Septoplasty and Turbinate Reduction

A lil blog about my journey to better breathing:

I half jokingly say I would like to thank my big brother for all the childhood beat downs that led to my deviated septum an the inevitable corrective surgery I have had this week. Half joking only because it is in fact truely how I have this crooked septum. I would never have thought I would have any surgery in my life (who would). But I definitely could not have guessed my first surgery would be "elective"; seems like a odd thing to elect to do but my breathing situation had just become so aggrevating and increasingly worse over time.

deviated septum & turbinates

After the doc visit determines my surgery worthy deviated septum and enlarged turbinates things move quickly they immediately have you schedule surgery dates and get the ball rolling. eeek! just like that... I had questions...should he exray or something? how does he know after and peek twice up my nostrils that I need surgery?? Seems a bit hasty...I began compiling my question for my pre-opt appointment.

At this point I'm in a bit of a quandary, as most people know about me, I'm a researcher by nature. I often (if not always) want to know why and how of so much in life. So apply that to something that is meant to occur to me and you can imagine how elevated this characteristic had become. The worse thing someone like me can do while researching a procedure that is pending is youtube a medical video of it. I nearly called the whole thing off...lol. It was not pretty and everyone is quick to tell you how you will be under anethesia and won't feel a thing but none-the-less that IS happening to you. Eeek. The next thing you won't want to hear is other people's stories about how they heard the bone being broken or how they had an wicked infection after but "I'm sure that won't happen to you." what?

Pre-op: I asked my list of questions and the doc was able to answer them throughly and humor me in some instances just to make me feel better about the surgery. Mainly about how he knew I needed surgery and was he sure it would not change the shape of my nose. I like my nose, I'm sure it isn't a perfect nose but it's mine and I think the shape and size is distinct to me and my family and I'd like to keep it that way. I left that appointment feeling that surgery was in fact what i needed however, terribly nervous of what was on the horizon but mainly the anethesia. I've never had it and the prospect of taking a drug that puts me in a state that I have no idea what is happening to me was not appealing at all. Reading up on the procedure does not elicit comfort only more concerns over probability and statistics of being within a certain margin where things are not so good.

Surgery Day: The waiting is really the worst part. The anticipation of being stuck with needles and being operated on could be the worse emotional part of the whole ordeal. No eating or drinking (not even water) for 8 or more certainly didnt add to the situation. Finally called back, I was told we're moving you up the surgery before me was a no show...eeek here we go. First IV, first anethesia, first surgery, this was a very long day so far.

tubes/splints/stints

Post Op - I woke up being shaken abruptly by the nurse (I think) was so out of it still. I only remember telling her that my nose ddnt hurt at all but my throat was killing me. I think at this point the anethesiologist mentioned I coughed a bit when they intubated me..i guess this causes you to have a wicked bad sore throat and it must have also bruised the hell out of my chest..because even after 3 days my breast plate is wicked tender and bruised.

Day2 (morning): Healing quickly :) random observations: the worse pain isn't in my nose but still my throat and chest from the intubation. My teeth hurt :-/ also i'm not quite sure why ppl take these kind of pain meds when they don't have to...just makes me sleepy, lethargic and i feel wicked lazy.

>>>Day 2 (night) Too much moving around today plus began irrigation which hurt a bit, The combo created pressure in my sinuses that has given me this nice heaache that does not go away not even with the pain meds. Sweet. Getting set up to be immobile for a while thinking this is the better choice.

Day 3: Rough second half of day 2 led to a very rough morning day 3. Not feeling so spritely at all today. :( Breathing through my mouth only makes for an unrestful sleep. Irrigation hasn't been pleasant but I can breathe through my stints for the moment. progress. Pretty achey today, I think I feel the worst today.

Random observation: two days with no taste buds and i'm starting to become concerned about regaining my sense of taste... that would not be a fair trade off :-/ also i noticed that (while getting intubated??) my front teeth bonding got chipped..to be discussed with doc on monday. no bueno.

