Getting there...

Today was my first post-op appointment. I was so dreading it because I've heard horror stories about getting the packings taken out. They'd already told me to take a pain pill about 3o minutes before I got there, so I made sure I did. Dad took me because he didn't have to be at his office until like 10 or something.

Ran into a friend in the waiting room. He had basically the same surgery I did, and on the same day! Mine was before his. Mine took about an hour or a little more, and his took over 3 hours. He had polyps and gunk in his sinuses, even the ones in his forehead. I felt so bad for him.

Anyway, they took me back and he said he'd be real gentle, so I was grateful for that. Some of the stories I've heard told of doctors who said they'd count to 3 and then on 2 yanked both sides out at the same time. Anyway, about 5 minutes before, the nurse sprayed some numbing spray to help with the pain. I'm not sure how it would've felt without it, so I'm glad she did that. He gently pulled each string, and slowly but surely they came out. There was so much pressure built up in my head that was released after he did that! It did hurt, but not nearly what I thought it would be. Actually, the painful part came after that. It was still numb (sort of), so he took a big ole long suction tube and sucked out a TON of junk that I couldn't get to. Now that hurt. He'd hit a spot that wasn't completely numb, or just hit a spot in general (you know how sensitive your sinuses are) and I'd jump and he'd say "I'm sorry, but you have to be still, I'm real close to your eye." Wow, gee thanks man!

So I feel a lot better today. I still have some pressure, just from him being all in there today and it probably swelling back up after all that. Tonight I start the water pick cleansing. I've heard it's actually refreshing to get everything cleaned out.

But I've gone from this:
(nevermind the kleenex, you'd do it too if you had a constant drip, esp. having to spray every 20 min)



...to this: