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To Operate or Not to Operate? THAT Is the Question

Nasal polypWe’ve both been eagerly anticipating my sinus appointment today for a couple of weeks now. It’s been almost 7 weeks since my last appointment with Dr. Tabor when we scheduled my surgery for June 13th. I’ve been on vancomycin for over a month using the pulsating Pari Sinus machine that precious few people have. On a side note, that device is a dream, and I’ll be writing up something about it very soon.

We scheduled the visit today to determine if the abx were working enough to avoid major surgery. He’s not entirely certain that operating will relieve my headaches, but is “willing to give it a try.” I have to chuckle at that as a services professional myself. Of course, it will help some, but it might not be an all-in-one relief. I know what he means, which is why I am willing to go for it, but not if we see clear improvement with meds.

Interesting phenonmenon

Then something interesting happened when I was in Chicago for 4 days: I didn’t have a single headache, at least until the last morning… but that may have a pretty traceable cause. I was talking to Sue one day after I got back and told her about that strange lack of head pain and she immediately said, “allergies.” There seems to be enough of a reason to believe that our location here in piney, grassy North Tampa has been causing my extreme headaches due to allergies. We will soon see if that theory holds true as we head to So Cal on Tuesday for a week. If I don’t have any headaches for a week, we’ll have to figure out an allergy-related cure to my pain.

Back to the appointment. Yesterday morning while I was still doing my treatments, I got a call from a blocked number. It was the doctor’s office saying that won’t be in clinic [today] and will take my pre-op appointment on the first Tuesday in June as a appointment before sending me over for labs for surgery. First, I was really, really mad that after weeks of waiting, he tells me the day before my last chance to get sucked out before vacation that I can’t see him. I called the scheduling nurse and left a message to call me back if I could be seen Friday or Monday after his surgery time.

She called back in the afternoon, but I was on a call with a client, so Beautiful took the call for me (Thanks, Babe! Having you around is awesome!) and told me that he had already left down for a family emergency and would be back in time for surgery Monday, but would be operating all day. Alright, at least it was an emergency, so now I don’t feel bad about it, because I was fuming earlier that I could have gone any day this week or last week and been better off. We were even debating calling Dr. Seper to see if I could slip in for a sucking since it wasn’t really my decision to switch doctors as much as it was clinic’s choice to work with a doctor out of their hospital. I don’t think it’s necessary, given how much work I have to do before we leave, but maybe Monday would be a good shot in the dark.

So, all of that said and done, we are thinking we should call scheduling and cancel the surgery because we were supposed to have an opportunity to inspect my progress on abx. If we decide I still need to go under the Black and Decker, then we can do it as soon as he has an opening because I don’t have any travel plans for the rest of summer.

What would you do in my situation?

Can’t Get No Satisfaction

No Satisfaction

Where's my satisfaction?

Sometimes my life feels like the song: Can’t Get No Satisfaction. Friday is yet another landmark day for us in our adventures with my newly troublesome sinuses. It’s beginning to look like my long honeymoon without surgery has come crashing completely down since October. I have a follow-up with my ENT Friday after lunch to decide if we need to be more aggressive with his reconstruction of my head.

The scoop

One of the most annoying things for the last year or more is the constant smell in my nose. It varies between smelling like a wet dog and soggy Corn Chex, depending on the infection of the month. Far, far worse are my headaches, even though they aren’t as persistent as the smell is. Every morning is a new day with a ton of gunk in my eyes, a completely stuffed nose, and that smell.

I take a lot of CF in stride, but this is getting on my last nerves. How many times can I tell clients [Read more…]

Pre-Sinus Surgery Endoscopic View (Semi-Graphic)

The Long Roll to the ORDue to my severe, debilitating headaches in the last couple of months, my CF doctors went down the road of investigating sleep apnea as the cause, as that’s a very common symptom of “older” CFers. Strange to say that at a day short of 32 years old, but it’s quite historically true. After the sleep study, I am mildly apneatic, but after they received my results from another CT scan that I requested, they saw a shocking report that said my sinuses showed worse sinus disease than my October pre-surgery CT scan!

Within the course of 7 weeks, my sinuses were worse off than before my surgery number 9. Unbelievable! Like any good doctors would, they suggested I get a second opinion, this time from a doctor on the TGH campus across the road from them so they would be able to visit me in recovery or if I spend the night for observation. Dr. Tabor had a cancellation that next week, so I saw him in a Tuesday. He just so happens to be about my height and quite tech-savvy by the array of equipment I saw in the room.

[Read more…]