Monday, July 25, 2016

Tomorrow is Surgery Day

In the morning I'm having my surgeries. 

I'm pretty excited. Not so much for the operation itself, but for the results. I'm excited for progress. 

I don't think it's realistic to expect the procedure to fix everything. I've pretty much made peace with the idea that my nose is always going to be messed up. But it should be better than it is now, after all I have a really good nose Doctor going in there. 

My eye is going to be better. I'm so excited to be able to wear eye makeup. It sounds a little silly, but I really do miss playing with makeup. 

My throat will definitely be better too. That whole breathing thing is going to be way easier. 

I'm so ready. 

That said, surgery is kind of a bit deal, so send me your good thoughts tomorrow. I'm not worried, but positive group vibes never hurt. 

I'll see you on the other side!

Monday, July 18, 2016

Things are Happening!

I’m taking prednisone again! Hooray! … wait… no, not hooray.
It’s only for the week prior to my surgery.  
My surgery is in a week.

I’m looking forward to it.  Well, it’s more accurate to say I’m looking forward to 3-6 weeks after it happens.  I can’t say which I’m more excited about - being able to breathe, or not having my eye water constantly.  Probably the breathing is more important, but I’m really excited about being able to wear eye makeup again.  Seriously.  I have some great eye make up, and I think it’s really fun.  I may go to Sephora or someplace like that and splurge on some really fancy eye shadow.

For the moment though, I’m going a little bit crazy.  We’re taking a little vacation* this week - we get back the day before the operation - and I’m a tiny bit stressed about getting everything done.

At this point, because I’ve been scrambling to do things, I actually have most of what I need to get done finished.  There are a few things left on my to-do list, but they are small, and can be done quickly in the next couple days.

Once we’re on the plane I will calm down.  That’s my deadline for everything.  Vacation time is time to relax before some very good doctors go to town on my face and throat.  Then I’ll have good drugs so I won’t worry about anything.

Actually, I’m getting lortab, which I’m not a super fan of.  I’ll take it to kill the pain, but hopefully I won’t have to take it much.  It pretty much just knocks me out and makes me woozy.  I don’t really like the feeling of drug induced sleep.

Here is a picture of my fierce face-eating cat.  This photo is serving as a transition instead of some kind of literary devise or something.  It's my blog I can be a lazy writer if I want to!  
Time is passing for me in a series of landmarks (except time related instead of land... timemarks?) or milestones on the way to surgery. They will continue after the surgery too. These are they - finished ones are crossed out - including parenthetical commentary (I enjoy parenthesis):

  • Pre-Op Nose Doctor apt (Lots of post-op instructions. And my nose doctor is fantastic! At my request he walked me through exactly what he is going to do. He also gave me a couple precriptions (antibiotics and lortab) for post surgery)
  • Anesthesia Pre-Op apt (This felt like a little bit of a waste of time. They didn't really do much. The nurse I met with was very surprised that they were planning on doing the whole surgical jam session as outpatient, so I guess there might be a good chance I'll be hanging out in the hospital over night. That will eat up my insurance deductible & probably my max out of pocket. yay? On the plus side, when I checked in for this appointment, they also early-checked me in for the surgery so day of I just have to pick up my ID bracelet)
  • Rheumatologist apt (Actually not really directly related to the surgery. Just a regular every-three-months-appointment I get to do. Still, it's kind of nice to check in with him)
  • No More Asprin or NSAIDs (This is hard. I think I may have come slightly dependent on my Excedrin and Naproxin to mitigate the aches and pains my sinuses and eye cause. But it is what it is)
  • Start Prednisone (hooray?  The prednisone is the eye doctor's doing.  The reason I'm taking it is to reduce inflamation in my eye, both before and after surgery.  I only have to take it for a week. Still, not my favorite thing.  So that started today.  Surgery is a week from tomorrow)
  • Last 3 days of work (this week I'm working a different schedule than normal so I can take less time for our vacation.  The good news is that we're going to be gone over a local holiday, so I am only missing one day of work - I'm planning to work extra so I only have to take 4 hrs of vacation for that day)
  • Vacation! (woo!)
  • Call Surgical Center for Surgery Time (I get to do this while we're out of town.  Hopefully, I'll get a time first thing in the a.m.)
  • Come home
  • Surgery
  • 1 week: off work (hopefully not more)
  • Nose apt to get stents removed (2 weeks post-op)
  • 3 weeks: no heavy lifting
  • 6 weeks: total healing process
  • 12 weeks: Eye Stent removal
So that's what is happening.  I actually find it very relaxing to have it all laid out like that.  

Here is my other cat for balance.  She will not eat anyone's face.  She's very good at hiding.  In fact, she is so good at hiding, my dad doubts her existence.  She's actually very sweet though. And fluffy.





*I considered not mentioning our vacation because every now and then you hear about someone who’s house was broken into because they announced to the internet that they were going to be gone for several days.  But anyone who is thinking of robbing us while we’re gone - I have a fierce cat who will eat your face!  Also, I have people checking in on my house (well, checking in on my cats at least, but they are at my house) regularly.  Also also, I don’t really have anything worth stealing.