Ear, Nose, Throat, Gag!

I just got in from my first appointment with the Ear-Nose-Throat (ENT) specialist... On the up-side, I was given about four times the normal amount of Zithromax, plus the ability to order more whenever I want it -- which is the medication that I wanted in the first place a month ago. Yay! That means I'll finally get better! Also, I like this doctor -- despite him sharing the name of a really annoying Japanime character.

Unfortunately, that is basically all that went well at said appointment.

The nasal passages on the right side are almost totally blocked. I've known that ever since I was around eight years old, when hospital staff decided to insert tubing and discovered that there was nowhere for it to go. That particular experience also taught me, very much the hard way, to be massively phobic about anything actually being IN my nose. I can breathe on that side, but it's highly restricted, and the slightest allergy or cold blocks it off. The other side is messed-up too, just not as severely.

So having benzocaine sprayed up my nostrils three times for the exam didn't please me. The twenty-minute exam of having a foot or so of scoping cable inserted and rotated to explore my sinuses as well as down my throat pleased me even less.

I was then told -- surprise, surprise! -- that the sinuses and nasal passages in general are pretty severely deformed. Yeah, I could have told him that... *sigh* Next step is a CAT scan of my head, to find out exactly how extensive the anomalies go.

In the meantime, I am to contact the allergy department again. Dr. G wants not only "proper" Rx nasal-spray med given to me, but allergy tests. For anybody that hasn't had this: they draw a grid of a few dozen squares on each arm, then inject allergens into each square. Did I mention the fear of needles I have?

If the new allergy med doesn't work, and the CAT scan confirms what Dr. G suspects, next step is surgical correction. I could tell from the things he was saying that he is fairly certain it's the route we are going to take: when a doctor mentions operating offhand, it means it is a minor possibility. When he spends as much time explaining the procedure in graphic detail and repeatedly informing the patient that it won't be that bad, chances are it's a fairly likely prospect.

For now, I'm exhausted from the fun of the morning, so I am going to take some vitamins and rest. Oh, and the antibiotic too...

Posted by moggy at August 28, 2003 01:38 PM | TrackBack