March is upon us...

The first week of March is almost gone!  I cannot keep up with how fast time seems to be going!  If what they say is true, "in like a lamb, out like a lion," we are in for a HUGE storm.

February was a not so routine month, and I'm glad it was short!  As I previously posted, Jake & Stephen had ear infections--TWICE!  Now we are in the midst of strep throat running rampant through our house.  So far, Jake, myself and now Stephen has had it.  Hopefully, we will all be feeling well soon!

Hank's outpatient surgery went pretty well.  Though at first, there was some hesitation due to "gas" pain that Hank was experiencing.  Due to Hank's high blood pressure, the doctor didn't want to take any chances.  So another EKG was performed.  Everything checked out ok.  The ENT was going in "blind," because the CAT scan and MRI had "dead" spots where the ENT could not really tell how bad the sinus cavities were.  Once he got in there and removed the polyps, the ENT saw how extensively damaged Hank's nose AND face were!  He said to me that Hank must have been in some pretty awesome fights!  Hank's facial bones were fractured in many places. One crack even went all the way up to his eye socket! His cheek bone was broken so severely that a piece of it must have went through the nasal cavity due to a huge hole in there.  The ENT had to take a skin graft and repair the nasal passage.  When the cheek bone and other facial bones had healed all those years ago, they fused together incorrectly and cut off one of his sinus cavities.  The other side was only open by a pin hole!  No wonder Hank kept getting infections!   The ENT called it "impressive!"
It took the ENT longer than expected to complete the surgery.  He needed to go get his orthopedic tools!  haha!
Besides repair the deviated septum, the ENT also shaved Hank's pallet to make more room in his mouth.  I guess Hank's tongue is too big for his mouth!!  LOL  The ENT put it this way:  "picture trying to fit a size 12 foot into a size 6 shoe!"  wow!  Anyway, along with that, the ENT resected Hank's uvula (you know, that little dangly thing in the back of your throat), and opened up both sinus cavities.  It took him a little over three hours! 
When I visited Hank in the recovery room, he was sooooo out of it!  haha!  I was laughing at him because I had never seen him in such a drugged state before!  At first he was sleeping, then he woke up and sat straight up and said, "How do I look?"  LOL!!  I almost lost it!!  I was laughing so hard!  Then he dosed off again! 
A few minutes later, he awoke again and said, "How do I look?"  HAHAHAHAHA!!!  The nurses must have thought that I was such an incencitve wife!!  I just couldn't help myself!
I kept telling him that he should try to wake up because it was 7pm, and we wanted to be able to go home soon.  He kept saying, "I want to go to sleep."  "Can I sleep now?"  NO!  WAKE UP!  hahahaha!
Finally, at around 7:20pm, he awoke enough to get dressed and go to the bathroom.  He almost fell backwards a couple of times and that made me nervous!  But we finally made it home, after picking up the boys from grandma Jill's, and after getting his prescriptions filled, at around 9pm.  It was quite a long day!

The "drama" of it all did not end there.  for the next 3 days, Hank had to sleep sitting up in the recliner.  He had the packing in his nose, as well as "straw-like" splints that he could breathe through.  I had to use a syringe to rinse these splints out!!  gross!  I had to shoot saline up in the splints so they wouldn't get all gunky.  BLECH!  After the packing was out, the splints stayed in for two more days.  Again, the rinsing! 
Finally the splints came out, and Hank could use a saline spray by himself!  YAY!  Sorry honey, but that was really gross! 

Hank is healing well and back to work!  He still snores though!  :(

Here's hoping the month of March will be less drama and more routine.  :)

Comments

  1. Sorry it's been a rough few weeks healthwise, but it sounds like you're keeping your sense of humor! In fact, I laughed out loud several times reading this update!!! Glad everyone is on the mend...may March be "ordinary" for you :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. You're so funny! Glad you can find the humour in it all :) I hope you're all well soon. I've looked after a husband post-op too, and it's yicky. :S

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular Posts