My Septoplasty

February 4, 2000

After enduring one ear infection after the other for nearly 4 years, I found myself in an ear nose and throat specialist's office in January. He looked at my ears, then asked me, "sinus trouble?" I said yes. He then covered each nostril, had me breathe and asked me, "are you congested?" I said, "Not at all. I'm nice and clear." To me, it was. To anyone else, it would have felt congested. Turns out I had between a 40-70% airway loss! When Dr. Sah covered each nostril and had me inhale, my nostrils collapsed in effort to suck air into my nose with every breath! I was diagnosed with a deviated septum (isn't that a punk band or something?) and this was causing inadequate ventillation to my ears.

So, about a month later on February 9, I went under the knife and as I am writing this, I am still recovering. The surgery itself went well; the photo above was taken right when I got home. There were more lovely, becoming pictures at Photopoint, but that's defunct at the time of this republish, 2005. George followed me around with his camera through my worst times that day and night. I was miserable. The next day, the stuffing came out and I could breathe like never before. But, then the healing process began, and with that, swelling. Now, ten days later, I feel like I have a cold where I can't get anything to open it up. In desparation, I shot hot water into my nose earlier this evening. That actually did do some good, but the hacking and gagging of water going down my throat wasn't worth it! So, I'll just be patient, and one day soon, objects near me will tremble when I take a breath...Meanwhile, it did narrow the bridge of my nose, so I got a nose job out of the deal!!!