Imagine This!

So, 38 1/2 hours ago I had sinus surgery. I was put under MAC (Monitored Anesthesia Control), so I was fully awake, just sedated. The surgeon used local anesthetic to numb the nasal and sinus passages, so all I felt most of the time was pressure. There were two times he had to administer more numbie-meds, all-in-all, it wasn't too bad. The freaky part was the noise. He was also fixing my septum, which was deviated on the left side. When the first administered the MAC, I was unconscious for maybe ten minutes. I woke to cutting and snipping. Then I heard the doc say, "Tap, tap." The nurse tapped on a chisel-like instrument the doc held, presumably to break up the septum. They did this four or five times. I kept thinking, "That thing is going to go right into my brain!" My bones are weak from osteoperosis, and I couldn't help imagining the base of my skull, under my brain, just cracking.

"That's loud in here," I said.

"It's just sound effects so you think you're really getting your money's worth," the nurse answered.

We joked around like that alot for the rest of the procedure. Once they were done chiseling, I wasn't too nervous anymore. I had a covering over my eyes, and around my mouth, over my chin. When the doc would move sometimes I could see the surgical spotlights through the covering. I kept saying, "No, Steve, don't head into the light!"

They had a problem with the camera and monitor, so the doc was "flying blind," he joked. Almost at the end of the surgery the technician got there to fix the resolution. The problem was that everything had a green tint. They could see what they were doing, just not as clearly as they should have been able to. The tech fixed it, and they marvelled about the new HD software. I was his first patient to have the surgery done where they could see what they were doing in High Definition, and the damn thing wasn't working properly for 7/8ths of the operation. Oh, well. There were no complications, so I'm not complaining.

I can already breathe better. I didn't think I would notice a change this fast. I was able to stop wearing the drip pad already, there is no bruising, and very little swelling. Considering all the work he did up in there, I'm shocked at that. The doc said all my sinus cavities were completely blocked off. Lately I've been using my asthma inhaler many times a day--today I used it three times. And only one puff each time, whereas usually I use two or three puffs.

So I'm glad I had the surgery; maybe I won't go to the ER so much now. Since November I've been to the ER and Urgent Care at least ten times, and admitted to the hospital twice, most recently Easter weekend. Here's to my doc, may I never need your services again--at least not for surgery.