Work

The foreshadowing for today started last night. I tried to lie down on my usual pillow to sleep, instead of sleeping propped half-sitting, the way I have been. Bad move. Within about 10 minutes, my sinuses had swollen almost shut. I got the pillows back and propped back up, but the damage was done, and I slept poorly. I was up for about two hours, from 1:30 to about 3:30am.

I got up and got through my routine this morning pretty well, and went on in to the office. Since it takes me so long to eat, I just took my breakfast on in with me so I could chew each bite for 2-3 minutes while I was working. I really don't look forward to meals right now. It's kind of an ordeal to get through. 30-45 minutes of pain and learning to swallow. Breakfast is usually the easiest one.

I got in and surveyed the wreckage that was once my desk, and got to work. I cleared out my email box. I had been working on it some while I was out, via remote access, but there is only so much you can do that way. Usually cleaning up email is the biggest job when you've been out, but thanks to the pre-work I had done, it wasn't as bad as usual. That's still what I spent the majority of my time doing.

When I got done with that, it was around lunch time. I just heated up my lunch and took it back to my desk. Fortunately for me, my boss is at an out-of-town meeting for the rest of the week, so I am able to concentrate on what needs doing. I did send him some emails to chew on, on things I need his response about, but for the most part I was able to concentrate.

After email, I did my account follow-ups. Surprisingly, I was able to get those done, and do some of my reporting stuff too.

The problem was my head. My sinus stuff has hardly bothered me at all since I had the surgery. Either that, or because I was babying my throat so much, I was babying the rest of it by default. But that changed. I started getting this strange feeling in my head, kind of like my head was nauseated. Then the familiar pain kicked in from ear to ear. Then it started feeling like a vice was tightening across the bridge of my nose, getting smaller and smaller, and concentrating the pain. By that time it was 3:30, and I left the office to go home.

By the time I got home, I was in pretty bad shape. I haven't taken pain meds during the day since some time last week, but I did this afternoon. I lay down to try to take some of the pressure off. I thought part of this may be due to the fact that I haven't sat up this long at one time since the surgery. The pain stuff knocked me out, and I slept for about two hours.

When I woke up, my head hurt less, although it still hurt. And my sinuses were really tight. I felt like I was wearing a pressure mask across the bridge of my nose.

I went and got some spaghetti at Capri's for dinner, since I had been craving it for days, but the tomato sauce made my throat hurt. I chopped it up, and got through about half of it, washing my throat down between bites, since I'm supposed to be drinking a lot anyway.

The pressure continued. My nose felt like the holes inside had dried up and shrunk to a tiny size. Tylenol didn't seem to help much. I was using the saline nose spray to try to ease things a bit, but without much effect.

***Grossness alert***

I suffered with it until bedtime, when I decided to use my neti pot to see if that would help. I made up the solution, and unsurprisingly, it would barely go through my nose. I was thinking that at least it would moisten up the dried-feeling parts. I just stood there, with the solution barely dripping through. Then, I started to see some stuff come out - the usual mixture of mucus and old brown dried blood that has been coming out. Then, I felt something shift, and wriggle down left side of my nose, to plop in the sink. At first glance, I thought I had dislodged tissue. It was huge. I waited for the blood to come. But no bleeding. I looked at it, and it was just this HUGE plug-like thing. I didn't know something that big could come out of my nose. I felt it carefully - no tissue. Just some old blood, and a BIG mucus plug.

***End Grossness alert***

After that, my sinuses still felt tight, but I could breathe much more easily. I got in bed, and got out one of my frozen washcloths, a tip from a woman I work with who had this done herself. It was rolled up, and was like a crayon of cold I could draw on my face with. If I left it in one place too long, it hurt, but just rubbing it back and forth across the bridge of my nose and under my eyes was heaven, and did make me feel better.