I’ll be back to normal shortly

All those years of playing smash-mouth football, and basketball, for that matter, may have finally caught up with me. We’ve had an unusually bad year for allergies, and I finally went to a nose specialist to see what I could do to improve my breathing. He said there was probably nothing that could be done unless he corrected my deviated septum.

I’m not real big on going to doctors and I’m even less fond of surgery, but the condition has bothered me so much recently that I didn’t hesitate and scheduled the surgery as quickly as I could, two weeks as it turned out. I finally had it done Friday morning, and was told that it went well; I was home by noon.

If I’d known what recovery involved, however, I might not have rushed into the surgery quite so quickly. They sent me home with a large bottle of powerful painkillers, and, for a change, I’m actually using them. I have a high tolerance for pain and seldom use a quarter of the pills they send me home with. That’s not been the case this time. I’ve had mind-numbing headaches ever since Friday morning, not to mention nausea and alternating chills and heat flashes. This morning is the first time I’ve felt even close to “normal.”

Perhaps that’s partially due to the fact that I finally got a walk in yesterday afternoon. I didn’t realize that I wouldn’t be able to exercise for two weeks after the surgery, though walking is allowed. That’s almost harder than not being able to blow my nose for two weeks.

It seems truly ironic that the main reason I went to the doctor was so that I’d be able to breathe well enough to start jogging again, and now I can’t even think about jogging for at least two weeks, much less lift the weights I’ve been lifting the last month. Hopefully it won’t cause me to regain any of the weight I’ve managed to lose recently.

The mini-fast diet I started in August has worked wonderfully for me. Though I still haven’t reached the 175 pounds goal I set for myself last year, I’ve lost 2 to 2 1/2 pounds per week since I started the diet and am below 180 for the first time in years and years. It fits me perfectly. I find it relatively easy not to eat until lunchtime, particularly when I’ve exercised hard in the morning. I follow the diet at least 5 days a week, but revert to the normal three meals a day when Leslie’s home on weekends. I’ve lost 10 pounds in a month and suspect I’m going to be able to drop well below 175 pounds while still getting stronger. I haven’t felt this good in several years; even my arthritic hip feels better since I lost weight.

Hopefully, this week will turn out to be a minor setback. They take the splints out Thursday morning and I’m hoping that I’ll be back exercising even more the week after that. I would love to see if my breathing improves enough that I’ll have less problems hiking up mountains before the snows return to the Olympics and the Cascades.

9 thoughts on “I’ll be back to normal shortly”

  1. Oh yeah, turns out that the term “same-day surgery” doesn’t mean “same-day recovery” after all! Such a rude awakening when we emerge from the fog of anesthesia, sleep it off some more, then waken the next day to the reality that someone has hacked into our body with something sharp, and it’s going to hurt fiercely for a while…Dang!!

    1. Now you tell me.

      I was kind of thinking colonoscopy one hour, one day surgery.

      Not so much it turns outs. They should hand out the post-surgery sheet pre-surgery so you have a much better idea of what it’s really going to be like.

  2. “They” told me years ago – when I was 13 or 14 – that I had a deviated septum and needed surgery. My parents decided to not do it then. From everything I’ve ever heard about the surgery, I think I’m glad they did. I have plenty of sinus issues, but they’ve never been bad enough for me to think about that surgery. I hope your recovery goes well, though.

    1. I think it depends on the cumulative effects, Harry. I wouldn’t have considered the surgery a few years ago, but recently I’ve developed sleep apnea and even the sleep apnea machine can’t overcome the blockage in my nose. The air blows so hard that it actually lifts the mask off my face so that the air can escape. It was hard to get a good night’s sleep, no matter how long I spent in bed. I also had trouble on a serious hike because I resisted breathing through my mouth and ended up with an oxygen deficiency unless I did so.

      There hasn’t been a noticeable improvement so far, but they say it takes at least two weeks for the surgery to heal, so I’m trying to be patient. Taking the splints out of my nose has made it possible to quit the heavy duty pain killers and switch to a tylenol or two during the day.

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