Holy Snot Batman!

Man...what a busy day I have had. Just when I think the fun can't end, I get to experience more of it! Happy Happy Joy Joy!

So my day started with getting up early and driving to the orthodontists office. Today was the day for my lower bonded retainer to be put on (since I had that little cavity filled yesterday.) It was really not a big deal, except for the fact that I got a serious tickle in my throat while the ortho was working on bonding it in. Do you know how hard it is to fight off a cough when your throat decides it is going to cough? Anyway...the process involved some nasty tasting prep base. It was very sour/bitter like the stuff the used with my brackets. They then rinsed that off and my ortho tied my lowers all together with dental floss. I'm assuming that was to help keep everything in place and help hold the retainer wire while he cements it. Next he used a little syringe to squeeze some yellow looking goo onto the back of one tooth. He moved it around a bit with one of his little tools and then used the ultra-violet light to harden the glue. He did this tooth by tooth for all 6 of my lower incisors and canines. When he finished he rinsed everything out and cut the dental floss off of my teeth. The assistant then came and showed me how to floss with my new permanent retainer (gone are the days of 2 second flossing, that I had this last month.) Basically you floss with it by going underneath the wire with threader floss and floss that small area below it. Here is the result of all of his efforts, and may I just add that I love this thing! For the first time my lower teeth do not feel wiggly. They feel secure and comfortable instead of sore and achey!

I no sooner finished this appointment and I had to head to see the ENT for my post sinus surgery follow up! Oooh my goodness! What a weird experience this was. Now mind you I have been rather lax and bad with this surgery. I was so stuffed up I was gently blowing as soon as they took the packing out. On Tuesday I sneezed (accidently) through my nose which is a big no no! That afternoon a nasty clot came out but then things seemed ok. Yesterday a piece of the gel stent came out, and things were not feeling very good. Today..I woke up really congested and have had blood running down my throat all day so I thought for sure I must have messed something up.

I arrive at the ENT's office. The nurse takes me in, hands me three Kleenex and asks me "so are you ready for a little torture?" as she is messing around with some tools she turns on a machine that sounds like an air compressor! Mind you I want my sinuses fixed, but I was not prepared for lots of pain today...little lone torture! She then asks me if I'm allergic to "lidocaine or afrin?" I say no and she says oh good! She stands there with this thing hooked up to the air compressor that looks like a giant exploration tool, with a rubber tip on the end. She starts on the left side and tells me to take a big sniff! Instantly I get a sinus full of lidocaine and afrin. Anyone who has had surgery can tell you that Afrin tastes terrible in large doses, when you mix it with lidocaine it is even worse...so of course I'm gagging like crazy as it runs down the back of my throat. Guess what??? the fun isn't over, she still has to do the right side now! So...I lived through that part, and soon, actually like almost instantly I feel my throat start to get numb as well as the insides of my sinuses.

Next the doctor comes on. He shakes my hand, asks me how I'm doing etc. I tell him that I think the gel stent came out, and that I have been having big clotty drainage down my throat all day. So....guess what he does? He tells me that he is probably going to fix most of that for me today. He comes at me with a miniture version of a dental sucker thingy (sorry I don't have the exact name for those things but I'm sure you get my drift) a set of like long tweezers, and a flashlight. He enters my right sinus and I feel the syringe enter my maxiallary sinus area. He stops a couple of times because the bloodclots are clogging the sucker thing up and it won't suck anymore. So he takes it out and he gets a BIGGER ONE! Are you feeling the fun yet??? Then it's back into my sinuses, this time he pulls some discusting glob out of my nose....so totally discusting I'm thinking "why in the heck would anyone want to be an ENT???? while at the same time wondering how in the heck something that big could be up my nose! He continues to suck away, and then again reaches into my sinuses and comes out with another even bigger, giant glob of something. Is it packing? just a snot glob? At this point I'm thinking holy snot Batman...my sinuses must be like the freaking grand canyon! Then he continues more suction until I swear I feel like he is sucking my teeth up through that sucker thing. Then he switches sides and does some more sucking on the left. None of this was particularly painful, other then when he pulled that giant whatever out. That part kindof hurt and my sinuses were pretty burny and raw feeling afterwards. It was just the most bizarre feeling ever to have someone sucking around inside my face though...and while I was awake! It just can't be described!

When he was done he said that things looked great and I just need to give things a bit of time to heal, but that he thinks this will help me a lot." (phew no damage from blowing) Also, he said " I sucked a ton of junk out of there....your whole right maxillary sinus was filled with gunk, I suspects now that most of it is out that you will probably be feeling much better by later this afternoon. Wow! Thanks! I think! Hopefully it won't just be temporary until the Afrin wears off, or just fill up again over the next two weeks.

Overall the whole experience was rather draining (no pun intended, well ok maybe a little one) and I'm just so thrilled to have lived through it! (one more thing I can add to my list) I go back on the 17th for another follow up and possibly some more suction action! I got the go ahead to workout again today, so I'm going to go back to the gym starting tonight. I think I will take a little nap first though....all this nasal irrigation seems to have sucked the life out of me (boy I'm just full of puns today) he he! I will keep you posted on the progress!