Morgan’s Septoplasty: 1 Day After

Morgan: Interestingly enough it wasn't so much about pain, it's like what shit is going to come out of my mouth when I'm coming out of the OR? Because we all know I love some off-color jokes and I'm like, oh Morgan, you cannot embarrass yourself. Or deepest, darkest secrets, don't want any of that coming out.

Eva: This is Before and After Stories. I am Eva Sheie, and on this podcast we talk to people just like you and me to find the real beauty of plastic surgery and elective treatments. You had a little scare, was that last night?

Morgan: Oh yeah, yeah. So part of my post-op instructions is after the first day, so the procedure was on Wednesday so starting yesterday, two to three times a day I'm supposed to use this NeilMed sinus rinse stuff. So it's basically you take distilled water, a little saline packet, lukewarm water, shake it up, and then flush out either side. And so I was doing it last night before I went to bed and I don't know if it came out through, like I coughed it up or I shot it out, but I had this big chunk of something in there. I was like, oh my gosh. Started freaking out

Eva: What color was it? Or was it just bloody and gory?

Morgan: It looked like a big booger at first. And then when we were looking at it and I'm like, well that's not mucus because mucus doesn't really have a shape. You know sometimes if you, like those collar stays?

Eva: Yeah.

Morgan: It looked like a rolled up one of those, half of one of those. And so I started freaking out like, oh my gosh, is that my splint? Is that the nasal valve, the cartilage that he grafted? Because he used part of my, he didn't have to take the ear cartilage out to do the nasal valve repair, I had enough cartilage that he removed to fix my septum to do that. So I was freaking out, was it because of that? So Dustin was with me, he's been helping take care of me. And so he called Dr. Bhrany, Dr. Bhrany on the first ring picked up the phone. This was at 9:50pm as well

Eva: At night. He very well could have been in bed, I think most doctors get up really early.

Morgan: Yeah, yeah. Picked up first ring, alert, everything. So we said, "Well we could send a picture of it." And he goes, "Yeah, please do." So took a picture of it, it was on a paper towel. Sent it over to him, he started laughing. He goes, "You're fine." He goes "That's what I told Morgan and I had forgotten I was going to pack his nose with these. It's not cotton, it's these pads to help put pressure to control the bleeding in the nose." He's like, "So everything's fine. He may notice that out of one nostril he may have a little bit more discharge than the other. But our plan is on Wednesday when he sees Anne, she's going to take all of that out as well as the splint." So I have another one right out this nostril on the end.

Eva: Oh next Wednesday, like five more days from now?

Morgan: Yeah.

Eva: Yeah, that makes sense. Well you look exactly the same except you have a hammock under your nose.

Morgan: Well my nose is definitely more swollen.

Eva: Yeah. Well not that I can tell on Zoom.

Morgan: I mean I usually come in right about here and I'm all the way out to here.

Eva: Yeah.

Morgan: I'm supposed to, I haven't been as good about it but I'll be doing it more today. So 20 minutes of every hour that I'm awake I'm supposed to put an ice pack on. At night I've been using, like every so often when I get up I just go to the sink and take the washcloth that I have and just run it under cold water, and just lay that on top of my eyes and on my nose as well, so to prevent me from getting raccoon eyes. So I think that's definitely helped today, because today and tomorrow is supposed to be the worst days for swelling.

Eva: That makes sense. Are you sleeping elevated?

Morgan: Yeah, oh yeah.

Eva: Did you get a wedge or are you just using-

Morgan: I got seven pillows that I use.

Eva: Fancy.

Morgan: Yeah. I like a cocoon of pillows anyway, so I was already prepared for this. But it is interesting that, I mean I have to use a straw. I can't even, Dustin had a water bottle, one of those SmartWater's, the suction tops. And just the angle and inhaling that way just put a lot of weird pressure, and I felt like I was the water torture, I felt like I was drowning a little bit actually.

Eva: Yikes.

Morgan: Yeah. So I like the straw because I could just bite on the end and it kind of equalizes the pressure out.

Eva: Have you had any pain?

Morgan: I was not in pain coming out of surgery. Dr. Bhrany uses a lot of local. I finally got to eat about 4:00 on Wednesday, I hadn't eaten all day.

Eva: Did you get your pizza by the way?

Morgan: Not a Wednesday, I did it last night.

Eva: Okay, good.

Morgan: So on Wednesday they told me in recovery. I was like, well why don't I just go ahead and take a pain pill now in recovery so I'm ready to go when I leave. So they gave me one was some apple sauce, which was the best apple sauce I had eaten in my life, as well as the ginger ale, which was the best ginger ale that I'd ever had. And then they had this cranapple juice mix as well, but I felt like I was kind of like an aardvark would eat or drink, because this was all completely numb on the top part of my lip. So I was doing the, like a little fish or something. So they'd asked me to keep my diet bland the first night, see if I could tolerate. So Martha, my stepmom, she took leftover Thanksgiving turkey and made turkey soup.

