That part is actually somewhat related. My brother texted me yesterday asking a question that made me think of all the things I am not to do for the next...I have no idea how long, but at least awhile. I'll list them below. I'll also type them as they had put it with my thoughts and comments in parentheses.
1. DO NOT blow your nose until such time that it has been indicated that your ear is healed. Any accumulated secretions in the nose may be drawn back into the throat and expectorated if desired. This is particularly important if you develop a cold. (Gross right?)
2. DO NOT "pop" your ears by holding your nose and blowing air through the Eustachian tube into the ear. If it is necessary to sneeze, do so with your mouth open.
3. The incision behind your ear should have water kept away for one week (I so cannot wait to wash my hair tomorrow!).
4. DO NOT take an unneccessary chance of catching a cold. Avoid undue exposure or fatigue. (well crud, my son has a cold, croup even...sigh). Should you catch a cold, treat it in your usual way, reporting to us if you should develop ear symptoms (let's cross our fingers I don't get Kiernan's cold).
5. You may anticipate a certain amount of pulsation (check), popping (check), clicking (double check), and other sounds in the ear, and also a feeling of fullness in the ear (Remember number 2? It's been SO HARD not to pop my ears). Occasional sharp shooting pains are not unusual (check). At times, it may feel as if there is liquid in the ear (Check, and I've had to consciously not shake my head to the side to get the so called liquid out...did it once without realizing it, and boy did I get dizzy).
6. DO NOT plan to drive a car home from the hospital (yeah...I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the head rest...good thing I buckled up first). Air travel is permissible two days following surgery (and I was worried about 2 1/2 weeks! I'm still not very clear on what to do about metal detectors and such....need to make a note to have Bryan ask the ENT tomorrow when he calls to set up the post op appointment). When changing altitude, you should remain awake and chew gum to stimulate swallowing (I had to do this going from Salt Lake to Heber yesterday....couple of sharp pains but the gum chewing definitely helped).
7. DO NOT perform any heavy lifting (more than 30 pounds) or vigorous physical activity for three weeks after surgery (I am so gonna be having to restart Couch to 5K, sigh, and more than 30 pounds? It's been difficult to not lift up Kiernan....let's just say I haven't and call it good then I won't feel so guilty, and pretend to believe me :) ).
Mild intermittent ear pain is not unusual during the first two weeks (check). Pain above or in front of the ear is common when chewing (check).
Minor degrees of dizziness may be present on head motion and need not concern you unless this should increase (note how they didn't say if it would decrease or not....yeah, apparently my sister gets severe vertigo from time to time...three times now. She stands up, get's vertigo hit head on and falls and throws up. They gave her meds for when that happens....she said I should get it now...tempting).
Finally the dressing. We already took off the ear dressing the day after surgery, as instructed. The incision behind the ear is covered by paper adhesive strips which should remain in place for seven days. Tomorrow is Day seven. I can remove these strips after one week and expose the wound area to water for cleansing. So...yeah, these strips I have? Currently not showing any signs of coming off easily, so I'm going to just let them come off over time, but I get to WASH MY HAIR tomorrow! YAY! Then tomorrow maybe I'll take a picture of my ears again to see if any of the dried blood will wash away under the strips, so that you can have a better idea of what my incision looks like now, especially since those white things in the last pictures completely wore off today.
So yeah, I think all of this information would have been good to know BEFORE the surgery, because I didn't even know we had this paper until three days after the surgery. Good thing I didn't try to pop my ears before that, I accidentally did once without thinking about it yesterday....ow. It hurt for a very long time afterwards, but everything appears to be normal so I'm not worried about at the moment. Believe me, I won't do it again. Ever.
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