Clearing the sinus of a elephant?

7 Weeks post BI-MAX operation and I'm still wired shut. The good part.....I still think I'm sleeping much better...My total weight loss is around 30 pounds. I'm getting around much better than I have been.

The bad part...well... NOT EATING REAL FOOD. Liquid diet gets really old. Any food I see looks good. To smell them makes it worse. It's torture to watch someone eat a cheeseburger. I was watching "Survivor" and even the rice they were eating looked good!! "Survivor food", who would ever think that looks good???? ME!!! Chewing food brings more pleasure than you realize. I know people enjoy eating, look at our society, we are a pleasure eaters...all of us. But take away just one small thing...the ability to chew your food, you gain a whole new perspective on eating. You can live on a liquid diet, solids are NOT required to sustain life, but I wouldn't wish it on my worse enemy, its just not any fun.

As for other physical issues. My teeth ache....all the pressure of wires around every tooth, metal bars along my gum lines, and rubber bands holding my jaws together makes my teeth hurt. For anyone who has had braces, its very similar to that pain. Lips are still on the dry cracked side....without your tongue to help moisten them from time to time, they get dried out, crack, peal, and bleed (if your pick at them like it do).

So then there is the sinus issues next. This surgery really messes up your sinuses. It changes your whole face. It was best described to me by my family doctor. Basically you sinuses are like a fluid pump, with your jaw movement as the pump. So guess what, with your jaw wired shut the pump isn't working, the sinus fluid has no place to go. And where is it going with me? In my inner ear canals. This is a major annoyance. Its like your ears become amplifiers at a rock concert for all the sounds in your body. Breathing, heartbeat, gurgles, and talking is LOUD. Blowing your nose, well that is no fun, it puts positive pressure in your sinus and causes more to go into your ears. The fix for this has been to recline, drink something, or plug your nose, close your mouth and suck in...this pulls it out....but only temporarily. Hello decongestant, now I think the people at the pharmacy think I'm cooking meth. I got a bottle of psuedofedrine that could clear the sinus of an elephant!

So during the first few weeks, I had a pretty solid pain on the back side of my right ear, it hurt pretty bad when I touched it. I mentioned it at my 2 week follow up. The surgeons told me it was normal to have ear pain. And blew it off without really looking at it. The pain almost went completely away, but with all this inner ear pain I touched that spot again and I felt just a hint of pain. And it was squishy to touch. Come to find out there was a large cyst back there full of blood and puss. Went to the Dr. and she drained and cultured it....thinking it may have been infected she put me on anti-biotics. Best we can think is that this was the place where they CLAMPED MY HEAD TO THE TABLE, so they could stand on my face an saw my skull into 4 pieces, and the trauma to my ear made the cyst!

On the good and bad front is the remaining numbness. Most of my upper lip and nose area has feeling has come back, and in the last few days, I've started to feel things on my lower right lip and chin, left side is still very much dead feeling. Although, again in the last few days, I've felt little twinges in the left side. I think this is a good sign I will regain all feeling in my face, one can only hope. The lack of feeling is strange......its like a dental numbing gone horribly wrong!

My family doctor asked me one of the all important questions. Was it worth it? My answer at this point is, "I think it will be". Right now, I'm still pretty miserable as the above describes, but its part of the healing process. Long term, the big picture.....Despite the severe interruption in life, the pain, the numbness, the altering of how your face is shaped, the lack of food, the increased stress on your spouse, the unknown, I think that long term sleep will level it out! I've given up a couple months of my life for what I hope is a extension on my life and a better quality of life. Time will tell!