ow.

Monday's nose surgery went fine. Not that it would have changed anything, but I may not have done all the reading, so I was a little surprised to find the pain to basically be every time I've been hit in the nose (mostly thanks to aikido), but worse. Also, since I'm pretty sure the surgery involved breaking my nose, I now know that every time in the past I may have wondered if I broke my nose...I didn't.

There is a very large and sensitive bundle of nerves just below and behind the septum, which I learned about from a book I have: easily accessible nerves are useful for self-defense, especially for people who don't have physical advantages like size or strength. This is why getting hit in the nose makes you at least tear up a lot, if not actually cry. One day in aikido my partner accidentally clocked me right on that nerve cluster while trying to do something else. Really a very solid strike with the blade of the hand. It hurt, but more striking was that my upper teeth and gums went numb. Painful, but even better from a self-defense perspective, highly distracting!

I went in to get the stitches and splints removed, and everything is fine. Never having broken my nose (clearly), I knew "splints" were involved, but I had no idea what they looked like: only that people talk about using popsicle sticks as some kind of field expedient. In yet another case of "I had no idea human sinuses were that big," these were about 1 inch by 3 inches. The first one may have been glued down by blood clots, very much being a Total Recall moment (don't click if you're squeamish).

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The unflappable surgeon was unfazed by my shouted profanity, and also unconcerned that the exam room door was open; I suppose you do want your surgeons to have focus. And he's a curious man.

Anna says even last night (with my nose mostly clogged) my breathing was markedly different; we'll see how it goes in the coming weeks and months. I guess this is how the rest of you have felt breathing through your nose, all this time? Show-offs.