Nose Job

For as long as I can remember I have suffered with some sort of sinus related problems, often being told that I have a cough and I know that I am unable to leave the house without a small packet of tissues. But having been a contractor and on the road for much of the past ten years, visiting a Doctor often became something I did only as an absolute necessity.

Things changed once I was offered a permanent role and with the banks in-house Doctors and Nurse Team to serve the some 5000 staff, it meant that I had no excuse not to visit. In fact, before we moved from Mayfair to the city, the Doctor was in our building one day a week. So on my teams insistence I eventually went to see the Doctor about my ever persistent cough. (It being something that I do so often that I don't even realize I am doing it and as such, sometimes, takes other people to point out).

The Doctor has a little listen with a Stethoscope and then sent me off in the afternoon to the Princess Grace Hospital in fabulous Marylebone (The marvels of being covered by private insurance through work, means you are generally seen the same day). An X-ray taken and no obvious signs I was sent off to see a specialist ENT Consultant, Dr Haacke.

A few questions later I was sent off to London Bridge Hospital the next day for a CAT Scan and then once the imaging was reviewed, it became quite apparent where the problem lay. I had a somewhat deviated Septum and Sinus's much smaller than would be expected of someone of my age.

Dr Haacke initially asked me to try and course of Steroid Spray to see if it made things any better, when coincided with a twice daily nasal douche. The result was no apparent change so my remaining option was corrective surgery. Apparently quite a common operation, with Dr Haacke having performed in excess of 9000 of them on asking around I was surprised at how many people had already had the same Operation. This included Ray on my team, whom was the main reason I had put off any idea of considering having anything done. He had the Op when he was 15 years old in a day when surgery was far more invasive than it is in modern day. Having hacked away half of his inner nasal passages they had packed his nose with Gauze which he needed to return a week later for them to remove. Naturally packed Gauze will stick to the inside of ones nose and on removal, the bleeding returns once more. I have heard stories of some people loosing up to Four Pints of blood! This filled me with horror and Ray liked to remind me how much it hurt.

Doctor Haacke on the other hand ensured me that these days it was micro surgery and that I would only be unconscious for perhaps an hour and would only be kept in Hospital over night to ensure that they have successfully stopped the nose from bleeding.

So the date was booked, 27th October, I would need to be at the Lister Hospital at 0700. How the apprehension grew greater the closer I got to the Operation date. Indeed by the day before I was struggling to concentrate on anything much at all. The pre operation paperwork had stated that it was paramount that you contact their office if in the week up to the Operation you develop any cold or flu like symptons. Simply, you can not have a sinus operation when you are trying to fight off infection. Of course, that week before it seemed like not one person in the office didn't have a cough. There was so much coughing it actually started to make me feel like I was sat in a Doctors waiting room and not the Office.

I had to wake at 05:00 on the 27th, in order to get dressed and to arrive at the Lister by 07:00. I took a train to Waterloo and then jumped into a Taxi for the rest of the journey. Upon arrival, I was taken by a porter to my own private room and shown how to operate everything and explained the Hospital facilities. Then a nurse arrived and started to take measurements for anti DVT leggings and weighed me to ensure that they calcultated the General Anesthetic correctly. I was then asked to dress in a blue paper gown which had plastic airbags on the inside to keep your body warm in the old air of Theatre.

Next Doctor Haacke arrived and asked me to sign the Operation Consent forms and finally it was Fraser, my Anesthetist, who explained what would happen. I was so glad I was the first Operation of the day. The thought of having to hang around too long with the apprehension would have been horrid.

By 08:45 they were ready for me in Theatre and the Staff Nurse led me to the elevator and I was asked to lie on a Trolly, was wrapped in a blanket and taken down to a prep room where Fraser and another specialist were ready for me. "Don't worry", said Fraser, "I'm about to give you something for your nerves. This will be like a very large Gin & Tonic". (I hope its Hendricks, I thought). They connected a Catheter and moments later injected the General. Woah. I felt the coldness as it entered my arm and then as soon as they put the Oxygene/Gas mask on my face I was out cold. The first I knew of anything was being woken in the recovery room at 10:10. It was the weirdest feeling. I had expected them to ask me to count to ten and had thought that the Gin & Tonic was the pre-meds not the actual thing. I woke with Fraser by my side and coughing up blood, for which they gave me some tissues and a small cup of water. Once I had fully revived and was somewhat corpus mentus was taken back up to my room.

The nurse arrived and the second I was sat up in Bed my nose started to bleed. They wrapped some Gauze under my nostrils and I was given a bunch of pills. Pain Killers, Anti-biotic, anti clotting pills. But aside from a blocked nose and a nose bleed, I wasn't really in any pain except for a sinus related headache.

I had a delicious lunch of Mushroom Soup and then Chicken Ceasar Salad, which must have meant that I was on the mend, I had an appetite. I still felt somewhat dazed from the anesthetic but in a private room with your own OnDemand television, I was quite compfortable and settled in watching TV and recouping.

At 1700, Richard popped in to visit, followed by Dusan and then Ian & Claire. It was so nice to have visitors and really made the time go by and a constant stream of nurses provided me with pills, took my blood pressure, checked I was correctly changing my Gauze dressings.

Sleeping however was something that would not come easy. I still couldn't breath at all through my nose at all. It was so blocked and so breathing through ones mouth meant I was constantly parched. Then I was told I had to remain with my head elevated and I still had the Catheter in my hand, which hurt everytime it caught on the bedding.

I was so pleased when at 830AM they said I could leave as soon as someone collected me. Dusan was there at 10:00 on the dot and I have been at home since, ordered to rest as I recover. The main thing this week is to rest up while the swelling reduces and ensure I stay away from any chance of infections. I'm to avoid any public transport and Air Conditioned venues, which pretty much means I live between the Bed at night and the sofa during the day. I still have some blood leaking, I still have a headache, but it wasn't anywhere near as bad as I had anticipated. I guess it will be a couple of weeks, once the swelling has reduced, before we will know, did it remove the cough and can I breath better? Lets hope so.

A huge thanks to everyone for the kind messages, for the visits, the texts and to everyone that looked after me. Now I really can answer when people ask, where are you from? "I'm from Essex, but my nose is from Chelsea" :-)