My new T-Mobile Shadow smartphone thought a soft salmon pink was the perfect lighting conditions for this picture, so I went with it and sepiafied the hell out of it.

What you should notice on this third day after the surgery is that scrunched, tense look in my eyes. That’s three days of fitful sleeping. Pretty much the only way to sleep when both nostrils are completely clogged up. Add to that a nice dull, continuous headache and there you go.

Those are silicon tubes hanging out of my nose. They’re called splints, look like clear banana slugs, and are supposed to help the cartilage remember its new position. Mostly, they feel like they are just applying direct pressure to my brain. I was suffering through them as I thought I was getting them out today. Appears Sarah misheard the doctor and he just wanted me to call and schedule an appointment for today. They will come out on Wednesday.

It was after that call that I couldn’t take it and “cheated”. Not too bad though - Afrin can be used for control of light bleeding - just shoot a spray or two up there as needed. I’m really supposed to be shooting saline up their regularly though to keep the area moist. However, moist leads to a complete lack of air movement. So I cheated and put a few shots of afrin up the nostrils and tubes. It did me wonders and probably got me sanely through the day today.

So, next report on Wednesday, after the banana slugs come out…

[additions: i’m done with demerol.  corner-of-the-eye hallucinations and being unable to urinate are bad things. first solid food today was a painful experience - it appears the weight of my nose assists in chewing..] 

I was bored today, so I went and got major surgery.

Okay, not really. Might seem like that to you blog readers, though, as I went from injecting liquid calcium in my nose to this. Just haven’t been in a posting mood.

So, to catch everyone up. The injections had no effect, I was still left with between 0%-5% breathing capacity in each nostril. I ended up opting for the surgery.

And yes, I was scared shitless this morning as I walked into the hospital. Luckily everyone was extremely helpful, and seemed genuinely caring of my needs. I can easily say the most painful thing of the surgery was the local anesthetic they gave me in my hand before putting in my IV.

I remember nothing other than moving myself from the gurney to operating table. I was on the table for about 15 seconds and then I woke up in the recovery area.

The pain is actually quite minimal. The toughest thing I had to deal with so far is a sore throat from being intubated. That’s already clearing up though. Bleeding was to be expected, but has already reduced to almost nothing. I have two plastic splints in each nostril that I will have removed on Monday.

So, it seems like a total success - I’m already breathing freely through it [update: that lasted all of thirty minutes.  See my next post.]. As a bonus, I swear my nose actually looks a little better after the re-aligning of the cartilage. I’ll post some before and after pictures next week..

Earnest hurt himself jumping the other night.. We’re both tired of waiting around for the doc to see us..

[addition: He’s fine. Neurology Specialist saw no problems on the X-ray (contrary to our local doctor) and his diagnostic tests showed no overt neurological damage. Riley might of simply pulled something, or at the worst injured a disk. He’s appeared markedly better that last few days, almost approaching normal, so doctors orders are to keep him less active for several weeks to let him heal and simply watch him for signs of problems.]

Checking into Riley’s back problem… Didn’t think I’d see a dog flower…