Wednesday, February 24, 2010

post op days 11 and 12

I'm doing ok during the day...still have stinging, but it's tolerable, and still taking x strength tylenol every 4-6 hours. It's the night times that are really hard. When you lay down, all the pressure goes to your ears, and the pain is very intense. Very hard to sleep, and when you wake up in the middle of the night cause the meds have worn off, you can hardly swallow the next round of pills. I'm still having to put ice packs on my neck and heating pads on my ears when i wake up at 2am. I did, however, sleep longer periods last night, so that made me happy. The pain in my legs from being bedridden for so long (atrophy) is still there...I'm not walking all wobbly anymore, but last night while sitting in bed watching American Idol, my legs were really sore, and I could hardly concentrate...drove me insane. Hopefully that'll go away sometime soon. I might need to see a chiropractor or do accupuncture or something like that as well if it doesn't go away soon! Saw the dr yesterday for my post visit, and he said I was healing well, but I'd probably still have pain for about 2 weeks, and I stil risk bleeding in that time too, which shocked me, cause I havnt bled once yet, surprisingly. He said the reason I felt more pain then most people is because my tonsils were larger, so they were deep rooted and they had to cut wayyyy back into my throat...I have the gaping holes to prove it! lol I asked him If I would be fully healed before my next surgery (hysterectomy) next month, cause they'll be putting a tube down my throat, and he said yes, and that I'd have "MORE ROOM" back there for the tube to go down now..eek! lol
I have more energy now, and went to the grocery store yesterday, and to my appt 30 min away, but still verrrry exhausted, and a full day like that really wore me out. Dr said I might be trying to do too much too soon and to take it easy. The thing that hurts most during the day is yawning...I hardly EVER yawn, but for some strange reason the past 2 days i'm yawning over and over again all day long and it hurts my jaw and stretches my wounds and I'm writing in pain....yesteday i had an hour where every 10 seconds i'd yawn..it was horrible!!! Also, i've developed a tickle in my throat..probably from talking so much, and then it makes me start to cough, which freaks me out cause coughing causes the bleeding. It happened several times at the store, and I didn't have any gum in my purse, so i was swallowing like crazy and in the aisle freaking out with tears running down my eyes, cause i started having coughing attacks...no bueno!

Anyways, today is a new day, had a weight watchers smoothie for breakfast, and for some reason it hurt realllly bad , so i dont know if it was from the cold or some ingredient in it. For lunch i'll have some warm soup i made yesterday, and probably soup again for dinner. I dream of the day I can have bread, tortillas, and crackers again!

