On Monday, May 16th, 2011 I underwent image-guided Endoscopic Sinus Surgery (ESS) for the third time. My first surgery took place in October 2008, just over one year after a sinus infection first hit, and never went away.
It all started on my anniversary: August 7, 2007. I was five months pregnant with our third child, working part time as a home-based family therapist and trying to keep up with 4 year old Emma and 2 year old Luke. Jon brought me a beautiful bouquet of roses (a rare romantic gesture which I greatly appreciated) and for the first time in my life, I started to sneeze and I couldn't stop. Once the flowers were removed from the home, I recovered but from that point on seemed to have a greater degree of congestion and pressure in my nose. I read online that sometimes pregnancy can change one's allergic sensitivities, so it seemed within the range of normal pregnancy symptoms.
A month or so later I was at a client's home in the heat of the late summer. The client, a smoker who usually did not smoke around me, especially once I was pregnant, had apparently smoked a few cigarettes just before my arrival. There had been no where for the smoke to dissipate since she kept her windows shut to keep the "cool" air in (she did not have air conditioning). Within minutes, I could literally feel every open space in my head fill with fluid. The pain was intense, and I could hardly breathe or even speak. I struggled through one hour of my session and then left in agony. From that point on, my sinuses have never been healthy again.
My midwives assured me that the congestion would subside; it was merely a side effect of being pregnant, and possibly a bit of a cold or infection along with it. I think I went to the regular doctor once or twice, that fall, but I'm not sure. I may have been given an antibiotic. I don't recall being told I had a sinus infection, or that I should take any medication to relieve the congestion (I assume because of the potential threat to the baby, although there are various options I wish I had tried, in hindsight). I was told to do steam baths, to use saline spray, and to "hang in there" because it would all go away when the baby was born in January.
It didn't.
Annaliese was born a week past her due date on February 6, 2008. It was a beautiful, speedy natural labor made perfect by the presence of Jon and my mom as my birthing coach. Annaliese was healthy in every way, and I was immensely relieved to have her outside of my body so that I could find some relief from my nasal congestion and pain. Although initially I was able to breathe more easily, it was not less than a month after she was born that I was back at my primary doctor's office, sick. This time I remember being told I had acute and possibly chronic sinusitis, given the length of time I had reported having symptoms (more than 6 months). She suggested that at this point I see an Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist, who would use a CT scan of my sinuses to determine the extent of the disease.
I saw my first ENT a few weeks later, and began the process of trying to understand what surgery would entail and why I should have it done. There were many potential dangers, and with young children Jon and I took these concerns seriously. By the summer, when my symptoms still had not subsided despite the addition of an extended course of antibiotics, I was ready to sign up. Sadly, undergoing the surgery meant I had to wean Annaliese prematurely due to the preparatory steroids I had to take, as well as more courses of antibiotics.
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