Post-operation

I went in for my surgery at 10:30am. I spent the next two hours waiting in different rooms for the doctor who was running late on her other morning operations.

Then finally she I went into the pre-op holding area. Where she said hi and asked if I was nervous.

Of course I was nervous duh.

Then the anesthesiologist stabbed my hand like 5 times trying to hit a vein while putting in my IV. That was actually the worst part of the operation.

The operation was done under local anesthesia and sedation. I think it started around 1pm. I was awake for the whole thing. This sounds scary, but you're actually pretty comfortable.

She told me I wouldn't remember a thing but as of now I remember it quite well.

Once sedated and lying on the operating table, they stuck me with the numbing needle. And then it was time to go. I didn't really feel them cutting the insides of my nostrils open. But I felt the dull pressure and heard the awful bone crunching sound when they started scraping away the bone of my septum. The operation was supposed to take about 45 minutes...but it felt like it only took like 10. The final part of the operation was the turbinoplasty where they shrink my turbinates.

Here's a cool animation I found that shows what they do.

They poke the turbanite with a needle that emits a radio frequency and this creates a lesion which, as it heals, causes the turbanite to shrink. The size of the large turbanites it was causes a lot of breathing issues so when they get smaller, you have a larger pathway for air to go through.

I could smell some kind of burning as they were doing it and it sent a shock through the roof of my mouth and teeth. None of this really hurt because I was all numbed, but they were still odd sensations. And then in what felt like 15 minutes it was all over and I was standing up and walking back to the waiting room with gauze pads taped under my nose.

By 3pm, I was in a cab on my way home with my lovely friend Dave who picked me up.

Immediately following surgery I actually felt great. I was pretty lucid and I felt like I could breathe totally clearly and the pain meds were still keeping me from feeling any pain.

By the time I got home though I started to feel a headache. And then at 4pm it was an unbearable headache that felt like a brainfreeze that would not go away. I had to lie down (on stacked pillows because I'm not supposed to lie flat) and turn off the TV and close my eyes because sound and light seemed to make everything worse.

I'm pretty sure I didn't fall asleep. I just focused on breathing out of my mouth and it felt like an eternity. But I finally opened my eyes just now and it feels like the worst of that headache has gone away.

Now I'm all stuffed up and probably filled with dried blood but I'm not supposed to blow my nose for the next week or so. Starting Friday I can spray some saline in my nose to clean it out a little but for now I just feel like the most congested I've ever been in my life. I'm amazed I was able to sit down here and type this out, but it has actually felt great and distracting to do something other than focus on the headache.

Overall it's not that bad and I think (and hope) the worst of it is over and it will just be a bit of soreness and dripping blood from here on out.

Will update again soon.

I love you all.