So lavage is better than surgery? Funny they were just talking about that word on Literary... maybe they summoned the lavage!

I may go see Harry Potter tomorrow. My brain needs a vacation.

Megan, things will go great, I know they will. As long as there is no packing, you'll be fine.

Brian has to go to Woodlawn, Dr LeBlanc.

Brian's CT took 8 minutes...

And I'm glad they got the results so fast!

Brian has to go to Woodlawn, Dr LeBlanc.

That's where my GP and my ENT are. I think Dr. LeBlanc is new. The booking office at Woodlawn called me and asked if I would mind going to him and I said "Sure, just ask Carla (my doctor)." She apparently held out of Dempsey but at my last visit to her she said she was sorry she didn't go with LeBlanc since I could have been in much quicker. I'm sorry too!

Ok, we have a verdict. I have pollups (nothing major, they are just like blisters) in my sinuses, along with a lot of mucus (aka snot). The pollups are blocking the airflow from my nose to the smell receptors in my brain.

The doctor has decided to continue the "let's try this first" route that my GP has had me on so he prescribed a short but intense round of Prednisone (40mgs/day for 7 days, then 20mgs for 3 days and 10 for 3 days). I go back next month and he'll reassess my possible needs for surgery. If things look ok, he'll check me again 3 months later to make sure that they aren't growing back.

I guess he feels my body is having an autoammune reaction to an allergy or infection so it's attacking me through my nose. Wonderful!

The doctor thinks that I'll have my sense of smell back in 2-3 days if the prednisone is going to work.

Oh, megan, I hope it works!

I hope so, too, Megan. The prednisone, in addition to surpressing your immune system, will hopefully shrink the pollyps (it's an antiinflammatory). Make sure that there is a lot of food in your tummy, and if you are taking it once a day take it in the morning.

Brian wants to know if you saw any of your scan, and, if so, how much of your sinus cavities were left. How big were the polyps? Brian says that clear sinuses will show up as black. He (and at this point I believe he is boasting that his sinuses are worse than yours) were completely blocked on one side and only a thin ribbon on the other. He also had a polyp as large as a plum, and one that was directly under his brain pan. Note, it might have just been the one polyp so large and unfortunately placed. This concludes my duties as communications officer.

Ouch, for Brian!

You should hear his six-feet-of-gauze-packing-being-pulled-out-of-his-nose story.

Thinking about it makes me want to cry.

Brian's problems do appear to be worse than mine. I didn't see my scan but the ENT drew me a picture of what the pollups look like in my sinus and they pretty much fill the entire cavity. Apparently my sinus appears as completely white on the scan. What isn't pollup is mucus. I don't think they are very big but they are plentiful. The cavities that funnel air to the nerve receptors on the brain are completely blocked.

I'm tired of this "let's try this drug" approach that both doctors are taking. I want invasive action NOW! I have little faith in the predinsone approach -- hopefully it will work and make me look stupid.