"Braining" with a sinus infection...

Perhaps I should have posted a few days ago - I am sure whatever wound up on the page would have been hilariously incoherent. I must admit, this week has been a crazy haze. With Shane up in Raleigh for the week, I was flying solo with the three kiddos, dog, cat, gerbil....and a nasty sinus infection.

For all you seasoned sinus infection survivors, you know what I mean - foggy head, imploding/exploding skull, ear pressure, face hurts, headaches, and, until the antibiotics work their magic, a general sensation of being hit by a bus. Before 2006, I frequented the pharmacy for meds, one sinus infection after another. After seeing an ENT, an ordered MRI disclosed the answer. After the doctor placed the film onto the glowing display board, he pointed to an area of black - "Do you see this mass here?" If you are a doctor and reading this, PLEASE never open with a question about a mass!! With cranial radiation, brain tumors are higher risk for me, so you can guess where my mind jumped with the word"mass!" It wasn't anything - as he went on, he explained it was a void - he thought it odd because clearly I had sinus passages but... "It is like they stop here and pick up there," he said pointing to what appeared to be a glowing bridge with a chunk fallen off the middle. "Very odd." I asked him if a misaligned radiation beam could do that, being mine was, hence to loss of hearing. "Yep, that would definitely do it!"

That lovely conversation led to extensive sinus surgery, the kind that I had to sign the wavers stating that I understood the risks and that even the slightest stray could result in brain injury or death. Wow! It ended up being more complicated than the doctor imagined, cutting and creating new passageways, widening others. Yes, it was painful; but not as bad as all the irrigating follow-ups. (Yes, irrigating, not irritating, although, that is true, as well!) When the doctor tells you to take two Vicodin before coming, you know it is going to be fun! Numbing gel applied, wait ten minutes, string wirey tubes up the nostrils, through the passageways, clearing any debris, etc. Seriously - put this stuff on your bucket list, folks!

Anyway - since then, I have only had one, maybe two, sinus infections per year - a very, VERY significant improvement from two per month! However, I believe I have become more of a sinus infection wimp. What used to be daily pain is now a couple days per year. In between the months, I forget the upper teeth pain, falling asleep mid sentence, overall bla that makes adulting difficult!

I am thankful that my parents were in town this week, as they helped tremendously with school runs, a dinner, and even taking a kiddo home for an overnight - the bliss of hearing the crickets! We made it, even getting 95% of school done....yet, it wouldn't be a "Shane's away" week without some minor upsets, like choking on a bug or chasing down a massive wasp in the house....or the dog and cat, in tandem, corning an anole and knocking over the table holding all the painting supplies, Anie screaming so loud that I was sure police would be knocking on our door! Positive - no animal got sick, no one broke anything significant (my favorite coffee mug and a small cut on the unnamed child who broke it aside), AND it is over!

No hurricanes our way (so far), but Florence did dump a lot of water in our lake and my parents' pool!
Happy Weekend to you all!