Falling Apart

I’m starting to think that I’m falling apart as I get old and shitty. I hit up an ENT today to find out what is going on with my nose. For months it seemed like I had something stuck in my right nostril that prevented me from being able to breath properly using my nose. I have become a mouth breather.

After getting nasty tasting shots of Lidocaine miked with Afrin shot into my nose (to open me up and numb my sinuses) the doc shoved six inches of scope into my nose and declared that I have nasal polyps. It sounds worse than it really is. It seems something has been irritating my sinuses for years, which has resulted in a nice crop of polyps.

They don’t do surgery until they have exhausted the supply of drugs on hand. So, I’m now on an interesting cocktail of nasal rinse, steroids, antibiotics and Nasonex. It’s a chore, but even after only 8 hours I feel better. I haven’t breathed so well through my nose in months and I haven’t smelled things properly in just as much time. I spent most of the night breathing with my mouth closed and smelling all the good and bad smelling things I’ve come across.

Most of the stuff I’m on is only temporarily. The steroids are only there to shrink the little buggers and the antibiotics to clear up any potential nasties that have taken up residence since my nose doesn’t drain well (simply blowing my nose is a chore). In the end I believe I’ll be stuck using the nasal rinse and Nasonex for a long time to come. The Nasonex is nothing, but the rinse is going to take some time to get used to. If you ever got a nose full of pool water before you’ll know full well the sensation that you get when you squirt 2-4 ounces of saline through each nostril. Nasty stuff, but necessary.

I get to go back for a few more things. The doctor wants me to get an allergy test to see what is causing my sinuses to become inflamed. All that ABC powder that I breathed in years ago did not help, but might not be the full cause of this. Something else is bothering my sinuses. After that I get a CAT scan and a follow up appointment to find out how the meds are doing. By then I’ll be happy to be off all the pills. I took 7 pills tonight! It’s not fun getting old, but I won’t complain too much. This is minor compared to what others endure on a daily basis.


2 Responses to “Falling Apart”

  1. jessie Says:
    June 4th, 2009 at 1:03 pm

    that’s awesome that there’s hope of clearing up the problem!

  2. Shaun Says:
    June 5th, 2009 at 10:58 pm

    The best I can hope for is being able to maintain the buggers. Eliminating them is impossible.