Saturday, May 10, 2008

Doh! My Dose.....

that is Dose rhymes with nose.....as in my dose is all stubbed up.........

I had my surgery on Wednesday and all went pretty well - officially called a septoplasty and turbinate reduction. The staff of Northwestern Memorial was amazing, as were the facilities. Everything was all nice and new....private pre-op rooms, private recovery rooms....it was just about as enjoyable as a surgical experience could be.

I went in at about 8:30AM - surgery was around 10:00AM - and we were home sometime around 2:30 ish. General anesthetic, but I didn't get all woozy after because they gave me a "Barf B Gone" patch. Basically a little patch to put behind my ear so I didn't get nauseous after the anesthetic wore off. Worked like a charm! They did still give me a barf bag for the way home, just in case. It was pretty funny looking. Resembled a blue horse / elephant condom. Weird right? But you probably have a good visual of what it looked like :)

Wednesday I spent pretty much the rest of the day doing nothing - Pat took care of me and the boy, I was hopped up on vicodin. The pain did suck, but it was manageable. Mostly the pain was in my teeth, and around my sinus area. I also had a lot of bleeding through my nose, but not much swelling or bruising or anything. I just had to have a gauze pad rolled up and taped under my nose to catch the blood - then I changed the gauze every hour or so. I spent most of the time on the couch, not completely reclined - cuddled up with a kitty or two on me. Funny how they know just when you need some love :)


Thursday I felt better, I was a little more mobile, but still had the gauze....I even wore it on Friday too, even though it was more for mucus than blood. Friday I felt well enough where Pat and I took in a movie - we saw Iron Man (great movie - definitely see!).

I felt yet even better today, so much so that Pat left for the day to go help a friend attach his mast to his sail boat, so Liam and I were on our own today (well, at least until about 3PM when our friend Kelly came to visit). It was tough caring for Liam by myself, because I'm not supposed to lift anything heavier than a milk jug for two weeks. And yes, Liam is about 3 milk jugs (the little chunk a monk!). I'm not supposed to do any strenuous activity, or drink through straws either.....all of those restrictions are in place to help prevent my nose from bleeding again, I suppose.

We survived though - I did pick him up a couple of times, as gently as possible....the only tough time I had was when the pain started getting bad again, and I didn't want to take a pill and knock myself out as I was the only responsible person there! I took the pill anyway, and fought through the sleepiness, at least until I was able to put him down for a nap.

Now, my most recent pill is beginning to kick in, so I will bid adieu :) Hopefully next time I write I will be breathing more freely!!!!

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