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miss_lucy21I have laptop-ability back! I had my first post-op appointment with the doctor this morning and he said things were healing really well and look really good and he cleared me to do things like bend over and tilt my head and sleep "flat" (I always sleep propped up on two pillows, but that's a much smaller angle than I've been propped up at for the last week). I can also drive if I'm not taking painkillers, which means no driving today (I needed the pain killers for the appointment today- he did a lot of poking around and suctioning up there and it's still really sore), but maybe tomorrow or Wednesday I'll give it a try.
I ate a breakfast burrito late (like, 10:30) the night before and woke up around 5 to have a glass of water and take my meds (no water after 5:30). So I was in okay shape when I woke back up at 6:30. Hungry, but not completely light-headed. Mom picked me up at 7:30, we got to the surgery center around 8:15. Checking in was easy, and then we waited about 15 minutes or so before they took me back. They asked a bunch of questions about when I last took meds, last had something to drink, etc. Made me do a pregnancy test (I wanted to tell them that the only way that was happening at the moment was Divine Intervention, but I behaved). Then they had me change (I could leave on my leggings and underpants, but not anything else). And they got me situated in pre-op.
Getting the IV in went pretty easily- the pre-op nurse said she could tell just by looking at my hands that I was a hard stick and had probably had bad stuff happen with IVs before (yes). She got it on the first go and also lidocaine'd me up pretty good, so I only felt the lidocaine and not the IV. I did get light-headed, but that's to be expected after having not eaten, being a little stressed, etc. (although she did say I was really calm. And I was, but it was the kind of really calm that happens when I'm pretty overloaded). The anesthesiologist came in to talk to me and I told him the first time I'd had this surgery, I'd been violently ill for 24 hours after it and could we please, like, skip that part this time? And so I got some Reglan, some meclizine (Anti-Vert, it's a motion sickness med. I do get motion sick under certain circumstances) AND a scopolamine patch. And let me tell you, all of that worked really well and I never even got queasy (heartburn, later, from the pain meds, yes. A little cranky digestive wise, also from the pain meds, yes, but not nauseous). And then I think I talked to the surgeon and then they gave me the big shot that makes it easier for the anesthesia to take affect and makes everything pretty foggy.
I vaguely remember the operating room, mostly because I got tangled in the gown transferring to the table and almost strangled myself (just a display of my usual grace, or lack thereof). But then I don't remember anything else until I woke up, very confused. I felt like I'd been punched in the face and I couldn't breathe through my nose and I didn't remember why that was the case. The post-op nurse probably explained it more than once. But it wasn't too bad. I wasn't sick, just fuzzy. The only hitch was that I wasn't breathing deeply enough, so my sats were too low. Eventually, they just gave me a breathing treatment, which must have helped because pretty soon after that, they were sitting me up to move to the step-down unit. They kept trying to give me coffee to wake me up and I kept saying, no, I didn't want any (I wasn't awake enough to explain that caffeine and me are delicate things and it was just as likely to make me more drowsy than it was to wake me up). But then they took me to step down where they gave me some crackers and I started to perk up a bit (my mother was completely unsurprised by that fact. The nurse kept asking if I wanted coffee. Mom told her I didn't drink it. She asked if I wanted Coke, and Mom said, no, just get us a couple more packs of saltines and we'll manage, thanks). Finally, I was awake enough to keep my sats up (I kept trying to breathe through my nose, which I could mostly do, because there was no packing in there, but there was gauze taped over my nose and things were swollen. Once my brain got the memo that I was just going to have to be a mouth breather for awhile, things got better) and they let me go. We got home around 3-ish, I think. I was fortunately not in a ton of pain, because they wanted me to wait as long as possible to take the pain pill because I'd been having the breathing issues (narcotics can slow breathing). I think I ate something and then slept for awhile. Mom dragged me out of bed to eat again and take meds (they sent me home with antibiotics) and then I had to do the sinus rinse which was...unpleasant.
