weird experiences post surgery

(I actually wrote this on 6/3 but hadn't posted it, so there are more updates to follow)

I've been away awhile. Not sick, just not writing. Today I felt like sharing a few thoughts on the weird feeling resulting from my recent surgery to hopefully cure my sleep apnea. It's been one week. They did a septoplasty - where they straighten out the septum that runs up the middle of your nose dividing nostrils into left and right. Evidently those can be pretty windy instead of straight. While they were in there they did a turbinate trim - these are the boney wall like structures that make up your various sinus areas. Evidently the walls can be too thick and they go sheer them away a bit. They moved into my throat where they did a tonsilectomy - didn't lose them as a kid. And they did a UPPP which is a really long word for taking out part of the soft pallet at the back of the roof of your mouth and removing your uvula (punching bag). Then they did a radio frequency reduction to the base of the tongue. Lots of work. All went well. I really expected my throat to be the worst of the experience. Not even close. True, it looks weird to look into my throat and see no punching bag in sight. And it feels weird to feel all of those little stitches back there tickling the back of my tongue like some tiny, bristly little kitten sitting there. But my sinuses have been the thing that has been tweaking me this past week.

First, they were packed for the first night. I had a sling under my nose to catch any runoff blood. Nice. Worked well though I must say. Even with the morphine - which didn't really seem that impressive - and the liquid vicodine - which really does work - I was up most of the night with a painful nose. And I could feel the packing, which felt wrong. The next morning the good doctor said to come by so he could remove the packing. My partner went with me. She watched as he pulled a plug from my nose - I closed my eyes and dealt with the feeling. Hmm. Not bad. Air. She says oh that wasn't very long at all. Not bad. Nice Doctor turns back around and says Ok time to take out the packing. Uh..oh. I did not watch. It felt like someone removed a t-shirt through my nose. She said, oh that was kind of long. yuck. Then he took a tiny little tool and vacuumed out my sinuses. Oh, this was a bad sound and a worse feeling. It didn't hurt. It's important to know that it didn't hurt. It was just, disturbing, unsettling. Go on home, don't blow for 4 days. You betcha!

OK, so I can see I have furry little stitches at the back of my throat. And they aren't going to let me forget about them. But my nose has stitches too. It has stitches inside the left nostril - the side ALL the knots fall on. Evidently every stitch in my nose tied off in the left nostril. So I carried tissue around to dab at my nose gently while it healed. It was doing pretty well though.