Damek.

I’ve been home about six hours now. The surgery apparently went just fine. I said “Hi” to the surgery staff, fell asleep, and woke up immediately finding it was two hours later and they were finished. Ah, now that’s the way it’s meant to be.

Alex was able to pick me up and bring me home. She also managed to get my pain reliever prescription (acetaminophen with codeine), and she’s going to bring me my post-op antibiotics and the third prescription, a decongestant, when she comes home from work later.

Right now I’m just trying to relax, stay awake (codeine causes drowsiness and I didn’t get much sleep last night in the first place), and monitor the copious amounts of blood draining from my nose. I need to take it easy because my nose and sinuses need to heal, and activity aggravates the bleeding. I don’t want to fall asleep because it’s early and I’m afraid of bleeding all over the place. The bleeding is expected after this surgery. I have lots of gauze pads to tape under my nose and catch the blood, but they need replacing after a while. I’m also waiting for my doctor to call me so I can ask him some things, and I’d rather his call not wake me.

So things seem to be going well so far, and I am OK. Even the bleeding has been letting up now. It’s hard to eat because my throat is a little sore from the respirator tube that was in my throat during surgery, and also because swallowing creates some suction that alters the pressure in my nose and affects the bleeding. Interestingly, swallowing liquids doesn’t seem any better than swallowing (soft) solids, but less chewing may be better. At least I don’t appear (yet?) to have nausea as a result of the anesthesia like this guy had, and like the post-op nurse mentioned. The food I do get in me is staying down so far.

Things I need to ask my doctor:

• What’s the decongestant prescription for? Do I need to take it? ANSWER: it’s for helping with congestion (duh) and should help the nose clean itself after the packing is removed.
• Swallowing - is it OK? Should I limit it or not worry about it? Any food suggestions? ANSWER: Swallowing is fine. Since he said that, I didn’t ask about food.
• Is it better to sit up or lie down? Is it OK for the blood to be leaking down my throat instead of into the gauze? When I sleep, should I sleep propped up or lying down? ANSWER: Propped up is better. For sleep, you should be at about 45 degrees or higher. This is probably to help reduce bleeding by keeping the head above the heart. I forgot to ask about the throat thing, but that’s probably fine.
• What should I expect tomorrow when I take out the packing that’s plugging up my nose at the moment? ANSWER: Increased bleeding and drainage for a bit, which will then go down.
• Post-op info I’ve seen elsewhere mentions sinus rinse kits. Should I be getting that or doing that in the next few days/weeks? ANSWER: After about 3 days, I could use a saline nasal spray if I want to help clean things a bit, but it’s up to me, and intense irrigation, as with kits, is probably not advised.
• Your instructions say to shower. When? Why? ANSWER: Nevermind, I didn’t ask this because I realized that part of the post-op information was just saying that it’s OK for me to shower, as opposed to having to take a bath or something less intense.