Sinus and Larynx Surgeries: The Next Day

Well, for those of you who read my last few posts, I would like to say: I have survived my surgery. We arrived at the hospital at 8:00 am. The nurse at the admittance desk told me that my surgery would be at 11:30. Too bad no one called me the night before to let me know that. Then, we could have gotten up at a reasonable time. Oh well. They took me back to the pre-operative area about 11:15. I did not go back to surgery until almost 12:45. The surgery was done by about 2:00, and I was out of recovery by 3:00.

I'm none the worse for the wear, I suppose. My nose is a little bloody, and my throat is pretty sore. Based on how it feels, my nose should be better in a few days, and I'm hoping my throat will start feeling better by Thursday. The bleeding in my nose should clear up with saline and time. Hopefully, I won't have to worry about my sinuses for a while (since they got cleared out).

I go back to see the doctor next Tuesday, the 21st. He should be able to tell me how the sinus clearing went, and he should give me the results of the biopsy from the neoplasm on my vocal fold. He said that it did not look malignant, but they would not know for sure until they run a biopsy. I should know more next week.

I'm glad that the surgery was pretty easy. I haven't had to take too much medication for pain management, yet. I went ahead and had a full day back at work today, if that lets you know how I am feeling.

I'll post my biopsy results once I find out what they know. See you next time!

Sunday, June 12, 2011

It is one day before my surgery. Tomorrow I get to go in and have some procedures done. Here is what my doctor's orders say:

I have been informed of the risks, possible alternative methods of treatment, and possible consequences involved in the treatment by means of:

• Functional endoscopic sinus surgery
• Laryngoscopy with biopsy

under the general anesthesia for the relief of:

• Chronic sinusitis
• Neoplasm Larynx

That's just the fancy way to say that they found a growth on one of my vocal folds (observed through visual means) and that my CT revealed that my sinus cavities were full of junk (thanks to the CT scan). The doctor will be removing the growth from the vocal fold, and he will have it sent off for biopsy to make sure it is benign. He will also go in and vacuum out (or flush out) my sinus cavities and give me a fighting chance against my allergies (at least for a little while).

As of this morning, I do not have a time for my surgery, yet. They hospital is supposed to call me this evening and give me instructions. We will drop off Hannah with Jenny's mom, and then we will head to the hospital to be bored for a while, then surgery, then back home (yippie).

My only real questions for the doctor will be to ask him if he recommends any antibiotics to fight off lingering infection (now that the growth will be gone). I'm also going to try to ask about post-operative care (what to do and not to do) and if I will need any pain medication. The surgery itself sounds pretty simple, so that should not be an issue.

The last time this doctor operated on me, for my deviated nasal septum, I remember more of the overall day than any other previous surgery. It was interesting to have to get on the surgical table myself, and then to be awake for almost the whole hour of "post-operative observation". (And yes, grammar nerds, I have chosen to go with the more British use of the period outside of the quotation marks. I believe that everyone in America will start doing this, eventually.)

So, that's all that I have for today. If you remember me tomorrow, I could use your prayers. I would ask that the doctor would do his job well, and that my recovery would be quick and easy. See you all next time!

ENT Visit (Forever-Cough)

OK. Here's the story so far. I had some allergy-related coughing and sneezing back at the end of March. At my nephrologist appointment, the doctor prescribed me a Z-Pak (this was early April). I took that for five days, but it did not really help. Then, I called them a few weeks later, and they prescribed me some Avelox (for ten days). That helped, some, but I still did not stop coughing. So, I called the kidney doctor a third time, and they advised that I go and visit my ENT.

I saw the ENT on Wednesday morning. He took a look down my throat, and he saw that I have a growth on my vocal folds (also called vocal cords). He said that it is probably benign, but that it is causing my vocal cords to not be able to fully come together, which allows air to aspirate and can be a big problem with my cough and allergies. He wants me to come back in the middle of June for surgery to have the growth removed.

This Friday (tomorrow), I will have a CT done on my head to check my sinus cavities. The doctor thinks that I probably have a lot of blockage up there, again. If I do, he wants to go and flush them out, again, like we did back in 2008.

So, I am going to have a head CT on Friday, and then I will check with the doctor next week to find out what they see. I'll let you guys know what I find out later. I'm guessing that I will have to have my sinus cavity washed out again.

So, the doctor said it is probably a benign growth. I have a head CT on Friday. I will have surgery in the middle of June.

Enjoy your weeks!

All Continues to Go Well

I realize it's been a few weeks since I have posted. But, everything has been going well. I had my last nephrologist appointment about a month ago. The doctor said that everything was still looking good and that I did not have to come back until January for my annual Glofil. I also had my annual bone density scan done that day. It looks like my bones are still about the same.

I have been doing well since my nose surgery. I am not coughing all the time any more, which is nice. I've also been enjoying less runny noses than I had before. So, I'm enjoying the better breathing and my nose is almost 100% healed up. It still hurts from time to time, but it's not bad at all.

I've got a neurology appointment in December to follow-up on the stroke I had a few years ago. I'm also going to have to tell the doctor that my mom has recently had a brain aneurysm. I've had a few CT scans done of my head, so I doubt that I have any problems. I just want to let the doctor know that there is some family history (now) that we might need to keep in mind.