I was actually in pretty decent shape when I woke up on Wednesday. I couldn't do much, but I was going 6+ hours between pain pills. Mom stayed until mid-afternoon, but I was in pretty decent shape. My nose had even stopped bleeding enough to still need the dressing taped on (it was probably still bleeding a little internally, but not badly). But honestly, things were probably too easy. I knew that and knew that Thursday was probably going to suck. And it did, because Day 3. And then it started raining and rained until Saturday morning. The pressure change really, really hurt. And then the pain pills were only being semi-effective. I wasn't in excruciating pain- it was probably about two steps up from one of my bad headaches, but my bad headaches are...well, pretty bad. I mean, I take tramadol for them. The pain pills were a step up from the tramadol, but they weren't lasting as long. But it got better once it stopped raining. Then it was just dealing with being horribly stuffed up, but unable to blow my nose. That was this weekend.
This morning, the doctor suctioned a bunch of crap out of my nose and there's been a lot less drainage today. Things actually taste mostly like they should and not like...yeah, I'll spare you all that description. Let's just say eating has been an issue. The doctor said everything was healing up well and I should be feeling much better soon. Right now, I mostly feel sinus-infection-y. I could probably power through and go to work if I needed to, but my leave was approved by the disability folks and my manager so I'm gonna take it. I'm tired. I haven't been sleeping through the night because I was having issues with sleeping propped up and breathing through my nose or my mouth getting completely dried out and sore from breathing through my mouth. And I wasn't exactly extremely well rested before this. Plus, I get to start another course of antibiotics (they're trying to make sure everything that was lurking in the places that were blocked out is cleared out and dead), which is probably going to make me more tired. So I'm going to take my week off and sleep and work on eating enough again. Oh, and being able to pay attention- I haven't been able to follow plot the past several days, which is never a good sign (I miss nuance sometimes and I frequently have to rewind to catch something, but I generally have a pretty good grasp on what's actually happening. I tried to watch a mini-series on the US Revolutionary War and I was completely lost, despite the fact I know the history itself. Yeah). And I really haven't been out of the house, up and walking around for more than 90 minutes since surgery, so I'm also thinking that my thinking "oh, I'm good, I could power through" is quite possibly false confidence, because I'm doing pretty okay with being upright on the couch, but I did also wind up lying down for two and a half hours after my doctor's appointment this morning.
I ate a breakfast burrito late (like, 10:30) the night before and woke up around 5 to have a glass of water and take my meds (no water after 5:30). So I was in okay shape when I woke back up at 6:30. Hungry, but not completely light-headed. Mom picked me up at 7:30, we got to the surgery center around 8:15. Checking in was easy, and then we waited about 15 minutes or so before they took me back. They asked a bunch of questions about when I last took meds, last had something to drink, etc. Made me do a pregnancy test (I wanted to tell them that the only way that was happening at the moment was Divine Intervention, but I behaved). Then they had me change (I could leave on my leggings and underpants, but not anything else). And they got me situated in pre-op.
Getting the IV in went pretty easily- the pre-op nurse said she could tell just by looking at my hands that I was a hard stick and had probably had bad stuff happen with IVs before (yes). She got it on the first go and also lidocaine'd me up pretty good, so I only felt the lidocaine and not the IV. I did get light-headed, but that's to be expected after having not eaten, being a little stressed, etc. (although she did say I was really calm. And I was, but it was the kind of really calm that happens when I'm pretty overloaded). The anesthesiologist came in to talk to me and I told him the first time I'd had this surgery, I'd been violently ill for 24 hours after it and could we please, like, skip that part this time? And so I got some Reglan, some meclizine (Anti-Vert, it's a motion sickness med. I do get motion sick under certain circumstances) AND a scopolamine patch. And let me tell you, all of that worked really well and I never even got queasy (heartburn, later, from the pain meds, yes. A little cranky digestive wise, also from the pain meds, yes, but not nauseous). And then I think I talked to the surgeon and then they gave me the big shot that makes it easier for the anesthesia to take affect and makes everything pretty foggy.