Sunday, February 21, 2010

post op days 7 8 9 and 10

Good lord, in my drug induced haze I didn't even realize I havn't posted in 4 days..lol
I wish I could say it was because I was out partying, and having a great time, but I'm not gonna lie...I was in the depths of hell. I'm only writing this for people that havn't had the surgery yet and are considering it, i'm not REALLY writing it for my friends to feel sorry for me or be grossed out, but I know if people do a google search on tonsillectomys they like to know what they're getting into. I'm at the end of day 10, and I THOUGHT it was getting better today, so I decided to go off my narcotic meds and just switch to extra strength tylenol. I'm afraid now that maybe it was too soon, and I might have a seriously horrible painful night ahead of me. Advice for people that are about to have this done....
do NOT assume that you're STRONGer, so it'll hurt less, or you're healthier cause it will hurt less...because that's a load of crap. You will be in severe pain for AT least 10 days, to the point of excruciating, shaking, crying, hysterical. Nights are the WORST...I DREADED when the sun went down cause you sleep for an hour at a time and wake up with the worst cotton mouth of your life, so dry that your tongue will stick to the top of your throat. You will have 24/7 nonstop CONSTANT mass foam/saliva in your mouth that WON'T go down, no matter how many times you swallow...for days and days and days, and i'm almost on day 11 and its still there. The worst taste in your mouth, horrible breath, your jaw will feel like it had been wrenched from your head, your teeth will ache, and your neck will hurt for days because you are so TENSE from the pain. Make sure you sleep on a TON of pillows...laying flat or on your side will severely increase the pressure in your ears, and the ear pain is the worst part. You will se massive thick white and black patches on the back of your throat.this is normal...do NOT try to pick it off for any reason! Dont be dumb like me and try to look at your throat in the mirror a million times a day, cause that just stretches the wounds and makes it crack and bleed. Dont talk alot..i talk TOO much and that probably prolonged the bad parts. drink water..even at night..every chance you can get when you wake up...it hurts sooooo bad, especially at night, but it helps sooo much! The first 4 days, water and ice were best for me, and popsicles..after day 4, cold hurt like hell..even room temp waterbottles sting my throat and hurt my ears. Drink warm tea with HONEY. I think honey helped my healing a LOT, when i woke up in the middle of the night with dry throat, I ate a tsp of honey and sucked on it till it coated my throat, and then was able to rest a bit longer. IF you are like me, and the pain meds dont last at ALL till the next time...drink that warm tea..not hot! slightly warm. it will feel soooo good and will help ease the pain till the next meds. also, i slept day and night with freezer gel packs (the squooshy kind) on my neck and a heating pad on my ears....hot on ears, cold on neck....rotate always, it helps like you wouldn't believe!!! Gum.....chew gum like its going out of style. One night i woke up and my mouth was sooo dry and it hurt so bad and i still had 2.5 hours till my next meds..i was DYING, so I chewed a piece of gum, cause it aids in the healing, and helps you salivate...hurts cause you have a sore jaw but just DO IT! Then i would get online at all hours of the night to get my mind off of the pain if i could sleep..play an online game, read a book, take a bath (very helpful, i've taken a ton this week) just keep your hands from overdosing on those pills! Cold foods dont feel good to me either...i can't eat pudding or jello without pain, and ice cream and popsicles? no way....what felt gooooooooddddd....cream of wheat, oatmeal, verrrryyy watered down with no chunks, ramen soup is the thing i like best cause it feels the best. mashed sweet potatoes with butter..very mashed...sooo good. warm canned green beans with butter...chew good, goes down smooth. Like I said, I'm at the end of day 10, and I'm positive i've got at least 5 more days of pain ahead of me, so this is a LONG process, and HOPEFULLY worth it! If i can help ease someones pain, then I've done good posting all this!

Friday, February 19, 2010

post op days 5 and 6

sorry I've been slacking. I think the main reason I havn't written anything in for days 5 and 6 is because the pain isn't getting any better, in fact, as you can see, its 4:30 am as I'm typing this, and I'm wide awake awaiting my next pain meds so I can attempt to sleep. I havnt slept in 3 days. My pain level has been at a constant 8 to 9, and even drinking water is a nightmare! One thing I DIDN'T notice much on the online posts about this procedure is the "foam" or crap that gets stuck in your throat 24/7 that you can't swallow down, you try to swallow a thousand times a day and its just stuck there making you gag and choke, and makes it impossible to sleep. Also, with just finding out for sure that I have fibromyalgia, which some of you know makes you very COLD sensitive..and I have to have cold packs surrounding my throat for the pain....but the pain from the cold also makes pain go down my neck, my back and gives me a raging headache. I STILL dont think ANY scabs have come off, which means today is day 7 of nightmare city and I STILL have yet to endure the most painful part...this scares me the most! I thank my friends soooooo much for the foods they've sent over for the family every night, Darci for getting that all set up, and helping out with the girls, Jodi for all the advice, ice chipper, humidifier, etc, and my mom for being here to help me and take care of the kids. Also thanks to my wonderful hubby that has to endure all my my crying and gives me meds at 1am, 5am, etc even on work nights when he's exhausted. I'm sooooo sorry! If I had known that it would have been THIS bad, and the meds would have provided no relief, I NEVER EVER would have done this!

Monday, February 15, 2010

tonsillectomy day 4 (day 3 post op)

still in hell. Not getting a break with these meds, and I didn't expect the severe pain to last this long with no breaks! I slept on and off today cause that's the only time I'm not feeling the pain, but I snore and choke so badly when sleeping that I keep waking myself up. I pretty much didn't do anything but lie in bed with ice packs on my neck and heat pads on my ears and head, but I did manage to take a shower with Jasons help, and the hot water felt good, but was exhausting. At least I'm clean though. Gonna try warm broths, etc tonight cause the cold seems to be stinging pretty bad right now...even ice. The only GOOD news is that my skin is clear as a babys, and the scale is dropping like crazy....seriously...my hip bones are protruding and it's only day 4! I'm hoping for at least a day reprieve before the scabs start coming off, cause I've been told that's the most painful of all, and I just want a slight break from pain before then so I dont need to be checked into the insane assylum...seriously...just a couple of hours and I'd be happy..is that too much to ask? The meds are only lasting about 2 hrs between pain, and I can only take them every 4 hours, so I'm trying to sleep through most of it, but that's not working out so well. So far my fave food has still been the bread dipped in sugary cinnamon milk (has to be orowheat buttermilk bread) sooooooo good...sounds gross looks gross but sooooo good. Ok back to bed, I'm exhausted!