Day 4:

Decide to try to endure the discomfort and reduce my pain med intake. I definitely do not enjoy the spaced out feeling it gives me although the sleep has been a welcome result. I am pretty sure I have not slept this much in quite some time.  I have an incredible urge to blow my nose today. My front teeth and gums are still tender and I can periodically breathe through both stints. Since  I cant smell or taste anything eating hasn't really been too much of a priority only intaking food because I meant to with before taking meds. Oddly enough my favorite thing to eat right now is watermelon. It's cool and I like the texture. I can't decide if i can tell it's sweet because I know it is sweet as I have my whole life or if I can really tell that it is sweet. Things that are sweet do feel different as I eat them and the same for salty things, but again I can't decide if that is because I already know it as I eat it. 

  I am so looking forward to Monday's post op appointment, where the stints come out. I expect it will be very uncomfortable but I am excited to get this moving along.

Day 5: Woke feeling very rested today! Made it through the entire day yesterday with no pain meds, but I did take one right before I went to sleep. I slept through the entire night and was breathing out of both stints! No painful dry mouth/tongue today. I was surprised at how painful it has been to wake up with the inside of my mouth completely dried up from only being able to breathe through it. So excited to be free from the stints tomorrow, it seems it will be pretty uncomfortable (if not down right wicked painful) coming out but that will be brief and then I will be able to heal fully and breathe completely! :) So excited to feel the difference!

Day 6: Got my stints out today! Oh my my do i feel amazing! I am able to breathe the most full breaths of my life!

Getch'er geek on...getch'er geek on...

August 12, 13 - Perseids Meteor Shower. The Perseids is one of the best meteor showers to observe, producing up to 60 meteors per hour at their peak. This year's shower should peak on the night of August 12 and the morning of the 13th, but you may be able to see some meteors any time from July 23 - August 22. The radiant point for this shower will be in the constellation Perseus. The thin, crescent moon will be out of the way early, setting the stage for a potentially spectacular show. For best viewing, look to the northeast after midnight.

Discrepant Design Pricing & Eileen Gray

So riding off the high of the procurement of my beloved chair (and to complete the seating area of my living room) I felt the very slick Eileen Gray table would complete the layout. I had seen this table a few years back and liked it very much. So with my lovely chair in place, I began to search for the best possible place to acquire Ms. Gray's iconic table. So I jaunt over to the Design Within Reach site (which is where I had seen the choice table previously) and wouldn't you know...still available....Great! ...but woah $550 for 1 side table...that's a notable price. I decide (as always) to do a bit more research on the price as to get the best price out there. I do this now as a habit regardless of where the chair lives in the US; for example I shipped my chair in from NYC and got a fantastic price. I digress, but what i found next was definitely surprising:

Design Within Reach $550.00USD (+38.50 s&h) ummmm "Within Reach"...Really??
(http://www.dwr.com/product/eileen-gray-side-table.do)

and THE SAME TABLE at another site for...***Drum Roll***.. $120.00 (w/free shipping)!! 
(http://www.lexingtonmodern.com/Eileen-Gray-Side-Table-p/125.htm?gclid=CIzVmcWZyKECFRY75QoduSjUVA)

and another "gray inspired" version somehow available at Target .com (only)...$169.99 (w/free shipping)
(http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/175-5047464-6340623?asin=B00290YU1O&AFID=Froogle_df&LNM)

The moral of this lil purchasing story...do your homework friends and a little leg work goes a long way maybe even $430 or better. Cheers friends!

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In case you were interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eileen_Gray 

Things that make you go Hmmmm?

If nothing else this is at least food for thought. It could never hurt to apply a different lens to many (if not all) situations to gain some perspective. Although, I believe that many of the instances cited here are from people that are extreme by nature and not by most, looking at this situation through this lens we can perhaps gain insight.

"Imagine if the Tea Party Was Black" - Tim Wise

Let’s play a game, shall we? The name of the game is called “Imagine.” The way it’s played is simple: we’ll envision recent happenings in the news, but then change them up a bit. Instead of envisioning white people as the main actors in the scenes we’ll conjure - the ones who are driving the action - we’ll envision black folks or other people of color instead. The object of the game is to imagine the public reaction to the events or incidents, if the main actors were of color, rather than white. Whoever gains the most insight into the workings of race in America, at the end of the game, wins.

