my borogu

The story of Nosejob Nitsy

03 Apr 2011 9 Comments

by nitsy in story time

**WARNING – This blog will contain scenes of medical precedures that some readers may find gruesome!!**

Hey y’all,

So, friends will know by now that I have just had an operation on my nose. But before I tell you about it, I’m going to give you a quick history on how I came to have this operation. (As quick as I can without waffling!)

Ever since I was young, I remembered not being able to breathe comfortably through my nose, it always felt like it was blocked and stuffy. When I was about 7 or 8 years old, my mum took me to the GP who advised removing my tonsils to help me breathe through my mouth. I don’t know if it helped though to be honest. I was too young to compare the difference.

When I was 11 years old, through recommendation of a family friend I was sent to Hong Kong to live with that family for 2 months and during those 2 months, I saw an 80-something year old lady regularly who gave me these weird painful head/sinus massages to help me breathe. I’d lay down and she literally push down on the sides of my nose moving her fingers upwards towards my forehead and it’d really really hurt (I remember going to the bathroom to cry secretly because it hurt so much) and I really didn’t see any improvement. On top of that, I’d be given really super bitter herbal soups several times a day. They tasted sooo strong and was dark black. The family I stayed with were very nice but I don’t think I needed to be there. I know my mum gave a lot of money to that family for their ‘help’ too. My breathing didn’t improve.

When I was a teenager, my mum took me to a ENT specialist who put a camera up my nose and said that my nasal passages were very narrow and one side had probably never widened since I was a baby. He told us that there was no surgical procedure that could help me at that moment.

When I was about 21 years old, my mum made me to go to see a holistic practitioner who our family had previously gone to for other ailments and had successful results. I don’t know whether to name this doctor or not (I won’t for now). His approach was rather odd and involved you lying on the bed lifting your arms up in the air and him putting bottles on your belly (yeah, very odd!). He prescribed a whole heap of expensive vitamins and other natural meds that I took for maybe up to a year. I admit, this was the first time that I felt a difference to my health. Where I used to fall ill with cold-like symptoms every month, for the duration of the time I was on the holistic stuff, I never fell ill. The reason why I stopped was because a, this stuff wasn’t cheap. My mum had paid out over 1k or so for my appointments and medicines and b, I was popping over 30 pills a day, it was SO hard to keep up. And so I just stopped and slowly, I felt the allergies come back.

And so we now come to 2010, my friend Weng blogs about his ‘nosejob’ on AlivenotDead and I’m curious. He tells me that he had some operation to widen his nasal passage and after much interrogating from me, I knew this is what I’ve been waiting so long for! Why had I not been made aware of this procedure? I went to my GP last year, got referred to the ENT Specialist at the hospital, I practically demanded that I have this operation.  A CT scan showed that I had a deviated septum and my nasal passage on my left side was very narrow, the Doctor says that the operation may only help short-term and that after a year or two, the nasal passage may thicken up again and the problems will come back. I didn’t care, I wanted that op and I wanted it now!

Sooooo, 2 days ago, on 1st April 2011, I finally got the operation of my dreams lol. I arrived at the hospital early and sat around the ward for a good 3 hours or so watching morning trashy shows on a fuzzy small TV *yawn*

The waiting room; entertainment central.

After some consultations, I got stripped into my hospital gown, took off my nail varnish (oops) and taped down my un-removable bangle and earrings (oops) and finally got wheeled off to Anesthesia. I recall counting four breaths before it went dark…

So, I was woken up by a nurse in Recovery, there was a clock on the wall in front and I could see the time even though I had no lenses in. I had been unconscious only 90 mins. I had the tube pulled out my throat, I was on a drip and was wearing an oxygen mask still. I felt alright and I recall taking breaths through my nose and it felt kinda clear and cool! The nurse sat me up and then I felt a trickle coming down my left nostril, I thought it was watery but it was blood. And thus the bleeding began and didn’t stop for about 8 hours!

I got wheeled down to the regular ward, the stage before I get discharged formally, and one by one all the other patients I had seen that morning were gradually leaving but the nurses wouldn’t let me go. I kept sneezing involuntarily, and I was getting scolded by the nurses =( ‘Stop sneezing! If you keep sneezing, it will keep bleeding!’ I said ‘But I can’t stop it!’ I just got so scared every time I felt a sneeze coming on but the surgeon says I have to sneeze with my mouth open as I cannot aggravate the inside of my nose at all. I held a tissue over my mouth and it was full of blood. I’d been swallowing all my blood from my nose from the inside, eww.

There was blood all over me, the blankets, the table, every angle!

I'd read all of Glamour magazine by mid-afternoon...

My poor brother was hanging around South London waiting to pick me up but I didn’t know I’d be held for so long so he went home. Captain Droopy was my first visitor, he came straight from work with food for me. I had not eaten for 21hrs at that point. I was like a ravaged, wild animal with that sandwich! Sponge turned up and drove me home and so I’ve been told to stay here for the next 2 weeks. The doctor signed me off work and says that I may get headaches, bleeding and infection so mustn’t go to work. I was hoping to return to the office on Monday so I actually feel really bad to drop this bombshell on my boss =(

Now for the gross bit! My lovely surgeon gave me a DVD of my operation! Yes, I know, he called me morbid when he saw how excited I was. I watched the video clip with my brother when I got home, it is not the prettiest sight, looking up my own nose! I can see the swollen part of the nasal passage. The procedure I had was called the Reduction of Turbinates, to me it looked like liposuction on the nasal passage, because he was removing stuff from inside the skin. I have included some video stills to share with you lovely people!

My left nasal passage! You can see how narrow it is, it should be about 10x bigger I think.

A tube was inserted into the left fleshy bit and scooped out lots of stuff from the inside.

This is how wide they left it! The difference!

I know this is really gross but it had to be done, this is a side to me you may never see again =p. Ooh, I’ve just uploaded the video to YT so here it is, it’s REALLY gross btw so you have been warned!

So… for now, I hope my breathing problems are all over, fingers crossed. Thank you for reading the story of Nosejob Nitsy <3