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Tonsillectomy day 3 (day 2 post op)

I slept a lot better last night, although every 4 hrs when I woke up to take my meds my throat stung really badly and my ears have begun hurting now too with every swallow. Cold things like ice and popsicles aren't feeling so good anymore, and so this morning jason pureed a peach cup and heated it up to luke warm in the microwave. That felt pretty good. I'm going to attempt a high protein hot chocolate (with water not milk) and have it luke warm at dinnertime. Very sore throat today. Been putting ice pack on my throat and one of those rice filled sacks you heat in the microwave on my ears...i think that's what helped me sleep last night. I also took a bath today and attempted to wash my hair but could only get it wet. Luckily, I dont feel hungry at ALL...dont know if that's cause of the meds or because of the pain, but I can't even finish a whole applesauce cup at one sitting right now. Feel like I have a throat full of foam right now, but i think its just mucous collecting around my uvula...making me swallow all the time but nothing will go down and it hurts like hell. Gonna go take a nap, and then my friend Jodi is going to come over with some white bread dipped in milk and sugar..supposed to taste good and go down smooth. Hope to get some relief tomorrow! Jason and Jacob are doing a great job tending to me and aren't complaining too much! Thank you everyone for your well wishes!

Saturday, February 13, 2010

adult tonsillectomy from hell

I am sooooo sorry that I havn't posted since August! I think my only excuse is that I got totally addicted to facebook so my whole life is on there, as well as everything I've done since august and all my pictures too! If anyone knows of a way to link my pics on my facebook to my blog, PLEASE drop me a message and let me know! Lets see...before I get down to the title of this post, I'll give you a little bit of a recap of life since August 2009. I did the October Ontario expo, as well as the Sacramento expo last year, and then came a great "spoiled rotten" christmas. My trainer opened up his very own studio in December, and I've been training there 3-5 days a week. Found out in January that I need a hysterectomy. It's scheduled for next month, and yesterday I had my tonsillectomy. I'm going to post all about everything in my recovery to hopefully help anyone else (adult) out there to know what to expect, so here goes!

Adult female 33 years old. Mother of 3.

