Look at the Mess I’m in; A Broken Nose and a Broken Heart, an Empty Bottle of Gin
Tuesday. Well, faithful readers, I made it through the surgery. It’s hard to tell the results as of yet because everything is still pretty swollen and tender right now. Well, that and that fact that I’ve got two giant internal splints shoved up my nostrils…
I went into the surgery center Friday morning and everything took place right on time. I was amazed. I expected to be waiting for like four hours staring nervously at the clock, but no, they actually called me back early to be prepped and everything. I donned the wonderfully stylish hospital gown and cap, and laid back on the gurney while they tried several times to get an IV in my arm. Apparently I have large veins that make this task difficult. I would think that sticking a needle in a bigger target would be easier, but hey, I’m not an RN so what do I know?
After asking me the same group of questions about ten times over, I quickly slipped off into Johnny dreamland. I guess I was under for about three hours. I have no idea. I woke up to the feeling of being suffocated and pulled off the air mask that was causing me extreme discomfort. The nurse immediately put the mask back on my face, and I responded in turn by taking it back off. I think I was really making her mad, but what can I say? I couldn’t breathe with that thing on. It felt like a pillow over my face. After that she kind of put the mask beside my face so I could still get the oxygen, but I could still have fresh air as well. Eventually they wheeled me into a recovery room where I spent a little bit more time trying to come down off of the anesthesia. I got really disoriented from that stuff and not in a good way. Every time I tried to get up or move I got nauseous, so they ended up giving me even more meds to counteract it. Finally I was able to make the car trip home where I slept on and off upright in a chair until the next day.
My recovery after that hasn’t been as bad as I anticipated, but it hasn’t been exactly pleasant, either. Besides my nose being broken in two places and bandaged in a splint, my face is swollen and puffy, and I have two black eyes. My right eye swelled up so much I could barely see out of it, and my eyeball is all red due to some burst capillaries or something. Things are starting to subside now, but for the first few days I was looking pretty gruesome, let me tell ya.
I thought I was having a reaction to the antibiotics they prescribed for me, so I called the doctor’s office yesterday to discuss my concerns. The nurse I spoke with said that she wasn’t surprised that I was all swollen up because “they did a whole lot of stuff up in there.” Apparently once the doctor got in there to perform the procedures, things were a lot more complicated than he originally thought. He had to make a few adjustments on the fly, and then he had to make some cosmetic alterations to compensate for the structural changes. Things shouldn’t be radically different, but once all of the swelling goes down and the healing is finished, I should have a straighter nose with a smaller tip. Hopefully I will be able to breathe through it, too, since that was the whole point of the operation in the first place.
On Thursday I am going back to the doctor’s office to have my bandages removed and the splints taken out of my nose. From every account that I’ve heard from people who have had this procedure done, having the splints removed is an extremely unpleasant experience. However, I am looking forward to it because first, it means that I am one step closer to healing, and second, frankly, I’m getting sick of all of these bandages and stuff on my face.
So that’s about it for now. Other than that, I am enjoying my time off work (well, as much as I can shut-in with a big swollen and tender face) and trying to catch up on errands around the house. When I get a few moments to sit at the computer, I’m catching up on my blogging and looking for new tunes to discuss when I get back. I’ll try to do another post or two to fill you all in on how the recovery is going before I have to go back to work. Until then, thanks for dropping by.
I went into the surgery center Friday morning and everything took place right on time. I was amazed. I expected to be waiting for like four hours staring nervously at the clock, but no, they actually called me back early to be prepped and everything. I donned the wonderfully stylish hospital gown and cap, and laid back on the gurney while they tried several times to get an IV in my arm. Apparently I have large veins that make this task difficult. I would think that sticking a needle in a bigger target would be easier, but hey, I’m not an RN so what do I know?
