Second surgery... Thank heavens it's over!!!

March 6th, 2015

While my first surgery to fix the obstructive sleep apnea was concentrated in the oral area, my second surgery was all about the nasal area: fixing the crooked nasal cavity by inserting a plastic tube and burning of some tissues to broaden the airways, and some other thing I couldn't understand... :P

The morning of... I got ready to head to the hospital on the subway with the morning crowd headed into work. My surgery was scheduled for 10am but had to be there by 9:20 to see the doc before the surgery and and do a simple checkup. So, with all the people cramping up in the subway off I went...

Morning crowd...

Got to the hospital way early, talked to the doc, did some basic tests, got changed into hospital gown and off to the surgery...

I got another round of general anesthesia and this time it was different because I actually felt the liquids flowing into my veins and it hurt! But after that I only remember waking up again cold in the recovery, dizzy and just hurting all over and not being able to breathe through my nose. After gaining a bit of strength I was moved to a bedroom where I wasn't able to sleep for the next hour and half OR drink. So, tried to focus on some other things in order to forget...read a bit, played some game, chatted with my friend on FaceTime. Time did pass quickly and gosh, was I glad to be able to drink water!

I was feeling weak, tired and thirsty. My nose was blocked with gauze stuffed into it and breathing through the mouth made me thirsty all the time. I was released from the hospital around 8pm with nose still blocked, an IV needle stuck into my right wrist, so couldn't breathe properly and couldn't use my right hand. On top of that, I couldn't wear my glasses because it'll put weight on the nose and that was a no-no. So, I was half blind, and half-crippled...

Sleeping that night was really hard! Kept waking up and I couldn't sleep lying down so had to sit up again and that made it a little easier to sleep. 

March 7th, the day after the surgery I had to return to the hospital to get the gauze out of my nose and get the antibiotic shot. Getting that done even though it was very, very painful, I'm glad it was done because I'm feeling much better! 

Next appointment is a week later and I'll get rid of the stitches and the blue bandage that's covering the nose. And a week later from that they'll take the plastic tube out. 

I can't wait till everything is healed. For all the swellings to go down and have fully healed it'll take months.

There are also some precautions I need to take in the meantime (for about a month) like: no excessive exercising, no heavy lifting, no tilting the head down, no sauna or public bathhouse, no alcoholic beverages (up to 3months)