Monday, June 18, 2012

I've accomplished things on my to do list!

A momentous occasion for me, isn't it?

First things first- the nose. The nose has been fixed. Facebook already knows about the nose, mainly because it appears that when I am drugged I think it's perfectly okay to mention blood and pain and angst in regards to my face, rather than demurely dealing with it with the appropriate amount of Endone.
Okay, so perhaps I don't need drugs to do that, but whatever.

My experience of septoplasty was surprisingly pleasant, considering my low pain threshold/fear of pain. We arrived at the hospital at 6:30am, and at 8:30, I was escorted to a bed to await the anaesthetist. This is where I began to panic. I wish I could say I did my panic is a refined and quiet way.
I panicked with tears. Lots of tears.
The anaesthetist's assistant peered at me. "Is everything okay?"
"I... don't... want... a... needle," I blubbered. "I don't like needles!"
I can only imagine she was thoroughly appalled at me; twenty years old and still reacting as well as I did when I was three. But she casually put the cannula in my hand and hooked up the drip.
I was still in tears when the surgeon's assistant came to see me. "Oh no," she said. "You're a stresser, aren't you?"
I nodded, to which she grabbed my hand. "You'll be fine. You'll be knocked out, and there's no need to cry."
She reminded me of my mother. I had not requested my mother's presence at the operation, but my soothing father's.
The surgeon then came in, and beamed at me. "We're going to slash up your nose!"
That shocked me out of crying.

When they put me in the operating theatre, I guess they started pumping the anaesthetic in pretty quickly. It's the only explanation for the following conversation:
Surgeon's assistant: "So you're at uni?"
Me: [giggles]
Surgeon's assistant: "The drugs are clearly working. What do you study?"
Me: "Media and Communications!" [giggles]
Surgeon's assistant: "Is it fun?"
Me: "It's pretty hard! Haha!" [giggles some more]
That's all I remember, and then I recall waking up and trying to hide under my blankets because Dad was peering at me. I couldn't exactly hide, however - there was too much going on around my nose. It was packed with gauze and splints, and had a bandage taped underneath it. As far as noses went, I didn't quite like it. The bandage under my nose was used to catch blood, and it took an hour before that bandage was saturated and bright red. Changing the bandage got less frequent during my stay; by 3am, my right nostril had stopped bleeding completely.
There wasn't much pain with it, but that could be because I was still coming out of the anaesthetic. I didn't really feel like taking painkillers, but the nurses ensured I had it. For the first part of the day, when the anaesthetic was still existing, I was given Panadol in drip form; once it had worn off, I was given Endone. This was against my will initially, but Endone is a lovely drug (please don't lock me up. Please); it also led to some amusing text messages which I still can't figure out.
I already gave a disclaimer saying I'd make jack-all sense premed I made it to you
I want all the oainkollets though
Sorry just got Ll woozy and nearly fainted bathroom tulsa are fun.
Oh, another thing - dizziness and fainting are expected, apparently.
The next morning, my surgeon returned to pull out the initial gauze packing. The nurses had given me more Endone ("Honey, you might want it. You're actually coping really well with the pain, much better than most, but you still might want it") and I was told to suck on some gas.
Still did not lessen the really, really uncomfortable feeling of getting something pulled out of my nose, and did not lessen the woozy feeling of blood pouring out of my face. It wasn't much, probably, but it sure felt like heaps. I nearly passed out then and there, much to my mother's disgust. "Tash, I'm not opening the window," she said, when I begged her to open SOMETHING because it was so hot and I felt like I was going to die. "You'll be fine."
I was, after seeing black spots for quite some time, and then falling asleep.
When I got home, I was holding tissues to my nose for quite some time, and I fell asleep in awkward positions everywhere. That night, I slept - blood caked all over my face and I freaked out upon seeing that delightful image at 2am. Gradually, the bleeding stopped and the sneezing/face attacking began. I am uncoordinated, and routinely hit my face. It was not very clever to do at this point.
Today, I went to the surgeon's offices, where he pulled out the splints. The faintness I felt was mainly due to hyperventilating upon seeing his surgical instruments laid out and his going, "So pain is good for you!" as he snapped scissors at me. Getting the stitches cut was painful, mainly because scissors were hitting my septum, and getting the splints out just killed. It was more the initial tugging that hurt, as they too hit my septum.
Right now? I feel fantastic. I can breathe through my nose! It's a seriously awesome feeling, and now I've got to train my body to do it automatically after 20 years of doing otherwise.

Secondly, crafting things for the new place has begun! I've made three pillowcases for our new place, and tomorrow am making curtains. The curtains are plain red ones with some heavy blockout underneath (I WILL DEFEAT YOU SUNROOM). I'm also making some blue pillowcases for Trina's couch, which will involve patchworking a fair bit.

Anyway, now all the bad stuff's over, let's get to posting regularly!
I'm also going to get more of the story done, very very soon.

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