I have suffered from a sinus infection for the past four months. We threw antibiotics and Prednisone at it, but nothing helped. I saw several doctors for second opinions. On August 30th I had another second opinion and a CT scan. The scan showed that the sinus infection was ten times worse than it had been on other scans. The scan and all of the opinions pointing to surgery as my only means of relief convinced me to have sinus surgery. Miraculously the insurance company approved the surgery quickly, and on Thursday I had it done. Dr. Merritt, my ENT doctor at Southwest Idaho Ear Nose and Throat, performed the surgery.
I had to fast for surgery. Uhl and I went to the Southwest Idaho ENT Surgery Center at 8:55 am. We checked in and waited to be taken back to the surgery prep area. While waiting a lady took out some food in the waiting room. I thought it odd that people could eat, since all the patients would be fasting. The receptionist quickly and politely asked the woman to leave the room to eat, since those waiting for surgery can’t eat.
Jenny Servatius was the nurse who took me back to prepare me for surgery. Uhl was able to come back with me. Jenny asked me five different ways if I had anything to eat or drink in the last 12 hours. You know the questions are asked because someone in the past hasn’t considered candy, gum, etc a food. I changed into a gown for surgery. Jenny put me in a bed and put a warm blanket over me. That was a nice touch. She took my blood pressure and oxygen saturation. Then she put an IV into my left arm. She gave me a shot to numb my arm first, and then she put the IV in. She hit the vein perfectly; she said that she looked at my arms when we came back and thought I had good veins.
Dr. Brian Kerr, the anesthesiologist, came and talked to me. He went over my health history. Uhl and I told him that I am a lightweight, so it doesn’t take much to put me out. Dr. Kerr said that there needs to be one word in the English language to describe someone who doesn’t need a lot of anesthesia. I told Dr. Kerr and Jenny about my crash on the velodrome. Dr. Kerr must know a bit about cycling because he knew there wasn’t a velodrome in Boise.
Uhl decided to take photos of the IV dripping; it took a few tries, but he got a picture of the drop falling. Dr. Merritt came in and talked to us. Jenny put some medication into my IV to help with nausea after surgery. I had a lot of nausea after my hand/collarbone surgery, and I don’t know if it was the general anesthesia or the morphine they gave me after surgery.
Laurie Southers and Marnie Vining took me into the surgical room at 10:17 am. I had to move from my comfortable bed to the cold surgical table. Laurie undid the knots in my gown so I didn’t lie on them during surgery. They got me set up on the table, and I got to keep the blanket on me. They put my hair back and then put drapes it over my face before surgery. They put the oxygen mask on my face and had me take some deep breaths. Laurie said that the mask smelled like a beach ball, which it did. They told me they would put Lidocaine into my IV, which would numb my veins because the anesthesia tends to sting the veins. Marnie told me that she would put a breathing tube down my throat once they put me out, and she would breathe for me during the surgery. They showed me the anesthesia; it was in two syringes and looked milky white. They called it “milk of amnesia.”
Dr. Merritt came into the room. I wanted to make sure he would take cultures of the sinus pus. He said that he would. I also told him to give me my post-op talk with Uhl there, so he would remember what was said. Dr. Merritt said that after his knee surgery he had a 15 min talk with the Dr, and he didn’t remember it later. Dr. Merritt then said, “I didn’t ride this morning before surgery. Riding seems to fatigue my arms and gives me ticks. I will do Bogus after surgery.” I was very happy he didn’t ride before surgery. They put the mask back on my face and said they were injecting the “milk of amnesia” so I should be out in 10-15 seconds. I think I only made it five seconds.
The next thing I remember, I was waking up in the recovery room. Becky Cook was the nurse looking after me there. She gave me some ice chips to suck on. My throat was really sore from the oxygen tube. I had to spit out the stuff that was draining down my throat because it was full of blood. She called Uhl to have him come in and get me. When Uhl arrived, Becky went over the post-op care. I was amazingly awake. I felt so much better than I did after my hand/collarbone surgery.
Dr. Merritt came in to talk to us. He said that the surgery went really well. I went into surgery at 10:25 am and came out at 11:57 am. He did culture the sinus pus. He said that they named one sinus “Lake Heather” and the other “Albert Lake” because of the copious amounts of fluid in each sinus. They had to suck huge quantities of pus out of the sinuses. He said that the liquid was white and thick, but he did send it off for cultures. My sinuses didn’t look like they were infected with fungus. Dr. Merritt said that one part of my sinus was so inflamed that the tissue could be removed by suction. He put me on Ceftin for 10 days to protect that inflamed tissue.
I left the surgery center with Uhl at 1:45 pm. I really didn’t feel like I had just had surgery. Looking at me, you couldn’t tell I had surgery either. I did have to keep some gauze taped beneath my nose to catch any drainage, which was minimal. I also had to keep the spittoon handy to get rid of the bloody drainage. Dr. Merritt put in gelatin plugs to protect the sinuses. One of the plugs fell out on Monday and the other one stayed in until my follow-up appointment.
I should be back to normal by six weeks post-surgery. I felt really good the first few days after surgery, but then I felt like I had before. I think it will just take time. When you don’t have pain or noticeable injury, it is hard to remember that your body has suffered some major trauma. I hope to be back to 100% soon.