Sinus Surgery Recovery

Recovery from sinus surgery was much easier than I anticipated. Given all the sinus pressure and pain I have been dealing with, the pain aspect was nothing in comparison. The pain from the sinus pressure is mostly gone and has not been worse since the surgery (even in the immediate aftermath) than is was before. I was quite tired on and off, but being able to breathe is amazing. I really, truly, had no idea how much pain I was living with daily until it was gone. My ENT has something like a 4000:0 record for this surgery, the 0 being the number of people with major complications. Still, I was nervous about potential complications (like death, blindness, brain injury) so I am relieved it all went well.

My recovery was nothing like this described in Wil Wheaton's blog. (Which, frankly gave me pause about the whole operation.) I had no splints and only a very small amount of packing and very little bleeding which contributed greatly to the post-op comfort. I went back to the ENT for my two week follow-up yesterday and one side still has a bunch of junk, so he suctioned around in there (quite uncomfortable despite Novocaine) to try to loosen things up. All normal, he assures me.

Anyway, I am so glad I did it.

A busy week

We had four rooms steam cleaned last week and then totally reorganized them in preparation for the kid's fourth(!) birthday party, the arrival of my mother (who is staying for much of the summer) and the arrival of new bedroom furniture for us. However, in more exciting news, I can now breathe through my nose due to a whole pile of work done on my sinuses this morning. The ENT fixed my deviated septum, removed a bunch of polyps, a bone spur and part of a sinus terminus that was swollen and filled with air. My nose really smarts but my sinuses feel tons better than they usually do - probably a sign that the surgery was a good decision. And you know, I didn't die under anesthesia, something I'm quite pleased about.

A conversation

A quick check in about the current age of my twins led to the following conversation between the two women sitting in front of me at graduation:

Professor A: My nephew and his wife are having triplets.

Professor B: Wow, triplets! And she wasn't on any medication?

Professor A: Well, I really don't know one way or the other.

Professor B: Oh, I see, so she could have been.

Professor A: Well, she's 29, so probably not.

Professor B: Ah yes.

Aside from wondering why this question is often the first question people ask about multiples, and wanting to tell them how annoying such questions are to mothers of multiples regardless of whether their conceptions were assisted or not, I wanted to yell at them about assuming infertility is all about a woman's age. But alas, my attempts to break into the conversation where thwarted.

Oh yeah, and Professor A? She's a nurse.

Endings

Around me at graduation:

• Our research queen bee faculty member reading a research article
  
  
• A faculty member writing in what appeared to be a personal journal
  
  
• A faculty member reading what appeared to be literary journal submissions
  
  
• A faculty member raiding strings from her tassel to tie up her hair in a futile effort to stay cool
  
  
• A faculty member who received one call and made two on his cell phone (which was not set to silent)
  
  
• Three faculty members periodically hovering over a wireless Internet handheld checking game scores
  
  
• A faculty member with a very light complexion (and apparently no sunscreen) slowly turning red on one side
  

This is what happens when attendance at graduation is required.