Breaks! Pool and Nose Surgery -- for Sarah

Sorry I missed my post yesterday, for the few of you who are following this blog. I was out playing pool with my boyfriend and some of our friends, and then woke up this morning feeling quite under the weather.

I am not an avid pool player--I enjoy the occasional game with friends--and I almost never break at the beginning of the game. I tried it once and was so embarrassed by the results (cue ball in side pocket, no more than four or five balls moving out of the formation) that I didn't want to try again, and I've gotten along just fine without knowing how to break for many, many years. But last night my boyfriend and one of our friends doggedly urged me to break, so though I was resistant to learning a new skill (funny for the woman whose resolution it is to learn new things!) I got help setting up the angle of the cue ball to the formation, the "proper" way to hold the cue (note my cynicism, haha), and I just went for it. It was a fairly successful break, but I ended up losing that game.

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Today, in honor of my friend Sarah who got nose surgery this morning after a terrible break and then weeks of doctors giving her bad advice, I looked up information about nose surgery per her request. The break in her nose did not deviate the bone (cock it to the side and make it look crooked like you ordinarily think of when someone breaks their nose), but rather it broke straight on so it didn't even look like anything was wrong. Because of this odd breakage, the doctor she saw at first told her that she couldn't have surgery because there was nothing that could be done unless it healed poorly, and then she could have it fixed. But then after seeing a specialist she found out that, in fact, she did need to have surgery immediately or else it would heal badly and that would create a slew of other problems. So this morning she went unter the knife and from what I hear was in recovery by 10:45--and I still didn't know anything about nose surgery.

As the internet savvy woman that I am (aren't we all, in this digital age?), I hopped onto google to find out what I could. At first I googled "nose surgery," then "non-deviated nose break" then "non-deviated nose surgery," and came up with peanuts. Mostly I found out what I already knew--in the case of deviation, the doctors need to reset the nose within 7-10 days, the surgery can cause breathing problems, numbness, nose asymmetry, scarring, swelling, and the possibility of revisional surgery (this I had not thought of!). I assume that, excepting the resetting, non-deviated nose surgery risks about the same things.
I looked up nasal reconstruction and found this website, for those of you who are interested: http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/876456-overview.

Here is Sarah's take on the surgery: "All I know is they're gonna break the shit out of it and then put it back together like a puzzle. And that it's different from a nose job." She also told me that they're going to make an incision arund her mouth as well, and that the list of things she cannot do after the surgery ranges from no wearing shirts unless they zip/button down, to no brushing her teeth, to no vigorous exercise or anything that get's her breathing heavily. They even went so far as to ban sneezing, as if any human can prevent that.

I will probably learn more about this particular surgery when Sarah is functional and emotionally ready to tell me the details, and if I learn anything of note I will be sure to record it here.

Also, if anyone is wondering, I have about an inch and a half on my sister's 55-stitch-across scarf! But shhhh, don't tell her!


Learning lots,
Monica