Second trip to the EN&T doctor

I went to the EN&T doctor to have my nose cleaned again.  Now the last time I had this done, I likened the experience to having a bus taken out of my nostril. I was not expecting this trip to be so eventful, but it appears I am not quite done healing up yet, and there is still a lot of blood crusting in my nose, so yesterday was quite a lot of pain again, as more double-decker buses were removed from my nose. I see him in another 2 weeks.

oops left the staples

So I was talking to the Neurology office, asking them about my next appointment, and wondering when I was going to get the staples out of my back.  I think I explained earlier that staples were put into my lumbar area, to close up the lumbar puncture they did for my brain surgery.

The PA (Physicians Assistant) was mortified that the staples were not removed yet, they should have been removed two weeks after surgery. They made an appointment for the next day.

I went yesterday to my Neurosurgeon's office and they removed the staples. Now when they put in the staples, I felt it, and it was not very comfortable. However, taking them out (and there were four plus a suture) I only felt two staples, the other ones came out just fine.  So if you have staples, start asking when they are coming out by week two.

Do what the man says

Just a little postette -

I suppose the freedom of breathing kinda went to my head.  My EN&T doctor told me "Now Thom, take it easy, you are still not all the way recovered."

I guess that take it easy does not mean go home and try to clean the kitchen. Now my lumbar puncture is throbbing (which has never happened before) and my head feels like it is going to explode.  But on the bright side, I made Cherry Chip cupcakes by Betty Crocker.

Thursday - the big suck!

So this morning I went to my Ear Nose and Throat doctor, to have him clean out my nose.  I was warned by him before surgery that he was going to see me a couple of weeks after my surgery to clean out my nose. 

I have had draining in the back of my throat, and sometimes it feels like I am drowning.  When this happens (usually at night when I am going to bed) I stack up pillows, and even though I am sleeping in an almost sitting position, I don't feel like I am drowning in my own mucus.

I checked in with my doctor, and he explained what he was going to do. He told me this was the worst thing since surgery, because he was going to take his scope up my nose, and vacuum out all of the dried blood, packing and mucus in my nose.  About an hour before I had a mini coughing fit, and some mucus came up, so I was once again worried that the "Fat Patch" might come loose.

The first thing the doctor did, was he sprayed some numbing agent in my nose, then he told me this was going to be very uncomfortable, and if I wanted him to stop, he would.  He stuck both the vacuum and the endoscope up my nose, and started suctioning. I could feel him inside all the sinus cavities, and by the sound of the vacuum he was getting a lot of matter.

He kept apologizing for the discomfort, and asked if I wanted him to stop. I felt if I did have him stop, it would only prolong the agony, so I soldiered ahead.

He then took out some forceps and told me this was really going to be uncomfortable, because he found a "crusty" and it needed to be removed.  My eye on the right side was watering profusely (he was in the right nostril), and he started pulling.  It felt like he was pulling a bus through my nose, and then he totally extracted the "crusty." I am sorry if this is too graphic, but it was about an inch long, and about as big around as a fountain pen: It was crusted blood and solid.

Then he did the same thing on the left side, and extracted another "crusty" about the same size from that side.

Before the doctor did all of this, I had a severe headache behind and to the left of my right eye. After he was done, the pain went away. Now I can smell things, and not that awful smell from earlier this week.  The doctor said sometimes something can invade our sinuses, and we just have to do the best we can.

I will be back with the doctor for another cleaning in a couple of weeks. We will see how things go, about a month before surgery, my wife and I made dinner reservations and paid for the meal for our Anniversary which is coming up this Saturday. I am hopeful that I will be able to taste the meal, and not have just sweet and salty as my taste sensations.

I did ask the doctor about the "fat patch" and if it was still intact, he said it was doing just fine. I told him it worried me, and he said it was something that they are always concerned about as well. I am very glad my "fat patch" is still intact.

First couple of weeks after surgery

So my first couple of weeks are now over, and they have not been the best of times. So let me take you back to my first Monday after being released from the hospital.  Literally I could not do anything; I laid in bed for the first week, I finished a couple of books, and slept a lot. my head still hurt, and I had to use suppositories for myself to become regular. I cannot taste anything except for salty and sweet. I find this the most disturbing, because I love the flavor of my wife's cooking, but now all I taste is these two ingredients.

By Friday, I had managed to get out of bed for most of the day.  I took to using a walking stick to make it around the house, because I do get dizzy really easy. On Saturday I really wanted to get out of the house, and even though my wife thought it was a bad idea, I went anyway: Just down the street to pick my daughter up from work.

Saturday marked the first day with out sleep, but I also have not needed any pain medication. I have just been dizzy.

On Sunday we had a little further excursion, and even went so far as to go shopping, but I became very dizzy, and so I sat a lot, and used my walking stick to steady myself.

