I. CAN. BREATHE. O.M.G.
I had my post-op appointment this morning. Sis and I had to leave the house at 6am in order to make sure we'd get to the hospital by 8. (The problem with living in a far-away suburb of Houston - long morning commutes.) Naturally, because we left so early, the traffic was fairly light, and we ended up at the hospital 30 minutes earlier than I'd anticipated - 7am instead of 7:30. See, even if you have an appointment at 8, they want you to come in 30 minutes prior. This is because their system SUCKS and there are so many people being seen that that 30 mins is a forced time cushion to make sure you can check in before your appointment time. Particularly at the hospital-based clinics, 30 minutes is usually not long enough. I've had to wait an hour in line before. Sis was incredibly annoyed with me that we'd left so early, attempting to compensate for traffic that didn't appear. I couldn't seem to convince her that leaving 15 minutes later would have probably meant a much longer commute time. Anyway... When I tried to check in, I was told that I didn't have an appointment in the computer. WHAT? I was NOT HAPPY. I was told that I needed to go and seek out a nurse/tech in the back and have them add me into the system. Ridiculous. Naturally, the nurse I ran into was the super-grouchy one. (She reminds me a ton of Laverne, the nurse, on Scrubs.) It took until 8:15 for them to walk out with an appointment slip, and ANOTHER 30 minutes for me to be called back. RIDICULOUS.
Saw Dr. Roberts. If he weren't incredibly INCREDIBLY skinny - like, zero body fat, skeleton-y skinny - he'd be seriously cute. He's still cute in the face, and I love his personality. He's so laid back there are times where I wonder if he's a secret stoner. He took out the splints in my nose! That would have been a great experience, had he actually numbed me up first. Instead, he went all up in there, snipped the stitches holding the splints in, and tugged. Those things were MASSIVE. A lot bigger than I'd imagined, but account for why I was so stuffed up this week. My nostrils are now all sore from the stitch-removing and stretching with the spreader-thingy, (that's what vicodin is for) but... I can breathe. Like a normal person with a normal nose!! Actually, the air flow up the right side is now a little bit better than the left. I am incredibly pleased with how this has helped just my ability to breathe. I've got another couple of weeks of healing before the swelling goes down completely. Once that happens, I will be able to figure out if it's helped my headaches. I'm really hoping it will. REALLY REALLY hoping.
I won't see him again until the summer, as a follow-up to see if the headaches have gone away, or at least been improved. *crosses fingers* Oh! Sis jumped in just as he was about to leave to ask him a medical question. She's been having this weird thing where junk gets trapped in these pockets near her tonsils and those pockets get infected, and she has to basically use a q-tip and squeeze the gunk out manually. According to the doc, the only way to fix it is to have a tonsillectomy. Not at all what she wanted to hear. I told her that she just needs to get Dr. Hall to write a referral to ENT and she can have Dr. Roberts take a good look. She's hoping that there's some kind of interim step like just suturing up the openings to those pockets instead of removing the tonsils. I really wish I still had my tonsils... (Then again, a year after I had my tonsils out at age 7, I caught such a nasty case of tonsillitis I ended up stuck in the hospital for a week .)
More later, vicodin kicking in, and I'm having trouble typing coherently.
Saw Dr. Roberts. If he weren't incredibly INCREDIBLY skinny - like, zero body fat, skeleton-y skinny - he'd be seriously cute. He's still cute in the face, and I love his personality. He's so laid back there are times where I wonder if he's a secret stoner. He took out the splints in my nose! That would have been a great experience, had he actually numbed me up first. Instead, he went all up in there, snipped the stitches holding the splints in, and tugged. Those things were MASSIVE. A lot bigger than I'd imagined, but account for why I was so stuffed up this week. My nostrils are now all sore from the stitch-removing and stretching with the spreader-thingy, (that's what vicodin is for) but... I can breathe. Like a normal person with a normal nose!! Actually, the air flow up the right side is now a little bit better than the left. I am incredibly pleased with how this has helped just my ability to breathe. I've got another couple of weeks of healing before the swelling goes down completely. Once that happens, I will be able to figure out if it's helped my headaches. I'm really hoping it will. REALLY REALLY hoping.
I won't see him again until the summer, as a follow-up to see if the headaches have gone away, or at least been improved. *crosses fingers* Oh! Sis jumped in just as he was about to leave to ask him a medical question. She's been having this weird thing where junk gets trapped in these pockets near her tonsils and those pockets get infected, and she has to basically use a q-tip and squeeze the gunk out manually. According to the doc, the only way to fix it is to have a tonsillectomy. Not at all what she wanted to hear. I told her that she just needs to get Dr. Hall to write a referral to ENT and she can have Dr. Roberts take a good look. She's hoping that there's some kind of interim step like just suturing up the openings to those pockets instead of removing the tonsils. I really wish I still had my tonsils... (Then again, a year after I had my tonsils out at age 7, I caught such a nasty case of tonsillitis I ended up stuck in the hospital for a week .)
More later, vicodin kicking in, and I'm having trouble typing coherently.