Relief

There is something unutterably surreal about having what seems like yards of gauze pulled out of one's nostrils. For a start, who knew there was so much room in there? With only a finger as probe the cavity hardly seems big enough for a pea. Now I understand how mediums of old were able to produce vast volumes of gauze-like ectoplasm. Then there is the sheer sensation of it; a sort of gentle tugging and then, as the fluid releases its hold, a slimy wriggling that was, fortunately, entirely passive or I might have understood the exit of an Alien.

And Lord! The relief! To take that first, tentative breath through the one unclogged nostril was to surface after far too long underwater. Then the third tampon came out of the second nostril and the floodgates opened. Air rushed through with such ease that I could barely believe I had put up with the miserly flow before. I suppose I was in a bit of a hot frog situation, the lack of air having crept up on me so slowly, over so many years, that I never really noticed it.

Now, minus the polyps, the enlarged turbinates and the deviated septum, I am waiting to heal completely. Bliss.