wavesoflife

My turbinates have now been reduced. I won’t know for several weeks or more if they need to be reduced further.

It wasn’t that bad. I ended up a little annoyed when I first got there. No one was at the check-in window so I signed the clipboard. They were still at lunch. When the girl came back, she looked at the clipboard, crossed something out, and then put it away. There was also another older man waiting. She asked if anyone was here for an appointment. He said yes and she said about how you have to sign in. She checked him in and then a few minutes later asked me if I was here for an appointment. I told her why I was here and she asked my name. Afterwards, she said to sign in next time. I was like, I signed the clipboard. Then she said “oh, someone must have erased it.” Um yeah. The invisible man came and erased the name that you had just crossed off the clipboard.

So the nurse took me back to the room and sprayed some of that decongestant into my nose that they sprayed my first appointment. Then the doctor came in and proceeded to insert two sponges into each nostril that had the anesthetic on it. That was pretty unpleasant. They were limp sponges, about 1/4 inch wide and 1/8 inch thick. I had been imagining carrot stick like sponges stuck up my nose. They were okay once they were in.

After 10 minutes, he came back and took them out. While he used the laser, the nurse held a vacuum tube under my nose to suck out the smoke. The doctor told me other people had said it smelled like burnt chicken feathers. I’ve never smelled them myself, so I can’t say if it did or not. I ended up smelling that smell for most of the day. It took about 30 seconds for each side. It was slightly painful and I could feel the thing moving around in my nose. I did not like it.

Afterwards, he put some ointment up my nose and told me to put some on twice each day and to use a saline rinse 4-5 times a day, till I see him next week. It was slightly painful for several minutes afterwards. One side was bleeding for most of the afternoon. Not very much though. So far, my nose has only been slightly more congested then it was before. He said it may be more congested for up to a week afterwards. I was afraid it would be severe cold congested, but so far it’s okay. *knocks on wood*.

While it was not fun in the least, I’d choose that over any dental work any day of the week.

The Celexa hasn’t helped my energy level at all (but I’m still dealing with the sinus issues so I’m not feeling total normal).

I’ve noticed some other effects though. It hasn’t affected my happiness level or overall mood much.

But I do think about dying less often. I wasn’t suicidal or anything, but I did often think of my own death. Sometimes when I was feeling particularly bad I would almost wish for it.

I am less paranoid. Last fall I would panic most of the times we had windows open at night. I was sure someone was going to cut through the screens and attack us. I actually slept with the window open all night the other day without worrying about it.

I am also watching a lot of gory sci-fi/horror movies lately without being bothered at all. I don’t currently mind watching someone’s head get ripped off and eaten. I am also not bothered by suspenseful movies. For awhile I couldn’t really watch any. They made me too anxious. I’m enjoying this particular effect of the Celexa. The Sci-Fi channel had a whole bunch of mythical creature movies last month that I really enjoyed. I still refuse to watch any of the Saw movies though.

PS. Could you please click on the eggs at the bottom of my sidebar so my dragons will hatch? Thanks.

I went back to the ENT today for my followup appointment. I’m somewhat improved, but not that much. He said there’s not much else they can do for me regarding medication, so he recommending removing some of my turbinate in my sinuses. It’s an in-office procedure with local anesthetic. He said mine were extremely enlarged so I might need to have it done several times. It’s done using lasers and is painless. Still, I’m not looking forward to it. I’m having it done on the 17th.

I escaped going under the knife this time (do they even use an actual knife in sinus surgery?).

He said it’s likely that I will not need surgery. He didn’t see the actual cat scans yet, just the report. I picked them up and am bringing to my next appointment in three weeks. He changed my nose spray (Flonase to Nasonex), put me on a different antibiotic (Augmentin), and gave me three days worth of steriods. I wouldn’t have minded more of them. I know they’re not good for you, but they’re the only thing that has cleared up my asthma completely since I developed it and they give me energy. They also give me insomnia, but who needs sleep when you can clean! I took Prednisone for a couple weeks when I had bronchitis and was a little sad when I was out and went back to normal.

He also says they don’t remove cysts as often as they used to. He said something about the walls near my nose were really inflammed, even after he used the decongestant to look up my nose and that could be what is causing most of my discomfort.

I’m not too hopeful about this current course of medicine clearing everything up, but we’ll see.

I heard back from the family doctor today. I have a cyst in one, a mucisole(?) in one, and my sinuses are mostly blocked and inflammed. Fun.

I set up an ENT appointment for Feb. 12 and am not going to be surprised if I end up having surgery. Again.

I told Joe the other day that this was one test I wanted to come back normal, and of course it was abnormal.

On Monday I had a checkup with the rheumatologist. Told him about the hair loss and the fatigue. He checked my thyroid, sed rate, and liver enzymes. The liver enzymes were still high but the other two were normal.

He also put me on Celexa, to see if that gives me any energy. I think Celexa was the very first anti-depressant I was on, back in 2000. It didn’t do much for me. Right now it’s making me kind of sick to my stomach.

I saw the family doctor on Wednesday and told her about my sinus pain. I thought it was from the Micardis because sinus inflammation is one of the side effects, but she thought it was more likely a sinus infection. She put me on Avelox. I think it might be helping. I have a cat scan Monday of my sinuses to check them out since I’ve been getting pretty many sinus infections lately.

I’m pretty anxious about that. Or rather, the results. I had sinus surgery when I was 17 to remove cysts and widen my sinus passages. That was the worst out of all my surgeries. My nose was completely and totally stuffed up for a week afterwards. No air or anything else whatsoever was coming out of it. The ENT had to suck out all the …stuff… out of my nose, which was very very unpleasant. So I’m really hoping the results are normal.