So let’s begin.

Imagine that hundreds of black protesters were to descend upon Washington DC and Northern Virginia, just a few miles from the Capitol and White House, armed with AK-47s, assorted handguns, and ammunition. And imagine that some of these protesters —the black protesters — spoke of the need for political revolution, and possibly even armed conflict in the event that laws they didn’t like were enforced by the government? Would these protester — these black protesters with guns — be seen as brave defenders of the Second Amendment, or would they be viewed by most whites as a danger to the republic? What if they were Arab-Americans? Because, after all, that’s what happened recently when white gun enthusiasts descended upon the nation’s capital, arms in hand, and verbally announced their readiness to make war on the country’s political leaders if the need arose.

Imagine that white members of Congress, while walking to work, were surrounded by thousands of angry black people, one of whom proceeded to spit on one of those congressmen for not voting the way the black demonstrators desired. Would the protesters be seen as merely patriotic Americans voicing their opinions, or as an angry, potentially violent, and even insurrectionary mob? After all, this is what white Tea Party protesters did recently in Washington.

Imagine that a rap artist were to say, in reference to a white president: “He’s a piece of shit and I told him to suck on my machine gun.” Because that’s what rocker Ted Nugent said recently about President Obama.

Imagine that a prominent mainstream black political commentator had long employed an overt bigot as Executive Director of his organization, and that this bigot regularly participated in black separatist conferences, and once assaulted a white person while calling them by a racial slur. When that prominent black commentator and his sister — who also works for the organization — defended the bigot as a good guy who was misunderstood and “going through a tough time in his life” would anyone accept their excuse-making? Would that commentator still have a place on a mainstream network? Because that’s what happened in the real world, when Pat Buchanan employed as Executive Director of his group, America’s Cause, a blatant racist who did all these things, or at least their white equivalents: attending white separatist conferences and attacking a black woman while calling her the n-word.

Imagine that a black radio host were to suggest that the only way to get promoted in the administration of a white president is by “hating black people,” or that a prominent white person had only endorsed a white presidential candidate as an act of racial bonding, or blamed a white president for a fight on a school bus in which a black kid was jumped by two white kids, or said that he wouldn’t want to kill all conservatives, but rather, would like to leave just enough—“living fossils” as he called them—“so we will never forget what these people stood for.” After all, these are things that Rush Limbaugh has said, about Barack Obama’s administration, Colin Powell’s endorsement of Barack Obama, a fight on a school bus in Belleville, Illinois in which two black kids beat up a white kid, and about liberals, generally.

Imagine that a black pastor, formerly a member of the U.S. military, were to declare, as part of his opposition to a white president’s policies, that he was ready to “suit up, get my gun, go to Washington, and do what they trained me to do.” This is, after all, what Pastor Stan Craig said recently at a Tea Party rally in Greenville, South Carolina.

Imagine a black radio talk show host gleefully predicting a revolution by people of color if the government continues to be dominated by the rich white men who have been “destroying” the country, or if said radio personality were to call Christians or Jews non-humans, or say that when it came to conservatives, the best solution would be to “hang ‘em high.” And what would happen to any congressional representative who praised that commentator for “speaking common sense” and likened his hate talk to “American values?” After all, those are among the things said by radio host and best-selling author Michael Savage, predicting white revolution in the face of multiculturalism, or said by Savage about Muslims and liberals, respectively. And it was Congressman Culbertson, from Texas, who praised Savage in that way, despite his hateful rhetoric.

Imagine a black political commentator suggesting that the only thing the guy who flew his plane into the Austin, Texas IRS building did wrong was not blowing up Fox News instead. This is, after all, what Anne Coulter said about Tim McVeigh, when she noted that his only mistake was not blowing up the New York Times.

Imagine that a popular black liberal website posted comments about the daughter of a white president, calling her “typical redneck trash,” or a “whore” whose mother entertains her by “making monkey sounds.” After all that’s comparable to what conservatives posted about Malia Obama on freerepublic.com last year, when they referred to her as “ghetto trash.”

