“There, now you can breathe like you haven’t in years!”
Said the doctor after pulling out stents and cleaning up the sinuses.
And it was true!
The surgery and recovery were much better than expected. Of course, I was asleep during the sinus surgery, but I did not have any of the swelling, bruising or pain that we had expected! Nor did any of the other potential complications manifest themselves, such as loss of smell, blindness, leaking brain fluid…
Recovery was uncomfortable (there was lots of bleeding and plastic stents up there!) but was otherwise good. It was actually a great time to slow down. The second day after surgery was a lovely spring Saturday. Naomi and the kids were doing road-side cleanup as a fundraiser for the school and I had the house to myself on the first really nice, warm weekend of the year. Since I had no choice but go slow, I took a theology book out to the deck and read in the sun! It was nice to see buds opening up around the yard as I checked on our foodscaping. The apple trees, cherries, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, haskaps, currants, saskatoons, grapes…. all the leaves starting to open and some actually blooming was quite lovely. Couldn’t smell anything of course, but very nice to see.
On Tuesday, Naomi drove me down for the post-op appointment where the doctor cleaned things up and inspected his handiwork. Everything was healing up fine.
Prior to this surgery, I have had quite restricted breathing through my sinuses for a very long time, with frequent sinus infections for several weeks a year. Anything more than a leisurely walk and I would need to breathe through my mouth as I simply couldn’t get enough air. Suddenly, now I can breathe through my nose easily. It is like having a cast removed and you have a sense of freedom! Ok, over-dramatic, but it is a huge relief to just breathe. I have another follow-up appointment in a couple weeks, and would appreciate your prayers. Hopefully this will mean less illness in the future.
While the sinus issues are getting cleared up, I am still dealing with frequent bouts of dizziness and the last three weeks have been pretty wobbly. I’m actually having a bit of a hard time reading the screen as I write this, so I’m going to sit here awhile instead of trying to walk. The doctor at the Vestibular Clinic in Calgary thinks that the vertigo may be induced by a migraine. I had never heard of this before, but instead of the more common stabbing pain, some people have migraines that manifest themselves with vertigo, called a vestibular migraine. Anyway, I am keeping the clinic up to date with what I am experiencing and doing more research on this as well.
Again, thank you for your prayers.
Troy & Naomi
Trying to clear space on my computer for our upcoming road trip, I discovered that I had never done anything with our photos from our last road trip – the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia. In the summer of 2016 we had the opportunity to stay at a house just a few meters from the ocean at a really discounted price, so we borrowed a van and off we went. Highlights include visiting the ocean many times, taking the ferry, hiking through really cool coastal rain forests, antique car regatta, Vancouver Aquarium, visiting family in Abbotsford, and friends in Kamloops, and of course, hours of driving through the mountains.
