Ides of March

Today (well, for people on the west coast) is the Ides of March. I haven't updated this thing in a while so I thought I'd record what's been up for the last couple of weeks. I'm still working out regularly, doing CrossFit 3-4x/week, and I'm also swimming more and hitting up some random gym classes like spinning and kickboxing.

I have surgery coming up on the 26th of March, this time involving two doctors and three surgeries. The first surgery is the most important: the sinus surgeon is going to remove the polyps inside my head, open up the sinus passageways more, and generally try to fight the swelling by allowing better ventilation. He examined my first surgery and said that, while technically a successful surgery, was insufficient. The next surgery will be a correction of my septum to help permit proper breathing, and the final surgery will fix an "external valve collapse in zone 1."

The hope is that all of these corrections will help restore proper ventilation, which will fight off both infection and swelling, and allow me to breathe properly. There is still a part of me, the part that is up right now writing this rather than trying to go to sleep, that fears that all of this is stemming from stress. Unfortunately stress goes up even more when I start thinking these thoughts, fearing that no matter how many surgeries I throw at this beast, it ultimately stems from stress and anxiety. On the other hand, I had my blood tested back in January and my cortisol levels were fine. Still, I definitely experience bruxism on a regular basis. I suppose some form of extreme stress management solution is my next last-ditch effort. I'm not thrilled at the idea of doing yoga 6x/week but I could certainly manage 3x/week, I just have never experienced any dramatic relief.

Oh well. I'm hoping for the best here with surgeries, and even if they reduce the pain by 25% that's still a huge step forward. Onward...