The Nose Knows Nothing

I’ve been goofing around for the last four days and realize now that if I don’t get back to business, I may find it hard to focus on anything but goofing off for the next month. Since Christmas will be arriving a week early for us this year, I need all the time I have to finish an ambitious list of projects which is still growing.

In the last two weeks, I’ve had more success in routing out health issues and making some progress. Here’s how I’m summarizing November’s lesson of the month: finding the right doctor makes every bit of difference.

Go figure.

As simplistic as it sounds, it’s true. I’ve always been a chronic insomniac, a detail which no doctor before now ever bothered to address with anything except a prescription. I have little experience with science or medicine. Therefore, when something is wrong with my system, I don’t know what answers to seek or even where to find them. This is why we employ doctors, to help us determine what’s wrong with our bodies. Don’t get me wrong, when a person can’t sleep, medications are a viable answer. But, is it right or even ethical for a doctor to just assume the cause and not look any deeper?

This month, I was sent to a specialist to be tested for sleep apnea. My appointment was at the beginning of last week and they sent me home with a monitor to check my blood-oxygen levels while sleeping. I haven’t heard the outcome, but during the appointment and ensuing exam, I learned that my nasal passages are gradually closing; the turbinates in my nose fill with fluid and swell, especially when I lay down, and cut off the airway.

Oh yes, it has its own fancy technical tag. Unfortunately, I didn’t write down the name and promptly forgot it. Basically, it’s non-allergy related nasal inflammation (I did write that down!) which has constricted the nasal airways by 50%, possibly more when I’m trying to sleep.

Doesn’t sound like it has much to do with Fibromyalgia or Chronic Fatigue, does it? The allergist, Dr. Z, said it doesn’t, but it may have a lot to do with the constant headaches.

I had no idea I couldn’t breathe properly through my nose and had the sniff-test not demonstrated the before and after, I wouldn’t have been any the wiser. The headache I’ve been living with for the last 12 years, the one that often makes me wonder if sky-diving without a parachute would be less painful, has gone from the roar of a lion to the chorus of three alley cats. The severity has certainly waxed and waned over the last ten days, but I can tell the difference, and it’s a vast improvement.