On March 12, Daniel and I went to False Creek Surgical Centre to meet with Dr. Javer. I told him a bit of my history and provided him with a couple of reports. I showed him the cone-beam CT scan and he showed us the cyst above my teeth. He said it was likely infected. Then he said to me, “you’ve probably been in a lot of pain.” (Once identified by someone who knows how to read the images, the cyst is obvious. On the image from Orbit Imaging , looking at the bottom row, you can see a circle that is a cross section of the cyst.)

I started to cry because this was the first time my pain had been acknowledged and validated by somebody in “conventional” medicine. And this was somebody who could probably help me. I knew that he was one of the best sinus surgeons in the world and it was such a sense of relief that he saw something worth looking at. Dr. Javer recommended that we get a CT scan of all the sinuses and meet him again. What still amazes me is that the CT technician worked through his lunch to do my scan and I met with Dr. Javer right afterwards. All in the same day!

Dr. Javer asked me when I had broken my nose as my septum was so deviated. He showed us the difference between both sides and described what a healthy sinus looks like. He was able to see problems in the ethmoid sinus as well as the maxillary and recommended surgery to remove the infection. He scoped me with a 2mm scope that confirmed what we saw in the CT scan, mainly that the right side of nose couldn’t accommodate the very small scope.  I was eager to have the surgery as soon as possible. I was given the choice of having the procedure done privately or publicly. I could book a private procedure in 5 weeks. A public procedure would be at least 3 years. With the anesthesiologists threatening job action, it was likely to add more time to these ‘elective’ surgeries.

CT scan (coronal view) — slice with the face forward clearly showing the infection in the right maxillary sinus.

CT scan (axial view) — slice from the top of the head to the level of the nose showing the deviated septum.

Another five weeks to wait. With hope, anything was possible.