Post-op recovery

Baruch atah Hashem, Elokeynu melech ha’olam, borei minei b’samim

Blessed are you Hashem our G-d, King of the Universe, who creates different types of spices

This blessing shows appreciation for something that most of us take for granted: our ability to enjoy pleasant smells. We say it every Saturday night before smelling fragrant spices during the Havdala ceremony at the end of Shabbos. A few months ago, however, I had to stop saying that blessing. My sense of smell had disappeared completely a few months earlier, and I could no longer smell the spices. It’s very bizarre to stick your nose in something that you KNOW has a strong scent, and yet smell nothing. Life is just a little blander when you can’t smell anything. You don’t even realize how present scent is in life until it’s gone. I obviously could live without it, and would be ok if it never returned, but I definitely missed it.

Sinus surgery, as expected, was not fun. During surgery my doctor removed tissue and bone to widen my sinuses so they can drain more effectively in the future. My nose bled for a few days afterwards, so I had gauze tied to my face to keep from dripping everywhere. Initially I also had packing in my sinuses, which the nurse practitioner described as 2 tampons sutured into my nose. That stayed in for a week, during which my nose felt very stuffed up. Thankfully the packing was removed during the first follow up visit, which wasn’t exactly fun, but was definitely a relief to get out. I wasn’t allowed to blow my nose for the first 2 weeks after surgery, which is annoying when you can feel all kinds of gunk stuck in your head but can’t do anything about it. I was encouraged to do frequent sinus rinses however, during which I flush 8 ounces of saline through my nose, so that helped. And of course I’ve had varying degrees of headache throughout this whole process, which I expect to last for a few months.

Aside from all that, I also did 3 weeks of home IV antibiotics after surgery to help reduce the infections in my sinuses. That meant 3 more weeks of lugging around an IV pump 24/7, and 3 more weeks of really fun side effects. My body does NOT like Zosyn. I once again had significant GI issues, various nutrient and medication levels dropped because I wasn’t absorbing things properly, and I was utterly exhausted. Between the 10 days of Zosyn in June, surgery, and then 3 more weeks of Zosyn, I haven’t exactly been living my best life this summer.

But! A few days after the packing was removed, I suddenly realized that I could smell things again! After months of nothing it was SO exciting to run around sniffing different things and realize that I could smell all of them! My doctor was surprised and said that most of his CF patients don’t regain their sense of smell, as by the time they have surgery the receptors have already been permanently damaged. I’m very grateful that I still had some sense of smell left to be saved! It’s a small pleasure, but I’m extremely appreciative to have it back.

As of last week I finished the Zosyn, and my PICC line was removed after 6 straight weeks. I am VERY glad to finally be IV free! Hopefully I’ll manage to squeeze a little bit of summer fun into the limited space that’s left around Covid and medical shenanigans!