Pain and recovery
Recovery from surgery has had it's ups and downs. Two days after my surgery I had to go back to the clinic and Dr. Tansek removed the packing from my nose. It seems like a distant memory tonight, as I have a head ache lingering around the bridge of nose. I would say the entire process of being sick for months with migraines, and digestion issues from being on antibiotics for extended periods of times, the surgery itself and recovery so far...the removal of the packing in my nose was by far the worst, and actually one of the more painful things I've endured in my life time. This had nothing to do with Dr. Tansek, and she was quite comforting at my obvious distress but necessary and something that just has to happen when having had sinus surgery. I couldn't believe the amount of packing material that was in my nose, hard to believe my sinuses could hold so much. The removal was both painful and sickening, literally. Dr. Tansek explained to me the nausea reaction was due to the proximity of my vagus nerve. There's one vagus nerve on each side of your body, running from your brainstem through your neck to your chest and abdomen and it contains motor and sensory fibers. I assume this is a normal reaction, as my doctor didn't seem surprised in any way to my rapid breathing, nausea and bleeding from my nose. It's an unpleasant experience and I even had a little bit of lidocaine up my nose.
Venturing out of the house, and this was the first time I had since surgery with my father in law was rather strange. I didn't have my glasses on as they don't sit very well on the cast on my nose but the looks I was receiving were confused, judging, and a random range of other things. It was probably a good thing, my very tall and very muscular parent with me stayed down in the atrium while I went to the clinic on the sixth floor. I would assume that at least a few of the people staring at me just might assume I'm a domestic abuse victim, and probably half of those people definitely thought that when they saw Clint with me. People judging other people without a shred of knowledge leads to erroneous conclusions like that. Over the last week the swelling and bruising has gone down but I still look like a racoon today, so it was much worse a few days ago.
Most of my days I've spent sleeping and trying to take as little percocet as I can, but that stronger pain medication has proven a necessity, as some days my head aches and pain can climb quite high if I'm not staying on top of managing it. Today was a harder day, it's been five days post surgery I believe, and I'm a pretty active person with many projects I want to finish or start around the house....and on the house for that matter and I've been stuck inside resting for too long. I don't have my cast removed until Friday, so we'll have to see if I can try to keep myself a little more busy in the coming days so I don't become as depressed as I felt today. I laid on the bed and watched the leaves blowing in the tree in the neighbors yard through the window. It's been good weather at least.
Venturing out of the house, and this was the first time I had since surgery with my father in law was rather strange. I didn't have my glasses on as they don't sit very well on the cast on my nose but the looks I was receiving were confused, judging, and a random range of other things. It was probably a good thing, my very tall and very muscular parent with me stayed down in the atrium while I went to the clinic on the sixth floor. I would assume that at least a few of the people staring at me just might assume I'm a domestic abuse victim, and probably half of those people definitely thought that when they saw Clint with me. People judging other people without a shred of knowledge leads to erroneous conclusions like that. Over the last week the swelling and bruising has gone down but I still look like a racoon today, so it was much worse a few days ago.
Most of my days I've spent sleeping and trying to take as little percocet as I can, but that stronger pain medication has proven a necessity, as some days my head aches and pain can climb quite high if I'm not staying on top of managing it. Today was a harder day, it's been five days post surgery I believe, and I'm a pretty active person with many projects I want to finish or start around the house....and on the house for that matter and I've been stuck inside resting for too long. I don't have my cast removed until Friday, so we'll have to see if I can try to keep myself a little more busy in the coming days so I don't become as depressed as I felt today. I laid on the bed and watched the leaves blowing in the tree in the neighbors yard through the window. It's been good weather at least.