The beginning of this week, I have been up and out of bed all day. I do just sit a lot, but I have projects I can do while sitting and it keeps my mind busy. On Monday night I had a really bad smell hit my sinuses, I should have been happy, because I could smell something. But this smell was a sickly sweet perfume smell, and it invaded my taste and my nose. I tried to smell coffee, it smelled like the perfume, I even resorted to a spoonful of vinegar to get rid of the taste, that vinegar tasted like an astringent plus the perfume.

I got a really bad headache Monday night, and took what the hospital sent home with me; the first pain pill I have had since Saturday, but I slept.

Wednesday I woke up without a headache and without that awful smell. I had  pretty uneventful day but I had a headache for most of it.  I know I could take the pills, but they are running low, and if I need them in the future, I want them to be there.  However I took one more on Wednesday night and slept all night long.

Going home day - Sunday

I know why I don't like hospitals, they tell you to get rest, and then they wake you every two hours to give you something to sleep. Go figure.

I woke up on Sunday morning, the night before I had my catheter removed, to kinda get me ready for checkout, but I was still feeling kinda yucky. I have no sense of smell since the surgery, so I could not tell if I stunk or not, but considering the nurses were reluctant to visit my room, I figured I must smell quite awful.

My wife will never tell me I stink, unless I have been manning a campfire, then she has no qualms with expressing my odorous nature, but in the hospital room, she would sit there and hold my hand.

In short, I had to take a shower. My neck still hurt, and my head was pounding, but I figured a shower, some clean underwear and a clean gown would make me feel like a new penny, and after the cleaning exercise, I was correct. I really enjoyed the bathing. The hot water even felt good on my neck.

I took a cruise around the floor with my wife, and felt a little unsteady, even dizzy at times, but I felt than was probably normal; plus in the "Once You Return Home" section of the discharge paperwork, it does not say anything about being dizzy.In fact the list is this:

• Difficulty breathing or unusual shortness of breath
• Chest pain
• Excessive bleeding or drainage at the operative site - hum the bloody nose from Saturday, interesting.
• Persistent nausea or vomiting - key word here is persistent
• Fever, chills, and /or increased pain that is not relieved by pain medication.

So the dizziness must be - at least by the indications of this list - kinda normal. So I went with it.

My wife had to leave, and I started checking out procedures. It took about an hour, and I was checked out of the hospital: Vowing I would never return (I should really stop doing that, since in one year I have been there five times for different reasons.)

We got to the car, and about a mile from the hospital, I started vomiting. I am glad her and the kids had Taco Bell the night before, and my youngest son disregarded his mother's instructions to clean out the car. I lost all my breakfast and lunch in the seven miles to the house, and mixed it with the remnants from the families previous excursion. Not fun but I was home.

I came inside and I went to bed.

Three days after surgery - Saturday

Saturday marked my last day in ICU. I was happy and excited.  The problem with happiness and excitement is: They fade, and sometimes as fast as a drop of water on a summer sidewalk in Phoenix Arizona.

I ate a good breakfast, and the guy came into take my lumbar drain out. Now this is also something they don't share in the vacation literature. The drain comes out, but they have to seal it up.

So they had me roll over on my side, and I felt the drain come out of my spine. That was a little uncomfortable, then the guy said, "OK, now I am going to staple you shut."

"What the...!!!"

I felt the first staple go in and I heard the ca-chunk. then the second staple. I could only imaging what it looked like. I was being sealed like a bag before being shipped on a FedEx truck. Ca-chunk! Ca-chunk!

It felt like he put in five staples, but the ICU nurse told my wife it was only two. Now I had to lay on my back for nine hours without moving, to make sure the patch worked. I did just that.

I was again disoriented, the pain in my lower back, now matched my head, neck and shoulders. I was not going to go through that again.  So when the lady came in to take my blood, I told her she couldn't, because I thought she wanted me to sit up. My wife was in the room, and apparently I was not making any sense. After my wife explained why she was doing this, I let her. It's alright, she exacted her revenge. She took out one of the needles, and pressed hard enough to leave a bruise on my arm.

I ate laying down, and then the doctor came in, told me that I would be going home on the next day. Home, I wanted to go home, to get out of the hospital, and if I could go home on Sunday, than my wife would not have to take another day off work.

I still had not had a BM, but my wife and the nurses said for me not to worry.

That evening after my wife and children went home, about 7:30, I was sitting up in my chair, and a gargantuan pain came over my head, it felt like one of J.R.R Token's Orks was squishing my head between his hands, just to put my brain jelly on his toast.  I bent forward to try to relieve the pain, and my nose started bleeding. The last time I had a bloody nose I was in the ninth grade, and even though I just had brain surgery, I did not know if this was important.

I rang the nurse. "Just one moment," she said.

Ten minutes past, my nose still bleeding, putting my head back, only cause my head to ache more, and my ears to ring, so I was kinda stuck.

I rang again. "I said just a moment,"

Which I retorted. "A moment is at most sixty seconds, I rang 10 minutes ago."

"We will be there as soon as we can."

So I started yelling into the hall, and a doctor (not mine) came into the room, helped me to my bed, and got my nurse. I was ready to go home. Even with my wife working away from home, I would understand 10 minutes to get to me.