So, I probably won't be posting too much (as you may have noticed). If you have any questions, just send an e-mail or post a comment!

Post Op II - ENT

I had my second (and it seems, final) post operative appointment with the ENT on Tuesday this week.  He peered deep into my nose (after allowing me an hour to catch up on my reading in the waiting room) and said that I am healing quite well.  He said I should continue to use nasal spray and that the swelling was healing nicely.

I'm still blowing up a bit of dired up goop in my nose from time to time, but not very often.  My teeth almost never hurt anymore when I blow my nose, and it doens't feel all "crazy" on my septum when breathing in sharply or blowing my nose. (see http://nmccart.blogspot.com/2008/08/nasal-surgery-no-more-nose-splints.html)

My nose runs a bit still, but that's to be expected as I am allergic to all things in the air. (see: http://nmccart.blogspot.com/2008/05/allergy-test-results.html)  I'm glad that there is very little pain in sneezing or blowing my nose, though it is still sensitive to the touch (it hurts some).

That's about it for my nasal experience.  Oh, wait -- I don't have that persistent cough any more!!!  I guess that makes it all about worth it as far as the surgery is concerned.

Thanks for all of your prayers through this time.  I appreciate it, and I know God listened and helped make the healing go that much faster and easier.

Nasal Surgery - No More Nose Splints

Good evening everyone (and, if I didn't see you, good morning and good afternoon).

I had my first post-operative appointment from my Nasal Septal Reconstruction. I arrived at 3:40 for my 3:45 appointment, and was sent back to the room at 4:45. The doctor came in shortly thereafter and said that it would be a quick procedure.

He gave me some tissues to use to blow my nose when he finished. He said that the splints were being held in place my a stitch. He said he had to cut the stitch (not me) and then pull out each of the splints. Cutting out the stitch was not all that enjoyable, but I did like him removing the splint. It made my sneeze and my eyes watered, but I was able to breathe much easier. Then, he quickly removed the splint on the right-hand side. There was a lot of coughing, then I got to blow my nose.

Blowing your nose may not seem like a big deal, but you have to think about what I've been doing all week. I'm allergic to just about anything in the air, so my nose has been running (a lot) since last Monday. And, I wasn't allowed to blow it (shucks). So, getting to get some of that built up mucus (and dried blood) out of my nose was very nice.

It feels cold inside my nose when I breathe, at the moment. Also, if I blow too hard or inhale to sharply, then my septum feels as if it is flapping all over the place. Imagine holding a sheet of paper between your thumb and finger, one hand at the top of the page and one at the bottom. Then, turn the paper so that you are facing the edge that you are not holding. Blow sharply across it, and that's the the way my septum feels (or, that's the way I would describe it).

I don't have any worries. The doctor said that I am healing very well and he will see me in two weeks. He also said the slight numbness behind my two front teeth will get start to get better now. All I have to do is use some saline solution a couple of times a day for a while as my septum heals. They don't want my nose to get dried out.

Thank you all for your prayers for a quick recovery.

For those of you wondering: my next appointment with the nephrologist is September 11. So, you can expect an update on the kidney front after that time.

Double Surgery!

I know, double surgery sounds pretty bad. I probably should have title this post: "More News from the Doctor" or perhaps "What I've Learned" instead of Double Surgery. But, I did not. Now that you are tired of me explaining my choices, I guess I should talk about my surgery.

So, if you've been reading, you've noticed that I've been complaining of a chronic cough for a couple of months now. My nephrologist scheduled a CT scan for me on July 14, and they looked at my chest and sinuses. From there, I was referred to an Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor (or ENT for short - and no, not the Ents from Lord of the Rings). This doctor looked at my CT results, and looked up my nose, and said that I would need surgery to fix my problem.

I would normally have complained about surgery, except that this is what the kidney doctor had recommended as well. Since the two doctor had never spoken, I am going to guess that the opinion of two doctors is probably pretty good.

So, you've all read the post about my CT scan results by now. And, if you haven't, then go read it at: http://nmccart.blogspot.com/2008/07/many-tests-later.html

I am going to have a "Nasal Septal Reconstruction" to relieve my Deviated Nasal Septum. I am also having "Functional Endoscopic Sinus Surgery" to relieve my Chronic Sinusitis. What does this mean? The first one, the NSR (as I choose to call it) will fix my deviated septum. It's basically the seperation between the two sides of your nose. Mine is not straight, and they are going to fix it. It should help me breathe and drain better. The second surgery, or FESS (that doesn't sound as good as NSR did) is to clean the sinus polyps out of my sinus cavity (in my cheeks). I think they must have been there a while, because they are a decent size, and I have a runny nose ALL the time.

The surgeries will be on Monday, August 11, in Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas. It is outpatient surgery, so I should not be there more than a few hours. All I have to do now is to pick up my CT charts and pre-register. (The doctor wanted to look at the actual scans before doing any work).

Please pray that the surgery goes well and that I recover quickly. It should not be a long reocvery, but I am looking forward to getting rid of this cough and possibly even breathing easier all the rest of the time!

Enjoy your week everyone. I'll try to blog again after the surgery.