I vaguely remember the operating room, mostly because I got tangled in the gown transferring to the table and almost strangled myself (just a display of my usual grace, or lack thereof). But then I don't remember anything else until I woke up, very confused. I felt like I'd been punched in the face and I couldn't breathe through my nose and I didn't remember why that was the case. The post-op nurse probably explained it more than once. But it wasn't too bad. I wasn't sick, just fuzzy. The only hitch was that I wasn't breathing deeply enough, so my sats were too low. Eventually, they just gave me a breathing treatment, which must have helped because pretty soon after that, they were sitting me up to move to the step-down unit. They kept trying to give me coffee to wake me up and I kept saying, no, I didn't want any (I wasn't awake enough to explain that caffeine and me are delicate things and it was just as likely to make me more drowsy than it was to wake me up). But then they took me to step down where they gave me some crackers and I started to perk up a bit (my mother was completely unsurprised by that fact. The nurse kept asking if I wanted coffee. Mom told her I didn't drink it. She asked if I wanted Coke, and Mom said, no, just get us a couple more packs of saltines and we'll manage, thanks). Finally, I was awake enough to keep my sats up (I kept trying to breathe through my nose, which I could mostly do, because there was no packing in there, but there was gauze taped over my nose and things were swollen. Once my brain got the memo that I was just going to have to be a mouth breather for awhile, things got better) and they let me go. We got home around 3-ish, I think. I was fortunately not in a ton of pain, because they wanted me to wait as long as possible to take the pain pill because I'd been having the breathing issues (narcotics can slow breathing). I think I ate something and then slept for awhile. Mom dragged me out of bed to eat again and take meds (they sent me home with antibiotics) and then I had to do the sinus rinse which was...unpleasant.
I was actually in pretty decent shape when I woke up on Wednesday. I couldn't do much, but I was going 6+ hours between pain pills. Mom stayed until mid-afternoon, but I was in pretty decent shape. My nose had even stopped bleeding enough to still need the dressing taped on (it was probably still bleeding a little internally, but not badly). But honestly, things were probably too easy. I knew that and knew that Thursday was probably going to suck. And it did, because Day 3. And then it started raining and rained until Saturday morning. The pressure change really, really hurt. And then the pain pills were only being semi-effective. I wasn't in excruciating pain- it was probably about two steps up from one of my bad headaches, but my bad headaches are...well, pretty bad. I mean, I take tramadol for them. The pain pills were a step up from the tramadol, but they weren't lasting as long. But it got better once it stopped raining. Then it was just dealing with being horribly stuffed up, but unable to blow my nose. That was this weekend.
This morning, the doctor suctioned a bunch of crap out of my nose and there's been a lot less drainage today. Things actually taste mostly like they should and not like...yeah, I'll spare you all that description. Let's just say eating has been an issue. The doctor said everything was healing up well and I should be feeling much better soon. Right now, I mostly feel sinus-infection-y. I could probably power through and go to work if I needed to, but my leave was approved by the disability folks and my manager so I'm gonna take it. I'm tired. I haven't been sleeping through the night because I was having issues with sleeping propped up and breathing through my nose or my mouth getting completely dried out and sore from breathing through my mouth. And I wasn't exactly extremely well rested before this. Plus, I get to start another course of antibiotics (they're trying to make sure everything that was lurking in the places that were blocked out is cleared out and dead), which is probably going to make me more tired. So I'm going to take my week off and sleep and work on eating enough again. Oh, and being able to pay attention- I haven't been able to follow plot the past several days, which is never a good sign (I miss nuance sometimes and I frequently have to rewind to catch something, but I generally have a pretty good grasp on what's actually happening. I tried to watch a mini-series on the US Revolutionary War and I was completely lost, despite the fact I know the history itself. Yeah). And I really haven't been out of the house, up and walking around for more than 90 minutes since surgery, so I'm also thinking that my thinking "oh, I'm good, I could power through" is quite possibly false confidence, because I'm doing pretty okay with being upright on the couch, but I did also wind up lying down for two and a half hours after my doctor's appointment this morning.