Recovery....

I wrote this blog post about a week ago regarding my lovely sinus surgery, but I never put it up. I have edited it a bit and figured now would be a good time to post something!

I have to give a shout out to Marit for answering a ton of my questions once I got back home from my surgery. She was extremely informative and helpful, and I really appreciated it! She even let me whine a bit =).

Basically I had splints in my nose to keep my repaired deviated septum in place, an unknown amount of gauze in my sinuses from the endoscopic surgery to make my sinuses drain better, and a ton of pain. I had instructions not to blow my nose, and if I were to sneeze, to do so through my mouth (not a problem as I don't do much with my nose to begin with).

I have had one trip to the ER for a pain control issue. I had my husband take me to the ER where I work, which was fabulous. They were great and sent me home after a pain shot, and with a new prescription for percocet (which I asked for initially but my surgeon didn't want to give me). I was lucky it was not busy when I went in.

After I started the percocet, my day was been split into 4 hour intervals. I didn't really like being this dependent on a drug, but I am a wuss when it comes to this type of pain and hoped against hope I could stop the narcotic once the dreaded splints were out (a week after the initial surgery).

My friends and family have been great. David stayed with me on Wednesday after our midnight trip to the ER. My friend Jen came over on Thursday armed with Jamba Juice and we watched a movie (okay fine, we watched New Moon =>). Friday I was on my own but my dad made a trip to get me enough pain meds and gauze to last me through the weekend. I feel like I should buy stock in Odawalla and Jamba Juice. I have had numerous offers from others to go and run errands for me, etc., and I appreciate them all.

My splints came out the Tuesday after my surgery. I was very scared that their removal was going to hurt, a lot. We got to the doctor early, and he actually saw me early (?!). I asked him to numb my nose, but he responded that it is a pretty hard thing to do. He cut the suture that was holding them in and pulled them out, one at a time, with some medical tweezers. It was painful, but not horrible. I felt immediate relief. It was wonderful. Here is a picture of what the splints look like before they're inserted this is almost to scale, I couldn't believe how ginormous they were when I got a good look at them:


Things have been much better since the splints have come out. I continued to sleep in fits though, last night was the first night I actually slept an entire night without waking up, so it took about 2 weeks in total to get back to a normal sleep schedule. I lost my taste for a little over a week, but it's back now so that made me happy. It's so weird when you can't taste.

Advil has been good enough for the pain. I haven't had any more narcotics since the day my splints were removed, that's good enough for me. I don't know how all of these people get hooked on narcotics. All I have to say about that is they must eat a TON of fiber in their diets.

May marked an exciting anniversary for me as well. It has been exactly one year since I graduated from Nursing School. That is just, well, crazy! I cannot believe it has been a year. I am looking forward to a summer of not studying and worrying about taking my boards, and whether or not I am going to find a job. The time since graduation seems to have just flown by. I have been in my current job in the ER for 6 months now. I still LOVE my job. I work with incredible people and I still have much, much, much to learn.

Here's a picture of David and me at graduation:


I have started training again, albeit slowly. Which is fine with me. I could feel the pressure in my nose yesterday with some of the TRX moves, but it wasn't too bad. Running and biking don't seem to bother it at all. I am going to try swimming tonight. I have chosen to attend the late night practice, because I am not really sure what I might be adding to the pool. I know, gross, but hopefully no one will see it, and I will be in my own lane!

In the meantime, I need to convince my husband/mechanic to put my new road pedals on my bike so I can figure out how to clip in and out with my new road shoes. I have ridden with mountain bike pedals and shoes for ten years, so it should be interesting. It was definitely time for new shoes!

The weather is supposed to be beautiful for a few more days, and then it will be summer. This seems to be the year of the "one week of Spring". Oh well. At least it's not raining!