My Sinuses

I have a pretty cool doctor. His name is Hogun Shy. He is with Kaiser in Milpitas. If you go to that hospital, I highly recommend him, 

I went in a couple days ago for my post CT Scan appointment to go over the results I talked about in a previous post. I asked him if he would be able to send me a couple of the slides from my CT Scan for my blog. I was a little worried he would think I was some weird dude. But he came through. Here they are. A pretty intimate look at my sinuses. 

I am no doctor, and I won't pretend to know what I am talking about, but the dark spots are my sinuses. If you look at those passages on the right, they look a little constricted (thanks to my mysterious crooked nose). Its not a serious issue, more of an annoyance. I am however going to a sinus specialist to get his opinion on potentially fixing this next week. I'll be sure to let you know how that goes. 

For those of you who were concerned about the debris in my ear mentioned in my last CT Scan post, I had my ears cleaned out during this appointment as well. I'll spare you the details, but I had some funky stuff in both ears that the nurse was so kind to flush with water and dig out with the 2 foot long doctors Q Tip. Although it felt like she was going to poke my brain when she did it, when it was over, I felt like I had the ears of a 5  year old. 

CT Scan

I have been having these sinus problems for awhile. Many times, the evenings after I go surfing, I will develop serious sinus congestion and sinus headaches that lasts for as long as a couple days. I went to my doctor, and he suggested I get a CT Scan on my sinuses.

On Tuesday I went in for the Scan. I had never had a CT Scan before, so I was certainly curious as to what it might involve. Unfortunately it was not much different than an x-ray. Pretty uneventful.

When I was done, I asked the technician if I could look at the Scan. She told me no, that is was a privacy issue. I told her I wanted to put the pictures on my blog, but she still wasn't swayed.

Well anyway, I got an email from my doctor today. If you aren't familiar with Kaiser, they do alot of their patient/doctor correspondence via email. Very cool in my opinion, but I am part of that generation who is used to using the internet for everything.

Here is the email he sent me.

Mr. Lipert,
Your CT scan showed mild sinus disease. I hope your sinuses are improved. How are things going?

Regards,

Hogan Shy MD

CT scan -----------------------------------------------------------------------

Minimal mucosal thickening associated with sphenoid, left ethmoid
and inferior left frontal sinuses. Right frontal and right
ethmoid sinuses substantially clear. Minimal right maxillary
sinus mucosal thickening with mild mucosal thickening associated
with floor of left maxillary sinus. Patent right ostiomeatal
unit. Mild soft tissue density may obstruct left ostiomeatal
unit. There is leftward nasal septal deviation. Probable debris
in the external auditory canal on the right.

** IMPRESSION **:
Mild sinus disease.

Does anyone know what this means? Mild Sinus Disease? For Crying out loud, this message might as well have been in spanish.

I go see him next Tuesday. Hopefully he can shed a little more light on my "Mild Sinus Disease". Preferably, maybe how to cure it? I am also going to see if I can't get myself some copies of the CT Scan to upload here on the blog. I'll let you know how it goes.