Hematoma
I got the splints out of my nose today, which is a pretty weird experience. The PA told me that they were maybe 1-2 inches long "or so" but those fuckers were actually the length of my pinky and the width of small spoon, aka the appearance of something that is WAY too big to be up anyone's nose. It turns out the human sinuses are a HUGE place, all things considered.
But yeah, these things were gigantic and gross and probably the most unnerving part of my surgical experience so far. I never swear in professional company, but when the PA showed me what she had just pulled out, my only response was, "Well...shit." To make matters worse, they were covered in blood, mucus, and unidentified dark green matter, all of which she told me to expect to keep seeing for several weeks as my nose naturally cleans itself. Awesome. It also turns out that I was right about the stitching that I had noticed in the last couple days: there was indeed a stitch sewing the two splints together through my septum a la nasal piercing. This is important...
So I blow my nose once now that I'm allowed to and get out all of this horrible stuff that I want to pretend can't have possibly been up there for a week or more and I get the All Clear to do whatever it is that I want to do that I can handle, including eat hot foods, take hot showers, exercise, and whatever else. My nose feels mostly open and I'm feeling pretty good. Shortly hereafter, Paige swings by randomly and she, Rachel, and I go out to Pizza U and the park for a pizza lunch that I can now eat without fear of contorting my face into a number of painful expressions (essentially anything besides a neutral face that contorted my upper lip had become excruciating, but this was almost entirely gone post splint removal).
So we do pizza and all along I continue to notice that it feels like the left side of my nose is getting more and more congested. I also notice that every time I dab at it, I'm getting fresh blood. I was warned that I'd get blood as I blow my nose and I'd see traces of it for a while to come, but a constant supply of fresh blood that hasn't dried up even for a moment? I start to get concerned. As soon as I get back to the apartment around one something, I check it out with a flashlight. Shit is not good. It appears that the right side of my nose is completely open, as it's supposed to be, but the left side has this collapsed look like my septum has just squished itself into that nostril. Also, lots of bleeding to the point where it looks worse than it did with the splint. It takes me about 30 seconds to call the doctor and maybe a minute or two of consideration to decide to go back immediately.
It turns out that I quickly developed a very rare recovery complication called a hematoma, usually seen in bruise form or in really bad places like the brain, but apparently also remotely possible in odd healing places like the miniature tunnel established by stitching through one's septum. So basically, a bubble inside that wall separating my nostrils decided to seal, but keep bleeding, so it swelled up all nice and large full of blood and started leaking (but not as fast as it was filling, meaning it could simultaneously bleed and grow). The solution? Stab it with a really sharp needle and suck the blood out, then stick some super firm packing material up there to apply constant pressure until tomorrow when we reassess if it needs to be drained and packed again. If not, we're cool, and if so I need to have another appointment on Monday to assess again (which could result in an appointment on Tuesday and so on).
Basically, it really sucks. The stabbing part wasn't so bad, but holy SHIT this packing material is godawful in totally different ways than the splints were. The pressure is intense enough to block both nostrils, the left one entirely and the right one about 98% or more, and it's been creating this hefty headache of epic proportions FAR greater than any surgical headache I had. Yes, my nose hurt over the course of the last week and yes that was often acute and excruciating; this is more of a powerful vacuum stuck on high and trying to suck half of my head through my left temple. I got permission to take vicodin for it, which I was able to hold off on until this evening when it just became unbearable and I took two. Given the escalating pain and the fact that it seems like it's STILL actively bleeding, I'm not optimistic about tomorrow's appointment and I'm guessing that I'll have packing up there all weekend with another appointment on Monday. Fuck.