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!