Monday, January 19, 2009

My Sniffer

At the beginning of next month I have a somewhat big event. I'm having surgery to repair my sniffer. When I moved to NYC I started being more aware of the fact that my nose runs pretty much constantly when outside, at the gym, etc. and that I do not enjoy this. Whenever I go to spinning I take a wad of Kleenex to blow my nose throughout the class, regardless of whether I have a cold. This bothers me. Additionally, I'm always sick which I attributed to riding on public transport but apparently could be related to other issues.

I went to an ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat doctor) in November to talk to him about my nose issues and what I assumed to be a deviated septum. While we chatted he talked about a variety of health problems related to my throat (adenoids and tonsils - removed), ears (tubes when a kid and constant itching) and nose (constant draining). I've never checked off more boxes in my life. Snoring...check. Breathing through nose issues...check. Ear issues...check.

Anyway, he said, let's get a CT scan to see how bad your nose is, and a sleep study to see how bad your snoring is. He also shoved an incredibly long instrument up my nose which I can only assume was to have an up close and personal talk with my sinuses. Basically the CT scan found that I have a severely deviated septum which is likely to blame for my faucet nose and breathing issues and the sleep study found that I do NOT have sleep apnea like my dad. No Darth Vader mask for me. Woot! (FYI - it sounds more like Darth than looks) However, we did have this conversation:

Dr. Cohen: Did we discuss your snoring last visit?
Roxie: Not really, I told you I snored. You asked how bad it was and I said, people tell me it's loud.
Dr. Cohen: Well, I didn't realize how loud it was. Most people are +2 decibels above their baseline read, you are a +12 decibels. You snore impressively loud for such a small woman. I'd expect that reading for a very large man who is a hundred pounds overweight.

Did you hear that Internet? I snore like a lumberjack. Awesome.

Net-net, I'm having surgery in a couple weeks. There are two objectives. One, repair my sniffer. He'll basically cut out the cartilage that is blocking me from breathing and put in splints to ensure that it stays straight while it's healing. Two, he'll insert some implants into my soft palate that'll toughen it up and make it vibrate less while I'm sleeping (decrease snoring). The second part is elective but I figure if I'm going to get surgery to correct my snoring someday, I might as well do it while I'm under general anaesthesia. All surgery that is done under local anaesthetic freaks me out. "Roxie, open your tiny mouth really wide so I can shove some matchsticks into your soft palate, you won't feel a thing." Yeah, no.

So, basically, that's what's going on in my life in the next month or so! I'm really hoping that it has an effect on my breathing, etc. I've heard from a lot of people that it will completely change my life and be incredibly painful for a week. Come on pain pills!

If I'm not feeling self conscious I'll post post-op pictures of me with puffy face and bruised eyes but there is definitely a possibility that I'll be a touch self-conscious about looking like someone from the Goonies and will keep those under wraps.

Send out good wishes to me February 3rd!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I had given up on your blog. I had to actually type the entire address into my IE b/c you were no longer part of my history. Glad to have ya back. :-)

Abby said...

My friend's husband had the turbination surgery last month and she said he was in a lot of pain. Make sure you have lots of pain meds and someone to go pick up refills for you.

Anonymous said...

I hope your sniffer works top notch after your surgery. I am sending your GRE books off today so you will have something around to ease the pain, oh wait, I meant make it a hundred times worse. Lets have a phone date before you have surgery!

Unknown said...

Good wishes to you on almost Feb 3. (I'm your cousin Dan Bernard - Lorraine's son.) I just got off the phone with your Dad. He told me you work for Harris Interactive. I've been in the research business for 35 years! Maybe we can connect at the ARF conference (thearf.org) March 30/31. It's at the Marriot Marquis.