Imagine that black protesters at a large political rally were walking around with signs calling for the lynching of their congressional enemies. Because that’s what white conservatives did last year, in reference to Democratic party leaders in Congress.

In other words, imagine that even one-third of the anger and vitriol currently being hurled at President Obama, by folks who are almost exclusively white, were being aimed, instead, at a white president, by people of color. How many whites viewing the anger, the hatred, the contempt for that white president would then wax eloquent about free speech, and the glories of democracy? And how many would be calling for further crackdowns on thuggish behavior, and investigations into the radical agendas of those same people of color?

To ask any of these questions is to answer them. Protest is only seen as fundamentally American when those who have long had the luxury of seeing themselves as prototypically American engage in it. When the dangerous and dark “other” does so, however, it isn’t viewed as normal or natural, let alone patriotic. Which is why Rush Limbaugh could say, this past week, that the Tea Parties are the first time since the Civil War that ordinary, common Americans stood up for their rights: a statement that erases the normalcy and “American-ness” of blacks in the civil rights struggle, not to mention women in the fight for suffrage and equality, working people in the fight for better working conditions, and LGBT folks as they struggle to be treated as full and equal human beings.

And this, my friends, is what white privilege is all about. The ability to threaten others, to engage in violent and incendiary rhetoric without consequence, to be viewed as patriotic and normal no matter what you do, and never to be feared and despised as people of color would be, if they tried to get away with half the shit we do, on a daily basis.

Game Over.


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http://ephphatha-poetry.blogspot.com/2010/04/imagine-if-tea-party-was-black-tim-wise.htmlb
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Tim Wise is among the most prominent anti-racist writers and activists in the U.S. Wise has spoken in 48 states, on over 400 college campuses, and to community groups around the nation. Wise has provided anti-racism training to teachers nationwide, and has trained physicians and medical industry professionals on how to combat racial inequities in health care. His latest book is called Between Barack and a Hard Place.

Salt and Peppa's here...

That title is so apropos as it is quite reminiscent of my youth; middle school dance off's and such. It is also a euphemism for graying hair...

Today, after showering, I notice a single grayish-white hair sprouting through my otherwise mahogany coif. After staring at it for several seconds I began to reflect on the cycle of life and how perhaps graying hair is natures way of slowly unveiling the staging of our lives. With each new sprout we should reflect on the progression of our lives and embrace the transition... 

....and then I thought "Uh HEEll no! I'm too young for gray hair!!" and I yanked that MF'r right out.

Reflection still occurs, I'm just going to hang on to my all dark locks for a lil bit longer, thank you.

Keep Calm and Carry On...

Keep Calm and Carry On- Brief History

In the spring of 1939, the German menace loomed large in England. The Nazi plan for European domination was becoming clear and the fear was that Great Britain would be attacked. In an attempt to assuage civilian fears should an invasion occur, a civil servant in England’s Ministry of Information designed a poster featuring an icon of the King’s Crown and the sans serif slogan Keep Calm and Carry On.

At the time, American opinion was divided on whether or not to enter the conflict. Ever since the United States had won its independence from Great Britain, a level of tension and hostility had marked the relationship between the two countries. Still, in a gesture of goodwill, Franklin Roosevelt invited King George VI over to visit. This was the first time a reigning British monarch had ever visited America and the voyage signaled the beginning of a new period of Anglo-American cooperation and alliance. After time spent in Washington DC, the Roosevelts hosted King George and Queen Mary at their family estate in Hyde Park, New York. Eleanor Roosevelt took care in hosting the couple and treated them to an American picnic, complete with hot dogs. Friendships were formed, letters exchanged, and when America’s help became clearly necessary, we sent troops and support.

Despite bombing and close calls, the German invasion didn’t occur, the Allies triumphed and the poster was never released. Still, throughout the war, the Royal Family handled themselves with typical aplomb and one could sense that Keep Calm and Carry On was in their minds throughout the war. The couple maintained official residence at Buckingham Palace during the bombing as a show of solidarity with Londoners. Winning the war would take democratic effort, and the Royal Family was committed to this both in practice and appearance. They even had ration cards.