Eva: Nice.

Morgan: So I had a few cups of that. And then I had a leftover chicken tender from [inaudible 00:06:00], so that's all I ate on Wednesday. And then yesterday I woke up, ate some fruit, had another chicken strip and then I ate pizza last night. But I had been taking fiber pills too because I haven't had a bowel movement yet, but I did pass gas and I did pee during post-op, so that was the checkbox I needed to do to go home.

Eva: Anyone who's had surgery or children knows exactly what you're talking about right now.

Morgan: Exactly. So then after the surgery Dustin was able to come in, they re-read the discharge instructions to him because my pain pill was kicking in and I was like do-do-do-do-do-do. I got home, and the car I pretty much had my eyes closed the whole car ride home. Got home and then kind of watched Sleeping Beauty, kind of didn't, but ended up asleep just by putting the little ice pack on.

Eva: Like for real you watch Sleeping Beauty the movie?

Morgan: Oh yeah, it's my favorite Disney movie of all time.

Eva: It's comforting, so you were watching it.

Morgan: There's two movies that I usually watch when I'm sick, Steel Magnolias and Sleeping Beauty. Wanted to be a little positive this time. And then yeah, was just kind of in and out of consciousness a little bit. Yesterday, it's not so much that it's pain, it's more of just the pressure than anything.

Eva: Yeah.

Morgan: So I did try in the afternoon to switch to CBD, because I don't like taking pain pills. But towards the end of the night I was like, I need to take the pain pills.

Eva: Not enough.

Morgan: Yeah. So I think today and hopefully tomorrow, because now I'm down two days post-op, they said 48 to 72 hours after surgery is when you're going to be the most swollen. So I'm hoping today and then tomorrow I can ween myself off of them.

Eva: Yeah. You'll turn the corner soon, I'm sure. So between now and next Wednesday is there anything else you have to do besides recover? Are you just waiting to go back in now?

Morgan: Yeah, to see the surgeon. Yeah. So I'm not even seeing him, I'm seeing his PA. She's going to take everything out. So yeah, other than that then I might go for a walk today just to stretch my legs, get all that inflammatory stuff out, so that's what I'm going to try to do today.

Eva: What are you going to eat today?

Morgan: Interestingly enough pizza is preferable because if I have to open my mouth wide, that's when it puts pressure where my stitches are. So that's why I like little finger foods. Yeah, I'll probably do that.

Eva: Well that sounds good.

Morgan: Thundercats are go. I did say that when I went into surgery, they all got a laugh out of that.

Eva: I bet they did.

Morgan: Yeah. I was like, let's do this. It was weird though, because my blood pressure was pretty high when I went in. They were like, but it's normal. And even the fact that I've had a nephrectomy done before, I was still a little nervous about this. And interestingly enough it wasn't so much about the pain, it's what shit is going to come out of my mouth when I'm coming out of the OR? Because we all know I love some off-color jokes and I'm like, Oh that I'm like, oh Morgan, you cannot embarrass yourself. Or deepest, darkest secrets, don't want any of that coming out. But yeah, they said I was really quiet actually and I just asked if I was in phase two, out of the two phases of recovery. Apparently I wanted to go home.

Eva: At least you didn't think you were Courtney Love.

Morgan: This is true. Or the first time when I thought I was squeezing a pillow and I open my eyes and there was no pillow after the kidney transplant.

Eva: Oh yeah? I bet that was funny.

Morgan: Didn't talk to anybody, didn't think anybody was there so that was good. It was cool, the nurse that was checking in on me was a traveling nurse. He and his wife both are three month contracts with UDUB that could renew or not. And he and his wife and their daughter drive around the country in an RV and would just pick up contracts together.

Eva: I wonder how she goes to school.

Morgan: I think virtual or homeschooled.

Eva: Yeah. Yeah, that's neat.

Morgan: Yeah, it was pretty cool. They're like, "We just felt this is the perfect time with all the COVID stuff that this is the thing we should do."

Eva: If you'd like to tell your story on this show or if you're a medical professional who would like to submit someone else's story for consideration, send us a message at BeforeandAfterStories.com, or follow a message us on Instagram at BeforeandAfterStoriesPodcast. I'm Eva Sheie, the host and producer of Before and After Stories, and my co-host is Queenie Dalin. Our engineer is Danem Cruiser. Before and After Stories is a production of The Axis, T-H-E-A-X-I-S.I-O T H E a X I s.io. That's axis like axis of Eva.