appointment on the 18th, the last will be on Nov. 1st. Going back to work tomorrow morning. I'm told it may be a while before I notice a difference, as the swelling in the sinuses have to go down first.