Cyst In My Nose

[Personal Story Time]

Hello.

So two days ago I went to the hospital with my mom to do a CT (Computerized Tomography) Scan. Why, you ask? Well, let me tell you.

Ever since I was little, I always yawned too much. Not because I was tired or sleepy, but because I didn't get enough oxygen into my brain. At least, that was what my mom told me. It's a sort of breathing issue that I inherited from my dad, who has (had) sinus problems, who inherited his problem from his dad A.K.A my grandpa. Everyone hated my constant yawning, telling me to close my mouth and that I wasn't getting enough sleep. So, I decided to suppress my yawning by puffing.

That only made it worse.

I started getting pressure in my ears whenever I accidentally puffed the wrong way, even to the point where the pressure was too much and couldn't breathe properly unless I opened my mouth. Crying to sleep was both emotional and physically painful since tears would roll down the side of my cheeks and into my ears, which would interfere with my breathing. Then the puffing would start all over again.

Recently, I've been "exhaling" through my right ear. I inhale through my nose, and "exhale" through my right ear, followed by a silent push of air out my mouth. Though I think it's pressure instead of an actual "exhale" out my ear. It's a bother and disrupts me whenever I'm on my headphones listening to music because my right ear doesn't have enough space for the "air" to "exit" out my ear. Sometimes it doesn't just cause discomfort, it can actually hurt my ear. Moreover, my ears have become rather sensitive since the ear-exhaling started.

So, two weeks ago, my dad brought me to see an ENT (Ear, Nose, Throat) doctor to find out what's wrong with me. The doctor shoved (well more like slowly slid in) a metal tube attached to a torch light down my ears and nostrils to check if there was anything unusual.

My ears turned out to be fine - no physical abnormalities nor problem with hearing. My nose however, had a cyst at the end of the inside of my nose, where both nostrils are joined together in the nasopharynx (I think that's what the area is called). Here's how it looks like:

Pretty round, isn't it? It looks like an eyeball if you ask me. Anyway, I went to the ENT doctor and let her check up on me a little before my mom and I headed down to the Diagnosis Centre-X Ray place-thing to go for a CT scan.

When we got there, the nurse made me change into hospital clothes, in which resembled a yukata, only it ended mid-thigh and didn't have a sash. Then, with a deep breath, I stepped outside the changing room where the nurse and another older nurse helped me up onto a hospital bed. They took my left arm and rolled the sleeve up to my elbow. The older nurse scanned the soft area between my upper arm and forearm, trying to get a clear view of my veins. "Her veins are small," she mumbled to the younger nurse. She then started patting my arm in hopes that my veins would be a little clearer for them to see.

They eventually gave up on my arm and went for my hand instead, where the older nurse turned to a tray of medical tools by the bed and brought out a needle. "Turn to the other side," she told me gently, knowing very well that it wasn't a good idea to watch yourself being injected by a needle. My mom was behind her, hand on my shin under the blanket the nurses placed on me to give me support. I did I was told, and turned the other way to the wall.

Before I knew it, a sharp pain pushed its way past the thin layer of my skin. I gripped the sheets and gritted my teeth. I hated that thing already. Then, slowly, something long and way too big for my veins pushed further into my hand. The nurses quickly applied medical tape over the needle, holding it in place. After that, they attached something to the needle, and a cold liquid flowed into me. It didn't feel very comforting.

My injection:

Then, I was asked to enter a room where a huge circular machine stood. It looked worn out, and nothing like the ones you see in sci-fi movies. But then again, old doesn't necessarily mean bad, and new doesn't necessarily mean good. The nurse (the younger one) instructed me to lie on the flat platform and directed my head to the head rest-thing. She put a blanket over me, and strapped me to the platform. Wow. I sure felt like I was being held prisoner against my will. 

Soon, a man-nurse came in and pulled a machine towards me, certain buttons glowing green and some blue, contrasting with the cream colored machine. Then, they pulled a tube from the machine and attached it to me, where my needle was still painfully poking me. Was this what it felt like where you were one of those hospital patients with some sort of disease and had that needle strapped to your skin 24/7? 

That's it. 

I'm never going to be hospitalized ever again. If I were to die, I would want to die quickly and on the spot. No way was I going to have another needle stick into me while I awaited death on a hospital bed. 

"Don't swallow your saliva," said the man-nurse before he and the other nurse left the room, leaving me all alone in the room, strapped to a big machine. I bit my lip to prevent myself from swallowing my saliva. Who knows if one little slip up could cause me death.

Then, the platform started moving. Back and forth, slowly. The circular machine I went under only scanned my face, since it was my nose that had issues and nothing else. "Do not swallow your saliva, do not swallow your saliva." the nurse reminded me through the built in speakers. In front of me, there she was, behind a glass panel with the man-nurse controlling the... controls. Right after she said that, a warm liquid made its way to the back of my throat, trailing down to my core. I instantly knew what it was. 

The medicine from the machine they attached the needle in my hand to. 

The nurse had warned me earlier that I would feel something warm flow into me later on during the scan. I guessed this was it. I bit my lip again. Do not swallow saliva. Do not swallow saliva. 

Soon, it was over, and the nurse came in with another taller nurse to detach the tube from my hand and slowly pulled the needle out. 

Finally.

They pressed a cotton ball to my hand and stuck a piece of medical tape over it to secure the cotton, preventing any blood from flowing out. I was told to put pressure on the cotton for five to ten minutes to ensure that it doesn't bleed. Nodding, I hopped off the CT Scan platform and changed into my normal clothes.

P.S. If you don't know, this is what a CT Scan looks like (This isn't the actual CT Scan I went on. I got this picture from Google, but the one I went on more or less looked like this):

A few hours of waiting later, we got the results.

Both my sinuses are clear, so it's good. But they found the cyst. It's 1.5 cm x 1.7 cm in diameter, practically a size of a marble. So it's pretty big. My mom was sort of freaking out and worried at how big it was. I was chill. (Most probably because I knew there was something unusual with me, so finding out what it was was more of a relief than anything. At least I know that I wasn't making it (all the breathing difficulties) up.)

The next step is to remove it. It's either go for an operation, or leave it be. Of course, the choice is up the me. My mom was pretty insistent on going for an operation. She wanted this to be done and over with, since I have been dealing with this issue my whole life. "Who knows if the cyst will grow bigger and block your airway?" my mom said in the car on our way back from the hospital. I knew she was inferring that if my airway is completely blocked by the cyst, I wouldn't be able to breathe. And therefore, die.

I shrugged. If she wants me to undergo an operation, then I will undergo an operation. I'm not scared. Honestly, whether I go for the operation or not, I don't care. I've been living with this my whole life and is practically a part of my life. So either way, cyst or no cyst, there's not gonna be any difference. Well, to me at least. My mom thinks by removing the cyst, I would be able to breathe better and therefore everything else would be better like my studies and my metabolism. I don't know man. I just don't want to travel to the hospital again just to visit the doctor and waste another large sum of money. My time would be better spent on writing and studying.

Anyhow, I'll continue updating as usual, it's not like I'm physically impaired or anything. I can still function like a normal human being and I'm not in any mortal pain. It's just that I have a growth in my nose that's most probably affecting my breathing. Nothing serious.

Well, that's all for now. See you soon.

- Nukey