Medical Nonsense

Hi again, friends!

I'm not even going to apologize for not posting lately.  Holidays are always crazy and I've had a pretty full month since December 19th.

Christmas was so wonderful!  It was jam-packed full of people and fun!  I admit, I was not good at taking pictures, mainly because I get picture-taking-shy when other people with cameras are around, because I feel like they've got it covered and who wants another random family member with a camera in their face, right?  Well, maybe not, but that's how I feel.  I'm sure that attitude will change once we have children.  Anyway, Christmas was great and I didn't even have to work New Year's Eve this year!  However, I was still exhausted and fell asleep on the couch at like 10:30 p.m.  Hunter was playing video games right next to me on the couch and I happened to wake up at midnight and I said, "Well, Happy New Year, I guess..."  He gave me a quick smooch and I went and got in the bed.  Apparently he had lost track of time and so my first married New Year's Eve when I was at home, we didn't even watch the ball drop or anything.  Life fail.  But at least I slept.

Now, onto more pressing matters.  I have had what I thought was just allergies and serious nasal congestion for over a year.  Right after we got married and moved into our current apartment, I was very sneezy and congested and just felt awful for several weeks, so Hunter finally coerced me into going to the doctor in November of 2011, who told me to take over-the-counter Allegra for my allergies.  So I did and the problem seemed to get a little better.  Well, my congestion was pretty bad until like April, and then for several months it was cured!  Then again around October-November-ish, it popped back up, but mainly in my left nostril.  And it has been fairly non-stop since then.  My co-workers can attest to the nights that it was really bad and I'd bring my own tissue box with "CRUMLEY" written all over it.  Real tissues are hard to come by in a hospital setting, and I had to mark my territory.

Long story short, it got really bad one night while I was at work and so I went to good ole Wally World the next morning and got a Neti Pot, which some of my coworkers swear by.  So I tried it.  When I put the Neti Pot to my right nostril, the saline solution simply flew out the back of my throat.  When I put it to my left nostril, literally nothing happened.  I thought, "Maybe the congestion is just so thick that it needs some time to loosen up..."  So I tried it again.  And again.  And again.  So after several failed attempts at clearing out my sinuses, I used that miraculous wonder named "Google" and looked up something to the tune of "what could be wrong if the Neti Pot doesn't work?"  So this one guy who posted on a forum or something said he went to the doctor and had a bone spur on one side and nasal polyps on the other side.  

Soooooo I made an appointment with an ENT.  On December 19th (hence the busy month), the doctor listened to my saga, looked up my nostrils, and told me I have nasal polyps.  I went and got a CT scan later that morning and went back to the ENT the next day to have the results read.  Turns out, this girl has a pretty intense case of nasal polyps.

So looking at this right now, the left side is the right side and vice versa.  The right side of my face is perfectly normal - the picture of sinus health.  Black = air = what it's supposed to look like.  The left side of my face, however, is clearly a different story.  From what I understand, the polyps are just from a little above the curl of my nose down there, curving around my eye, and up to where the gray meets the black.  The lower gray is probably just fluid and mucous built up with no way to escape because of the polyps.

I was actually a little bit relieved to know what was actually wrong, but more stressed out at the fact that I have to have surgery to get them removed.  Usually the doctor would pump me full of steroids and see if they shrank, but since I'm diabetic, that's out.  The polyps extend back into my sphenoid sinus, which is right next to my brain (which is the main reason I called Hunter immediately after my appointment crying - when someone says brain, it seems like a really bad thing), and the local ENT didn't feel comfortable doing the surgery himself.  Praise the Lord for doctors who know their limitations (for real...I was really impressed).  So he sent me to a specialist at MUSC.  He performed an endoscopy (put a tube up my nostrils with a little camera on the end), and I got to see the freaky things that look like huge gray boogers that have apparently been blocking my breathing for quite some time.  Both doctors think the polyps are caused by what's called Allergic Fungal Sinusitis, feel free to google that if you want.  It's pretty crazy.

(Okay, so I haven't really made this long story short at all.  But I feel like I have to give it justice.)

My surgery is scheduled for February 14 (Happy Valentine's Day to me).  I won't know the exact time until a few days before the surgery.  Hopefully it'll be outpatient, unless the bone between my sphenoid sinus and my brain gets cracked and causes a fluid leak, in which case I'll have to stay in the hospital a couple days for observation.  It should take around 3 hours and I'll be under general anesthesia with a breathing tube and all that fun stuff.

Up until the past week or so, my condition has caused me no pain, just annoyance and a lot of mouth-breathing while sleeping.  Last Sunday after church, I had killer sinus pressure.  I'm fairly realistic about pain.  On the pain scale, my opinion of a 10 is being on fire, bouncing off of boulders while falling off of a cliff, with someone actively sawing my limbs off with no anesthesia, falling onto sharp jagged rocks at the bottom of the cliff into a pool of sharks who proceed to rip me apart.  I was at a solid 6/10, 7/10 when I moved my head too fast and what not.  I am on antibiotics for the superimposed sinus infection.  I've had good days and bad days with my sinus pressures.  Unfortunately more bad than good.  On Saturday, I was completely out of commission for 3 hours, laying on my back in the dark with my sweet gel mask warmed up on my face as well as my corn bag on top of that to add pressure because it felt better.  So prayer warriors, if you wanna lift up my sinus pressure, I would greatly appreciate it.  And if anyone has any non-pharmacological things they do that helps their sinus pressure, I would LOVE to hear them!

My sweet gel mask.  Hunter laughs at me and calls me it my superhero mask.  But it feels amazing.  This is NOT the day my pain was 7/10.  It was probably a 4/10 on this day.

So I'm the lucky one with diabetes, high cholesterol, borderline high blood pressure, and now the random case of nasal polyps which are very likely to return in the next 4-5 years.  It's medical nonsense!  But God has provided for me every step of the way, and He will continue to bless us beyond all measure.  I will keep you posted closer to the surgery as to what time it's going to be.  Prayers will be very much appreciated!