I spent much of the day playing phone tag, which is a pain in the ass, and I also received some very important information considering what I’m going through this week.
First, a little background. This summer I had intense abdominal pain, and eventually they found I had a kidney stone (actually two, but one was very small and I’ve probably passed it by now). I wasn’t able to schedule the lithotripsy before I went back to school, so I left it until winter break, and it’s scheduled for this Thursday.
I discovered over Thanksgiving break that I have sleep apnea. I had to put off the follow-up appointment until winter break. I talked to the doctor and he referred me to an ear, nose, and throat doctor.
I had my period for three weeks, and went to see the doctor about that. Had a bunch of bloodwork done and an ultrasound. Still waiting for my results.
So the three of those combined have made me a very busy girl in the past few weeks; between last week and this week, I have 13 doctor’s appointments. Whatever–I’m just glad to get this done before I have to go back to school a week from today.
I went to the ENT today to see what my problem is. Usually girls my age (20) and size (petite, never been overweight) don’t get sleep apnea, so the doctor figured it was a blockage problem. My dad had surgery to correct a deviated septum, plus two other sinus surgeries, so I figured it might be something like that. Turns out I do have a deviated septum, but the ENT didn’t think it was enough of a problem to operate on. Can’t be my pharyngeal tonsils or my adenoids, because I had those removed back when I was 3. Nope, my problem is that the tonsil on the very back of my tongue (didn’t know such a thing existed) is way inflamed. The doctor says it’s blocking about 90% of my throat. When I was a wee lass, my pharyngeal tonsils were very inflamed too–they were touching at the back of my throat. I snored like a grown man when I was 3. So they removed them. I have a biopsy scheduled for Saturday to see if this ginormolingual tonsil is just part of how I was made, or if it’s infected, or if it’s cancerous, or what. I have to go in for a CAT scan as well.
Here comes the lucky part. The doctor wanted to get me in to do the biopsy on Thursday, but I told him I coudln’t because my lithotripsy was scheduled then. He then gave me a lecture on how it was very important that I’m not on a breathing tube during the lithotripsy–something about my body being relaxed due to the anesthetic, and not being able to breathe past my mondo freakish tonsil. He was very adamant that they shouldn’t intubate me, and if they were planning on doing that, they should call his office. He said that in my case, it would be a life or death situation; if I were too heavily sedated, I might never wake up.
That scared me a ton. I almost started crying on the way home, which seems sort of silly to me now. I just felt so relieved. It was so incredibly lucky that I had the ENT appointment today, he discovered what he did, and I told him about my lithotripsy. Imagine if I hadn’t known, and if something had even gone slightly wrong, and I wouldn’t be around to wake up Friday morning. Jeez, that’s a terrible thought.
Anyway, I’ve been playing phone tag all day to try and figure out if the urologist is going to put me on a breathing tube, and to make my CAT scan appointment, and to give all of my doctors all of my other doctors’ numbers so they can all call each other and share info and whatnot.
Anyway, sorry this is so boring. If you’ve made it this far, I thank you. I’ll liven it up with two anecdotes:
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They had to numb my nose with this spray so they could stick a telescope in. It was the weirdest feeling ever. I can’t even explain it. It went down the back of my throat, and he had me swallow a bunch of times. I could feel it when I swallowed. It was so oogy, but fun at the same time.
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The doctor wanted to feel the back of my tongue. He told me about 8 times that he would reach back there and I would gag. I knew this, and tried to relax. I gagged so hard, though, and my reaction was to pull his hand out of my mouth. It was so embarrassing. He laughed and said it was okay as long as I didn’t bite.