Post surgery wrap-up

On Tuesday I went into hospital to have bilateral endoscopic sinus surgery and double grommet insertion – my surgeon was going to unblock my sinuses and ears and hopefully end eighteen months of chronic infection. I went to Gillies Hospital, a private hospital in Auckland (which I can highly recommend by the way, the staff are absolutely lovely).

Anesthetics make me incredibly sleepy for a long time afterwards, so coming to visit me in hospital after I’ve had one is never very rewarding. I had the operation at about 10am, and remember waking up briefly afterwards, and not taking in a word the surgeon said to me about how the operation had gone. I woke up again at about 3pm to see Andrew sitting in the room. I think we had a brief chat but eventually he must have gone, because when I woke up again dinner was being wheeled into the room. Amazingly, I was in no pain and just had some packing inside the nose and a bandage underneath it.

Over the evening I started to remember the surgeon talking to me after the operation, telling me that the infection in the left sinus was far worse than he expected, and that there was no sign of any tumour.

Somehow putting a new grommet in my left ear has restored the hearing in it – a massive improvement after over a year of wearing a hearing aid.  I’ve had a grommet in that ear before but the ear still blocked up, so I don’t know how long this will last, but I’m really pleased to have proper hearing again.

Since coming home  I have slept and slept and slept some more.  Whenever I wake up after a marathon 12 hour sleep I feel very dazed and confused (not much change there then) but I’m sure in a few days the anesthetic will wear off…

So far my sinuses are still blocked up, and I’m not allowed to blow my nose for a week.  Fingers crossed after that I’ll notice a real improvement in my sinuses and my general health.