After asking me the same group of questions about ten times over, I quickly slipped off into Johnny dreamland. I guess I was under for about three hours. I have no idea. I woke up to the feeling of being suffocated and pulled off the air mask that was causing me extreme discomfort. The nurse immediately put the mask back on my face, and I responded in turn by taking it back off. I think I was really making her mad, but what can I say? I couldn’t breathe with that thing on. It felt like a pillow over my face. After that she kind of put the mask beside my face so I could still get the oxygen, but I could still have fresh air as well. Eventually they wheeled me into a recovery room where I spent a little bit more time trying to come down off of the anesthesia. I got really disoriented from that stuff and not in a good way. Every time I tried to get up or move I got nauseous, so they ended up giving me even more meds to counteract it. Finally I was able to make the car trip home where I slept on and off upright in a chair until the next day.
My recovery after that hasn’t been as bad as I anticipated, but it hasn’t been exactly pleasant, either. Besides my nose being broken in two places and bandaged in a splint, my face is swollen and puffy, and I have two black eyes. My right eye swelled up so much I could barely see out of it, and my eyeball is all red due to some burst capillaries or something. Things are starting to subside now, but for the first few days I was looking pretty gruesome, let me tell ya.
I thought I was having a reaction to the antibiotics they prescribed for me, so I called the doctor’s office yesterday to discuss my concerns. The nurse I spoke with said that she wasn’t surprised that I was all swollen up because “they did a whole lot of stuff up in there.” Apparently once the doctor got in there to perform the procedures, things were a lot more complicated than he originally thought. He had to make a few adjustments on the fly, and then he had to make some cosmetic alterations to compensate for the structural changes. Things shouldn’t be radically different, but once all of the swelling goes down and the healing is finished, I should have a straighter nose with a smaller tip. Hopefully I will be able to breathe through it, too, since that was the whole point of the operation in the first place.
On Thursday I am going back to the doctor’s office to have my bandages removed and the splints taken out of my nose. From every account that I’ve heard from people who have had this procedure done, having the splints removed is an extremely unpleasant experience. However, I am looking forward to it because first, it means that I am one step closer to healing, and second, frankly, I’m getting sick of all of these bandages and stuff on my face.
So that’s about it for now. Other than that, I am enjoying my time off work (well, as much as I can shut-in with a big swollen and tender face) and trying to catch up on errands around the house. When I get a few moments to sit at the computer, I’m catching up on my blogging and looking for new tunes to discuss when I get back. I’ll try to do another post or two to fill you all in on how the recovery is going before I have to go back to work. Until then, thanks for dropping by.
posted by john at 10:32 AM
5 Comments:
yay for a nose job!
*grin*
one of my clients needs breast reconstruction and her doc told her to think of it as a free tunny tuck :)
funny but true.
egads.
Sass- yeah, that was a nice little side perk to the whole procedure. I used to have kind of a bump in the bridge of my nose, now it is straight. Yeah! Maybe I'll get a tummy tuck next and go for the whole extreme makeover... ;-)
Kat- Egads is right! Recovery really hasn't been as bad as I thought, though. I expected to be laid out for a while, but after a day or two I was easily getting up and about. Of course, I'm not leaving the house until the two black eyes heal and the swelling goes down. I look like I got in a fight with a 20-pound sledgehammer and lost.
John... hope you're feeling okay! Surgery sucks balls. hard. I have a particular weakness when I think of things happening to the face... I am hardly a candidate for elective cosmetic surgery. Everything up there seems so dainty and fragile and NECESSARY! But I'm happy that your nose will be working and that you're okay. Ah, the stinky cheeses you will catch whiff of... the body odour in crowded elevators, the public washrooms at outdoor events... ENJOY!
Thanks, SLG. It's really not that bad. Well, at least not as bad as I thought it would be. I recovered pretty quickly, though. I agree that I really couldn't imagine doing too much else on my face unless it was necessary. I don't know how boxers do it. They have to go through all of that recovery just to get their faces pounded and noses broken all over again in their next match. One recovery was enough for me, thank you.
I am still healing my way into better breathing (getting better every day) but I noticed my sense of smell was heightened almost immediately. Sure, the downside is that I can smell the stinky garbage that needs to go out, but on the other hand I can literally "wake up and smell the coffee" now, which has been pretty cool I have to admit.
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