I'm just going to say it: all the bizarre medical stuff happens to me. I am SO very thankful that at least to date - all the bizarre stuff has not been life threatening - but it is getting a little annoying that I seem to be a human magnet for unusual ailments but I never earn any money for them. First it was the c section that would not heal. Then it was the c-section that herniated, then it was the other c section that would not heal. Then it was the other c section herniation. Seriously -- to date I am the only human being I know who has had not 2 but 4 c sections but only 2 children to show for it. I thought I had put all that behind me but today I managed to outdo myself.
Here's the quick timeline of what happened: several months ago I started having problems with my right eye. it would swell up and burn and seemed to be getting smaller. I also noticed that I thought my face looked a little crooked but I just chalked that up to getting older and more sensitive about my looks - or lack of them. Went to the regular Dr. She said I had dry eyes and told me to use drops. Didnt work so she sent me to an ophthalmologist (did you know there were 2"l"s in that word?) he said I had dry eye and an overgrown eyelid. Gave me drops and sent me to an opthalmic plastic surgeon. I think "great, I'll get an eyelid lift and look 10 years younger and permanently surprised" and it was all good. Plastic surgery guy says I have blepharitis (inflamation of the oil glands in the eyelid -- yes you have them, and yours are probably clogged too so don't judge me) but he is also concerned about my facial asymmetry. What he actually said was "Do you know one eye is a lot lower than the other one?" Way to boost my ego doc. He asked a whole bunch of questions that I figured were leading somewhere I didn't want to go and that was confirmed when he said I needed a CT scan! what?!?!?!?! I thought I had a dry eye! I thought I was going to get some freshening up! what the @*#&($^ do I need a CT Scan for? PSG won't discuss what he suspects. I spend the next 5 days googling my fingers off only to come up with mostly bad scenarios and whipping myself into quite a frenzy on the inside. CT Scan was done on Monday - with and without dye. I preferred without. Tim and I sat in the car for 15 minutes trying to read the films. I google my fingers off trying to learn to read a CT scan -- no useful info found. Today was my follow up with PSG. He begins by saying "Well -- this is interesting" You are wondering what that means, right? I was too. In this case what it means is that I have a condition/syndrome/disease called Imploding Antrum. It is also referred to as Silent Sinus Syndrome or SSS. Turns out, I dont have an eye problem, I have a sinus problem and a doozy of a sinus problem. PSG says he only deals with eyes and that I need to see an ENT -- are you keeping count? this is Dr. #4 for a dry eye. He says he's not sure what the treatment is and sends me on my way. I google. Immediately. I learn that there isn't much information out there on Imploding Antrum outside of medical journal stuff written in medicalese that I cannot deciper with my journalism degree. I manage to find out that this is because this condition/syndrome/disease only has about 100 documented cases - thus the lottery comment. You are welcome to look this up yourself but basically, I have a black hole in my sinus cavity that is creating suction or "negative pressure" that has been sucking in there long enough to deviate my septum and pull my eye socket down among other things. It is essentially pulling my facial structure towards it and wreaking havoc on my eye and my nose. a strange little factoid about this is that people who have this never feel any pain from it. Doctors do not know why - most people feel quite a bit of pain with a sinus infection - headaches, clogged nose, ear pain etc. SSS people have none of that and what usually drives us to the Dr, is an eye problem. Who would have guessed? The treatment is of course surgical only which is awesome since I thought I made it very clear after my last hernia surgery that I would not be having more surgery. (Insert God laughing) Again -- let me be clear -- I am VERY thankful that this is not life threatening. I am not thankful that I have it though.
I will make an appt with our ENT- who I adore -tomorrow and update as necessary.
In the meantime, if any of you know something about this please send your knowledge my way!
PS -- I guess this means that I really do suck -- at least in my face!
Hey, from one bad nose to another. It will be ok. I survived and look at what I had to go through. Heck, look at what I started out with. Surely your deal can't be any worse that what I was sporting. We love you and wish you the best of luck and it's OK if God laughs from time to time. I laugh at myself every day.
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Wow. I didn't have anything as cool as what you have but I did have Scarlett Fever last week. Pretty cool huh? Not really because it was horrible but whatever. I just want to add that Audrey has chicken pox also. Yep, one less shot she will have to get.
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