Sinus Surgery

Last Thursday I had sinus surgery, a turbinectomy and a septoplasty. For at least the last 6 months, I have suffered from chronic sinus infections and in January I had a CT scan that showed inflamed tissues (turbinates) blocking my nasal passages as well as a deviated septum (the cartilage part of my nose was S-shaped) which make it difficult to breathe. Since no antibiotic would help the sinus infections, my Dr. determined surgery was my best option for relief.

When they were bringing me out of surgery and into recovery, and as I was coming out of anesthesia, they had to hold me down because I tried to sit up, take off the blood pressure cuff and take off the gauze they had put over my nose. As I regained consciousness, the nurse asked where I hurt and at that time, my throat was raw from being intubated - they gave me pain medicine and told me to suck on cough drops or life savers when I got home.

Once the numbness wore off from surgery, the pain was incredible! I've never experienced such pain, except when I had kidney stones...when the sheet touched the tip of my nose, it sent shooting pain in all directions through my head and all I could do was cry. I had plastic splints in each nostril holding my nose straight and stitches holding the splints in place. This surgery is NOT worth the pain unless it is an absolute health necessity!

For me, it ended up being a health necessity. After the surgery, they sent samples from my sinuses to a lab for cultures to grow and test. What they found was the infection MRSA (Mersa) - methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus which is a type of bacteria that is resistant to certain antibiotics. I found out that's what I had Tuesday at 2:30 when the Dr. removed the stitches and splints from my nose. He told me I will have to tell every doctor for the rest of my life that I have/had MRSA because it will affect the types of medicines they can give me. Then at 4, I was watching Oprah and she had a story on it - it can be fatal - very scary stuff. For more information, http://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/understanding-mrsa-methicillin-resistant-staphylococcus-aureus.

I have to say I'm glad I had the surgery and I'm lucky they found out what the infection was and can treat it.