When a British bookseller discovered a Keep Calm and Carry On poster in 2000, the nearly forgotten design began its rebirth. In a faster-paced world, the slogan took on new meanings while retaining its original grandeur and proved hugely popular with Britons from all walks of life.

It's the pin-up of our age, gracing homes, shops - even a US embassy...the poster we just can't stop buying

Feed Your Head: The Significance of 09/09/09 – What Will You Do?

The Significance of 09/09/09 – What Will You Do?
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2009 has been hailed as the ‘Year of the Enneagram’, or the year of the nine. According to ancient Sufi typology, there are nine personality types and nine primary roles within each type. To discover them all within oneself is tantamount to a spiritual awakening.

Since 09/09/09 only comes around once a century, we figured it would be fun to take a look at the significance of not just today, but the number nine in general. It turns out, the number nine pops up in the coolest, and most unexpected, places. Below are nine facts and superstitions about the number nine:

1. It takes exactly nine minutes for light from the sun to reach the earth.

2. After traveling to the nine corners of the earth, it took Odysseus nine years to get back to Greece.

3. Nine multiplied by any one-digit number always yields a two-digit result. The sum of those two digits is always nine ((for example, 9 × 9 = 81. 8 + 1 = 9). The exception to this rule is 9 × 1, which results in a one-digit answer: 9.

4. Many superstitious people and psychics believe that if you dream about the number nine, a child will soon be brought into your home.

5. According to the Christian angelic hierarchy, there are nine choirs of angels.

6. In Norse Mythololgy, Odin hung himself on an ash tree for nine days, in order to learn the runes.

7. Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting and prayer, is the ninth month of the calendar.

8. A nine-pointed star is used to symbolize the Bahá’í Faith, which symbolizes completeness in the religion.

9. Nine monks are involved in almost every important Buddhist ritual.

The good news about the number nine is that nobody considers it to be unlucky. In fact, most superstitious people think it can bring good fortune…making today one of the luckiest days we’ll ever live to see! Here are nine ways that you can take advantage of it:

1. Read Dante’s Divine Comedy, which details the nine circles of hell. Viewed by many as one of the greatest works of world literature, it’s a surprisingly entertaining read (especially considering it was written in the early 1300s).

2. Throw a party of nines. Invite nine friends over and have everyone bring a drink and a dish to try. Nine different cheeses paired with nine different wines? Sounds like a celebration worthy of 09/09/09!

3. Write down nine goals that you want to accomplish in the next nine months (or nine years, or nine weeks, whatever works for you). It’s been proven that people are more likely to accomplish their goals when they write them down. It’s not a very time consuming process, and you’ve got nothing to lose by giving it a shot!

4. When you’ve finished writing down your nine goals, write down nine places that you want to see before you die. Even if you write down each of the Seven Wonders of the World, there are still two spots left. Where will you go?

5. Donate $9 to your favorite charity. Even though times are tough, almost everyone can spare an extra nine bucks for a good cause. If you’re too strapped for cash to make a monetary donation, consider cleaning out your closet and donating what you no longer wear. The good feeling you’ll have will be well worth the money spent. (Just make sure to check out where the organization ranks on Charity Navigator first!)

6. Email, call or write nine loved ones and tell them that you’re thinking of them. Sometimes when you’re having a bad day, a simple phone call from a friend or family member can turn things around. If each of them follow suit, you’ll have started a good karma phone tree that can touch hundreds of lives!

7. Take a photo of yourself. What will you be doing at 9:09 on 09/09/09? Post it online for everyone to see.

8. Book a vacation! Lots of places are having 09/09/09 travel deals that you can take advantage of. Traditionally, September is a slow month for travel, and resorts, hotels and cruise lines are pulling out all the stops to get as many vacationers to their destinations as possible. Why not take advantage of some of the greatest deals of the year?

9. Catch up on your numerology. If you’ve never been to a psychic, today is the day. Nine is the number of sympathy, love, sacrifice, selflessness and morality, as well as completion and finality. There are a lot of things going on today, numerology-wise, so there’s no time like the present to tap into the mystic possibilities that await you in the future.