Beyond the Stone Age
Okay, I promised the story would continue in my last update... and so it does now.
But first we have to back up... back to the day the pain hit from my Kidney Stone trying (and failing) to pass, because I (purposely) left out a bit.
The next day, after the pain stopped... I came down with a sinus infection. Again. This is, by my reckoning, something like the sixth sinus infection in as many months. Sure enough, that night I couldn't breathe at all, and I woke up in the morning coughing and phlegmy. Awful. Same crap again. Over and over, I get better and it comes back.
I was sick of it, so I headed back to the doctor. The doctor sent me to get a sinus CT Scan, and then on to the Ear/Nose/Throat doctor. There, I got my sinuses numbed by some sort of medicated spray, and the doctor took cultures from three places in the back of my sinuses. Even with the numbing, it felt like she was ramming those q-tip things so far back, she was actually sampling brain tissue. Yikes.
Well, a week later (after the lithotripsy to zap the stuck kidney stone) the results come back: fungal infection. The prescription? A 3-times-a-day nasal wash with anti-fungal agents. A forced nasal wash, not like the gravity-fed netti-pots. Anyway, the news made sense and explained all the problems I have been having. And while essentially water-boarding myself 3 times a day is the farthest thing from pleasant, my infection did clear up. So yay.
Only... remember that CT scan? Yeah. Well. It didn't find any major pockets of infection, so that was good, but it did find something that essentially explains my life-long sinus problems, aggravated by allergies and such: a deviated septum combined with enlarged turbinates.
Okay, everyone's heard of a deviated septum, but I'd never heard of turbinates before. They're the curled structures on either side of the center-line of your nose inside. Google them, it's interesting... honest :-). Anyway, mine were such that, when combined with the deviation, explained why even the slightest inflammation would completely seal off my left nostril, among many other things I've suffered through over the years.
So ... surgery. Which is where I'm heading tomorrow morning (less than 10 hours from now as I type this). From all I hear, I'm expecting about a week of misery as down-payment for significant relief for the rest of my life. After all, they'll be chipping away at bone, and burning away flesh inside my nose. Eeep. At least I have good drugs (I hope!).
So this is how I'll spend my Memorial Day weekend... stoned out of my mind, in pain, unable to wear pull-over shirts for a week or two, with packing up my nose. Do I know how to live or what?
But first we have to back up... back to the day the pain hit from my Kidney Stone trying (and failing) to pass, because I (purposely) left out a bit.
The next day, after the pain stopped... I came down with a sinus infection. Again. This is, by my reckoning, something like the sixth sinus infection in as many months. Sure enough, that night I couldn't breathe at all, and I woke up in the morning coughing and phlegmy. Awful. Same crap again. Over and over, I get better and it comes back.
I was sick of it, so I headed back to the doctor. The doctor sent me to get a sinus CT Scan, and then on to the Ear/Nose/Throat doctor. There, I got my sinuses numbed by some sort of medicated spray, and the doctor took cultures from three places in the back of my sinuses. Even with the numbing, it felt like she was ramming those q-tip things so far back, she was actually sampling brain tissue. Yikes.
Well, a week later (after the lithotripsy to zap the stuck kidney stone) the results come back: fungal infection. The prescription? A 3-times-a-day nasal wash with anti-fungal agents. A forced nasal wash, not like the gravity-fed netti-pots. Anyway, the news made sense and explained all the problems I have been having. And while essentially water-boarding myself 3 times a day is the farthest thing from pleasant, my infection did clear up. So yay.
Only... remember that CT scan? Yeah. Well. It didn't find any major pockets of infection, so that was good, but it did find something that essentially explains my life-long sinus problems, aggravated by allergies and such: a deviated septum combined with enlarged turbinates.
Okay, everyone's heard of a deviated septum, but I'd never heard of turbinates before. They're the curled structures on either side of the center-line of your nose inside. Google them, it's interesting... honest :-). Anyway, mine were such that, when combined with the deviation, explained why even the slightest inflammation would completely seal off my left nostril, among many other things I've suffered through over the years.
So ... surgery. Which is where I'm heading tomorrow morning (less than 10 hours from now as I type this). From all I hear, I'm expecting about a week of misery as down-payment for significant relief for the rest of my life. After all, they'll be chipping away at bone, and burning away flesh inside my nose. Eeep. At least I have good drugs (I hope!).
So this is how I'll spend my Memorial Day weekend... stoned out of my mind, in pain, unable to wear pull-over shirts for a week or two, with packing up my nose. Do I know how to live or what?