Tonsillectomy day 1
I was scheduled to be at the Inland Surgery Center at 10:15am on Friday Feb 12th. They immediately got my paperwork done and brought me in to get my blood pressure and change into my gown. Everyone was very nice and made me feel at ease. They were running wayyyy behind, so a nurse put me in a room with a tv so I could sit...for 2.5 hours! Thank God for the tv, cause my mind would have gone crazy just sitting there thinking about the surgery. Jason stayed with me in the room and kept my mind from wandering. I was given an iv with a slow drip to keep me hydrated. 2.5hours later, the anesthesiologist came in and asked me questions, let me go to the bathroom again, and then stuck some meds in the iv...everything went really fast from there...I got wheeled into the surgery room, and within 2 minutes they put a mask on my face and I swear i was out cold in 30 seconds! When I woke up, I was in the recovery room. It was really hard to open my eyes and she put something over my eyes to block out the glare. I had a HORRIBLe headache, jaw and teeth ache, and was shocked at how much pain I was already feeling. I had read so many things about the first day not hurting very much so this pain was a surprise. She asked me on a scale from 1 to 10 how I was feeling, and I said 8.5. The nurse gave me 2 grape otter pops and a cup of ice...both felt really good. She gave me 3 more doses of meds before she sent me home(with 2 more otter pops), and none of it seemed to help at all. I was sent home about 45 min after waking up, and we picked up my meds on the way home so I could take them as soon as I got home. I had to take all my meds with food, and at around 3pm I had my first food of the day. baby food pears. It hurt and stung really badly, but at least I didn't get nautious. In fact, I'm on day 2, and havn't felt nautious once, and no blood either, so I am grateful for that! Hubby made sure that I drank a TON of water on day one and a TON of ice chips too. It hurt really bad to drink water, but if i poured it into a cup of shaved ice (thank you Jodi for the ice shaver!) and sipped it with a spoon it was much better. The hydrocodone stings, so suck on or drink ice immediately afterwards! The amoxicillin didn't sting and tastes soooo good! I'm frustrated to say that so far the pain meds havn't given me any reprieve at all! Severe pain all night and my uvula is so swollen I keep on almost swallowing it and choking on every swallow. Needless to say, I didn't sleep more than a total of a half an hour all night long. Jason made sure to make a medicine schedule for me so that we wouldn't forget a single dose..even at 1am and 5am! Luckily, I dont feel hungry at all, and am only eating 15 min before each medicine dose, and its usually just an applesauce cup, followed by shaved ice to take away the sting. I can't stress enough how important it is to drink a TON of water and ice so you dont get constipated or dehydrated..it also helps you heal faster and keeps you from bleeding! I peed a million times, but that's good!
Day 2
One wierd thing...every time I got up to go to the bathroom, a ton of air (burp) came out of my throat..for like a whole minute..seriously, I could have won a contest! It was kinda funny but kinda freaky at the same time...could be from the breething tube, or the meds?!?!? Also, sleep elevated...VERY elevated. I slept on my bed with a ton of pillows, and even elevated, I woke up choking several times because my uvula was so swollen that i couldn't swallow. it also made me snore...badly...which woke me up too, so that's why i couldn't sleep..that and the fact that my pain level was still at 8.5 with no end in sight.
I made the mistake of looking at my my throat in the mirror with a flashlight this morning. If you have a weak stomach, you might not want to read this paragraph! It was hard to open my mouth wide enough to see anything, but it looked like someone stuffed HUGE chunks of bleu cheese into gaping holes in each side of my throat, and my uvula was so swollen it looked like a big red tootsie pop. so wide that it touches both sides of my throat, and goes down so low you can't see the bottom of it cause its halfway down my throat. Breathing is hard, and dont talk! I think part of my pain last night was from the fact that i wouldn't stop talking. trying to talk much less today! This morning I had to take a different med. In pill form...eek! Its some kind of steroid and I dont know what it's really for, but I cut it in 4 small pieces and mixed it up in my pureed frozen peach cup (yum for the throat) I think it was that pill that gave me a sort of cotton mouth and numbness that acctually helped ease the pain for about 1/2 an hour. Yesterday the ice packs on my throat didn't help at all, but this morning it helped me to take a small nap. I've pretty much spent the last 24 hours in bed propped up with pillows. I have my bouts of tiredness and weakness, but other than that, I have some energy. I think that'll go away when the scabs start coming off and it hurts to eat anything...then i'll feel the weakness everyone is talking about. From what I've read so far, day 3 (tomorrow) is supposed to be the most painful day. I'm not looking forward to it! I also don't think I'll ever want applesauce again after this! I'm too afraid to try anything salty or warm right now, but maybe in a couple of days?!? I attempted sweet potato baby food for lunch..it was horrible and stung badly. My son switched it with applesauce with cinnamon..didn't know till after the first couple bites that it was cinnamon...stung quite a bit but i ate it all anyways, followed by shaved ice with water to take away the sting. Not in as much pain right now...probably at a
6. Want to try to find something different to eat for dinner tonight...I'm all appled out! Will update tomorrow on tonights events and day 3!

For dinner I had jello brand rice pudding. Didn't sting at all, felt soothing, but kinda hard to get down. Prob should have waiting a couple more days. Just now, before my next pill, I had small curd cottage cheese...it tasted sooooo good! My first salt in 2 days...lol It felt good too and didn't sting, but I worry about the mucous it might cause so i'm drinking a TON of water. Mom brought over dinner for Jason and Jacob, and she brought me some gatorade to keep up my electrolytes. I poured some into my shaved ice and I'm eating it with a spoon...really yummy. The pain is probably at a 7 right now. Still very swollen and hard to swallow. I HOPE I can sleep tonight cause I'm exhausted! Mom also bought me some baby prunes and prune juice "just in case"...lol
One of my meds is giving me the itchies....no visible rash, but this has happened to me before, so I'm pretty sure it's the hydrocodone...driving me insane! Hopefully it goes away soon or I'll have to have them call in a different prescription. Goodnight!