Surgery

I had surgery today. I had complete obstruction of my right maxillary and right ethmoid sinuses, as well as abnormal tissue growth. The same ENT that did my septal deviation surgery a few years ago did this surgery as well. (She's a very special doctor and person, but that's another story in itself.)

So, the surgery went pretty well, I think. I don't get a chance to actually speak with the doctor until my follow-up appointment in the morning. I know that I lost a lot of blood, so there was a lot of IV fluid replacements. My heart rate and blood pressure were off the charts post-op. I began to try to figure out why and started thumbing through my chart while nobody was around. It turns out that to help stem the bleeding and to "vasoconstrict" me, the gave me cocaine, lidocaine, and epinephrine (locally at the sites of the bleeding), all of which are helpful with slowing down blood loss. I thought that was pretty interesting.

The nursing care I received today was terrific, from start to finish. I met some wonderful nurses, and did a LOT of spying and listening. It's amazing how much of what I've been taught over these last two years IS actually relevant and IS said and done by nurses in practice.

I was in the PACU (recovery) for quite a while, but by the time Ceci arrived to escort me home (they wouldn't let me leave without an escort), I was really ready to go. (I almost vomited in a Ziploc bag in the cab on the way home.) She took such good care of me tonight until Farrell got home. And now nobody is taking care of me. (That was joke. Farrell has been EXTRAORDINARY tonight. Thank you, both.)

As far as recovery is concerned, the pain is pretty outrageous, a lot more than I was expecting. I've got a pain med that seems to be effective (it's freakin' awesome, actually), but the other concerns are bleeding, inflammation, risk for infection, and the sinuses actually "adhering" to themselves. (I'll spare you the details, but adhesions would be bad.) So, in a nutshell, I have to follow the teaching I received today from the surgeon and the nurses really carefully. I basically can't do shit. No lying flat, no standing quickly, can't bend down, can't lift ANYTHING, can't tie my own shoes, I have to move very slowly, not speak loudly, etc., all so that I don't pop whatever fragile clots have formed. Of course they should have mentioned not to scratch my nose: I had a really bad itch before, and was distracted by something on TV at the same time, and kind of forgot I had surgery. I rubbed my nose really hard like I always do when I have an itch. (Jules, are you with me on that?) Needless to say, it hurt and it bled.