Nosey

A little update on my nasal situation:

I saw the ENT today and he made it very clear that he is not surgery happy. He will do surgery only as a last resort and if he is positive it will help me. Otherwise, it could cause more pain and not help at all. Hearing this was a big relief since the recovery time would be quite long. I do not want to have to deal with it unless it's absolutely necessary.

So he's approaching it slowly. He did a brief exam of my nose and found that my septum is 'S' shaped. He thinks it may have buckled from previous injuries, but he couldn't see any significant blockage. The inside of my nose is apparently red and irritated, and the bridge of my nose is obviously tender. He wants to approach it from an allergy perspective first. If I have developed allergies (he specifically asked about pets), the irritation could be causing the buckled portions of my septum to flare up and cause pain. I'm on nasal spray for the next 6 weeks to see if that does anything.

If it doesn't, the next step is a camera up the nose to see if there's some blockage or other fracture further up, and some allergy testing to see if there's another way to approach it allergy-wise. Next step after that would be a bigger scan to see way in there and find out if surgery is needed.

I am crossing my fingers and toes that the nasal spray fixes everything, although I suspect further testing will be needed. He wants the nasal spray to be completely successful (pain, congestion, and drainage totally completely gone) - not just "eh, it's a little better". I want surgery to be the very last step (especially since there's not an obvious blockage) so I'm very pleased that he's wanting to try the other options available to us first.

And while we're on the subject of surgery-alternative options, my knee is still doing very well with physical therapy. She did discover that my hips and pelvis are probably causing a lot of the flare ups, so that was interesting and has given us the opportunity to approach my treatment a little differently.

Thanks for the check-ins and prayers!

This Fall

This fall is going to be busy and require some strict scheduling and planning. I have to take one of my classes on campus this next term, and I'm doing my first practicum in a library. I'm so excited to get some hands on experience! But this means that we're looking for childcare. Please accept my apologies for hijacking the blog, but we need all the help we can get in finding childcare.

Beginning September 23rd and going through mid-December, we need childcare for both boys every Monday from 3:30pm to 6:30pm (ish). The pay is $10 an hour. There is the possibility that we'll need additional childcare due to the practicum, but we won't know for a while yet.

Ideally we would like to find childcare through the recommendation of family/friends, so that's why I'm reaching out here. So if you know of anyone (high school student, college student, stay at home mom) who would like to earn a little extra cash and is good with kids, please pass this along to them and send me a message with their info.

Thanks!

In One Piece?

Some of you may remember that I ran into a door a few years ago. Literally smashed right into a door. Because that's my style, I guess. I've had nose issues ever since, but things have gotten a lot worse since I got glasses. I can only assume it's from the extra pressure on my nose, but I've traded out bad eyesight headaches for nose-based headaches. It feels as though there's someone constantly pressing my nose into my face.

Anyway, due to the increased pain, I finally scheduled an appointment with my doctor to get this three year old injury checked out. She believes that my septum was knocked out of line when I ran into the door. I've been referred to an ENT over at St Vincent to get a little camera shoved up my nose to see how it looks in there. If it's not where it's supposed to be, then it's surgery time to put things back in place.

So.....more prayer please. I feel like physically incapable of staying in one piece and it's frustrating. On the bright side, my knee is consistently improving with physical therapy and if it continues to go well, we can avoid surgery on that for now. And if I had to choose, I'd want my nose fixed. I can deal with knee pain. But the nose pain? That's affecting daily life with near constant headaches. Here's hoping they can figure out what needs to be done.

Dog Bed

After dinner, we have family time. That frequently involves the four of us curling up together on the couch to watch some tv: either a Discovery Channel show from Netflix or some America's Funniest Home Videos. One benefit to all of us sitting down for some quiet time is that the dogs zonk out for the first time all day. And it's not been unusual lately for them to zonk out ON someone.

Nathan fully became a dog bed tonight. Honeydew was completely passed out on top of him. Nathan loved every minute of it. "She keeps me warm", he said.

We thought that was pretty adorable for a while, but then Honeydew decided to switch to me. And then Buster jumped up on John's lap to sleep.

Well, at least one of them is actually a lap dog....