Finding the chase and cutting to it

Backup your blog. I didn’t so this post follows up from one I have lost. I will get round to re-writing it.

In the meantime, on the 27th August 2017 I came off my push bike at around 20 mph failing to make it up a supposedly drop curb. Resultant head injuries were identified while A&E were working out if I had fractured my neck.  Having had my eyes cleared for anything more than severed bruising a fractured orbital socket and zygomatic on the right side of my skull on the night, I left A&E with two appointments: one for the ophthalmic department on Tuesday and one lined up with MaxFax (Maxillary facial) at Ipswich Hospital on the 1st September.

O…K…..

The biggest issue with the whole broken face was eating.  Every time I opened my jaw, only putting it back into place with my hand seemed to work.  By the end of day 2, I had worked out that the concussion was not easing quickly enough and had insert one of my remaining Freestyle Libre sensors and life was suddenly much easier – testing could be done with me being conscious and lying on my left side meant I could sleep.

Day 3, I was cleaned and on my way to see what news there was to be had on whether I had really damaged my right eye.  Short waiting time, and I am in a testing room.  In it was a grid with an angled mirror between it.  All I had to do was identify with each eye where certain dots were.

The upshot was I still had double vision. I was accommodating it well (so I could pick things up and walk in a straight line) but when the bruising went down it would probably return to normal. The earlier tests on Sunday had proven the retina was still attached to the optic nerve, so it was just a waiting game.  As you can see in the photos, the bruising and swelling was still quite impressive at this stage!

I managed 75% of a tin of soup that day for lunch!

The big difficulty with the Freestyle Libre is the fact, like many other continuous glucose monitoring systems, is that paracetamol (acetaminophen) and similar drugs can prevent it from ready current results (effectively blocking it from working).  To have all the benefits of just reading the values, I have to miss a major group of painkillers.  During this period I was religiously taking ibuprofen (advil) and sleeping – with the double vision watching TV or reading a book were not an option 😀

By Thursday, the swelling had gone down enough to allow a good look in the mirror and a little more time awake in the day.  I did have a moment where I thought, “OMG, I am never going to look like I did again”.  So I sat down and wondered if that matter and despite the fact it was painful, I did smile – it didn’t matter, really.  The scabs would go, I may have some scarring, but it was vaguely functional, the pain would stop, it didn’t, in the grand scheme of things, matter.  My family would still love me and I was still me.

Friday was the long awaited MaxFax appointment.  My husband took me and I checked in while he found a parking space.

“We don’t have you on our list today?”
“You must have: this is the appointment that was set up on Sunday…” I presented my appointment card.
“Take a seat, I’ll find out what’s going on.”

Apparently, my appointment had been moved to the day before, only they hadn’t let us know!  I channeled my inner, I don’t really care just sort this out please and to be honest, I probably looked quite mean 😮

We got slotted in and my scan from Sunday was examined.  A request for an x-ray was made and we joined the queue.

Given my general appearance (and I had put on a frock for the appointment) I was manhandled while the 2D images were taken.  After the man approached me for the second set I requested that I was handled more gently as I had broken quite a few bones in my face.

“We don’t know that yet!”
“Yes we do: a displaced fracture of the maxillary sinus, fractured zygomatic and orbitol.  The scans from Sunday proved that!”
He disappeared and came back into the x-ray suite and apologised and was much more gentle taking the last three films.

We’re now in early afternoon, and we’ve grabbed some lunch before heading back into MaxFax.  The young surgeon believes there is a lot to be gained performing a Gillies Lift and potentially fixating the zygomatic.

Basically, a cut would be made in my hair and a lever would allow the surgeon to push out the depressed fractured max sinus.  He would also go in to my zygomatic arch through the scar below my right eyebrow and fix that with a small plate – that wouldn’t survive any kind of knock but would allow enough stability for me to able eat and speak and generally function.  To say I was keen to proceed would be an understatement!

It wasn’t without risks – damage to the nerves could result including the eye muscles.  As my nerves were trapped in my face by the injury, I appreciated the implications were that it could be permanent.  As I was an emergency admission, the plan was to turn up on Sunday evening and wait for a slot.