Such is the life of a polyp….

A polyp is a nasty wee besom that lives in your sinus(es). When I was first diagnosed with bronchiectasis when I was 17, I was full of them. But when I went on IV antibiotics and every other abx known to man, all but one cleared up.

The one that remained resides in my left nostril, just low enough so that when I raise my face to look up my nostril, you can see it peeking out at the very back. It looks like a giant booger, and they can shrink and grow as they like.

Usually, if they’re bad enough, polyps need to be surgically removed, though the risk of them coming back is fairly high depending on the reason why you have them in the first place (if you have sinitus, like people with bronchiectasis and CF get on behalf of their respiratory illness), they will more or less always be there. You can get a flare up when you become stricken with illness or allergies…as I am right now.

I feel as if I am falling apart. If it isn’t one thing then it’s the other; if it isn’t pleurisy then it’s a polyp; if it isn’t a polyp then it’s some god for saken underlying mystery illness like my supposed inability to swallow. Oh well. I’ve learned that if there isn’t any pain then it’s time to worry. I’ve heard time and time again that bronchiectasis can be a very painful disease, which is turning out to be true. I’m constantly in some form of respiratory pain with this disease. It’s not always something specific (like pleurisy)…it’s just always…there.

I guess I can’t complain though. I could be out fighting a war perhaps…and I’m thankful that I’m not.

No, pleurisy is staying at bay, but my polyp is a flarin’ in the back of my nostril because of the weather. It’s muggy weather lately…humid, but not overly hot, and it’s muggy and drizzly and very crappy. When it gets like this, my polyp swells to mammoth proportions and traps snot and stuff behind it, leaving me very stuffy and unable to breathe. I can’t smell, or taste at the moment, and I sound very nasally and it’s quite unpleasant. I blow and blow my nose and it sounds like I’m getting stuff out, but it’s only the sound of the snot moving from behind my wicked polyp. I blow until my eyes water and the skin on my nose wants to catch fire, but I get no relief. I want to stab my face.

I fear that if this polyp stays engorged, my face shall explode at some point.

I sincerely hope this is not the case.

And just for the record before I leave: I hate you polyp.