Nose Woes

I came back from my Italian vacation rejuvenated and ready to finish out my last 6 months of service.  I had a great first week back to school teaching my classes and clubs.  I visited the art school, cleaned my entire apartment and worked on some peace corps projects.  I went to school on Monday, came home and went to bed early feeling sick.  I woke up at 6:30 in the morning with terrible stomach pains.  I ran to the bathroom and then felt like I was going to throw up.  In the 5 steps from my bathroom to the kitchen to get a plastic bag, I passed out cold.  I woke up on the floor, not quite sure what had happened, but realized that my nose was bleeding.  Did I say bleeding? I meant gushing.  I had never even had a nosebleed before and it was disgusting.

I called my peace corps doctor as soon as I pulled myself together.  A few hours later I was in Yerevan after a few pit stops at the Noyemberyan hospital, stopping for snow to put on my face and breaks to change out the cotton gauze in my nose. My peace corps doctor immediately took me for x rays.  The results said that I had fractured 2 bones in my nose and had a deviated septum.  The next day I went back for a CT scan that said the same thing.  PC Washington received my x ray results on Thursday, but said they wouldn't make any decisions until seeing my CT scan.  I got a call from my peace corps doctor on Saturday to tell me that I would be medically evacuated to Thailand.  My plane leaves tomorrow (Yerevan, Moscow, Bangkok).  I will probably have the surgery on Friday and spend the next week recuperating in my hotel room. I'll try to post again after the surgery to let you all know how it went! Truthfully, waking up after surgery by myself in a country where I don't speak the language sounds a little scary... but I can't breath out of my nose, I have a constant headache and my nose is crooked. It's definitely necessary, I just wish I could be back home with my family while I recovered. Wish me luck!