State of the Cassie Address: Many Months Later

Hi!

It's been a while.

You may have been assuming that I haven't updated this blog because everything has been going really well.  And you would be pretty much correct* in that assumption.

Since surgery, life has mostly gotten back to normal.  It's amazing how much of a difference having an open air-way makes.

I mean, it's seems obvious to say that breathing is important, but seriously. Breathing makes a huge difference!

A few months after my surgery, I was at an event at our big NBA stadium.  I was sitting with some friends near the floor,  so there were a couple stories worth of stair to go up to reach the level where concessions and restrooms are.  At one point, I ran up to the top and then realized that I had just run up several stairs and I wasn't winded.  I very nearly cried.

Since then, I've been taking full advantage of these newly available oxygen levels.   I was all set to run a 5K in October, but badly sprained my ankle two weeks before.

So, no 5K, but I've been doing other things.  Last week I went hiking for the first time in years. It was amazing.

I really didn't know how much I was limiting myself and what I was doing until all of a sudden I could do things again.

*But...

But...

Ok, so, it hasn't all been super great.

 My throat is in great shape.  And I am miles beyond where I was this time last year.

But my nose wasn't 100% fixed.  I mean, we didn't really expect it to be.

And the tearing in my eye came back.  So I went to my eye doctor and she was like "Go see your nose doctor because it might be nose stuff."

So I went and saw my nose doctor.  He stuck a scope up my nose and couldn't see the site of the eye surgery.  My middle turbinate was very inflamed and blocking off the opening to my tear duct.  He prescribed an anti-inflammatory nasal rinse with the hope that we could get the inflammation under control.  If that did work, he said, surgery.

So in the two months we gave that rinse to work, things have gotten worse.

It's always hard to tell with my nose if it's actually worse or not.  Changes in the weather, lots of dust, weird smells, all sorts of things make for bad nose days. But nose aside, the tearing is all back in my right eye and now I have some tearing in my left eye as well.

When things in that area are bad, it's probably an indication that things are bad.

So I'm seeing my rheumatologist tomorrow (lucky me got an appointment super fast). I might be ok, but I'm not optimistic.

Even if the Big Bad isn't doing its thing, my nose and possibly my eyes will need another surgery. It's just a question of whether that happens after a bout of GPA treatment or not.