It’s been 5 years since I needed an alteration to my facial carburettors intake port. I was put on a waiting list and during that time, made to feel like they had not forgotten about me by giving me the occasional visit to 3 different consultants. The last time I heard from the Ill Health Service was June last year when they called to ask if I still wanted to have the surgery… upon saying yes they then said they had no idea when or if I would get an operation done as they were short of Surgeons and places…

While Jude and I were in Dunedin for a few days and out riding our MTBs back from McAndrew Bay I received a call from the Southland Hospital saying they had a free spot available in two days at Southern Cross Hospital in Invercargill of which I jumped at.

I must admit I was a little anxious knowing what was about to happen, however once I was contacted By Ken the Anaesthetist and then the ENT surgeon Dr Depak Patel I felt confident in their hands.

I have been anaesthetised before for an operation and so it did not worry me as I find it an amazingly weird experience… as soon as they inject the knockout drug there is a sudden slow rolling of your vision and you blink your eyes and you’re in the recovery room… just a blink no sense of being asleep or missing time… you just blink and you’re somewhere else.

The first thing is I noticed how free I was breathing through my nose… it was the weirdest feeling as I have never known what it was like to have an unobstructed nasal passage. However that was before the swelling took hold after the anaesthetic started to wear off.

After leaving the recovery room I was transport back to my ward room where I was to be observed and vitals recorded hourly over night as the surgeon had explained it is not unusual to bleed 9 plus times during the night. At 0200hrs I was observed and had vitals recorded… at 0550hrs I woke coughing with a mouth full of blood which sprayed everywhere when my cough, gag and swallow reflects kicked in. Thinking what the fuck! I grabbed my mobile phone to use the camera as a mirror to find I blood over my face, my neck and neckline on the gown, the sheet and pillow was soaked in blood that appears to have been slowly dribbling away for sometime.

The nurses who had not done a check since 0200hrs came in and all I heard say was “Oh shit!” Well they cleaned me up before the my surgeon arrived 10 minutes later so he didn’t know they had not kept proper obs through the night.

Anyway out now and healing well. It’s hard to explain the difference but it is totally amazing how much clearer it is to breathe through my nose, I just never knew how bad my nasal airway was as it’s all I’ve known until now.

Well I’ve got about six more weeks until my nose is totally healed and I’m looking forward to a better clearer future.