As most of you know, I had my tonsillectomy on October 1. I thought I would try to recap my tonsillectomy and subsequent recovery for those of you who are interested. I'm glad that the end is in sight; time will tell if the surgery has the intended effect.
PRE-SURGERY
The day before surgery was crazy. I was trying to finish up everything at work because I wouldn't be able to have access to the system during my time off. Once I got home, two hours later than I wanted to, it wasn't much better. I hadn't packed my bag, dishes in the sink, garbage to be taken out, plants to be watered. I decided I would just sleep over at my mom's since the hospital is much closer to her house. I spent most of the evening bothering Paige, who was working on a psychology project with her friend Lloyd.
Then I had a few phone calls wishing me luck the next day. Thanks to everyone who checked in, that meant a lot. At the last minute I remembered I had to take a urine sample with me in the morning. My mom gave me an old salad dressing bottle. I wasn't too keen on that, but it had to be done.
DAY 1: SURGERY
I woke up thirsty at 7:30, I can handle the no eating but no drinking is hard! We arrived at the hospital at 8:45 and soon I was getting weighed, blood drawn, asked lots of questions and eventually the nurse gave me this very flattering hospital gown. I know I look so hot in this sack, with no make up and my glasses on. Apparently it's necessary to be completely naked when surgeons are operating on your throat. They say it's because you have little monitors stuck on you, but I think I might be repressing bad OR memories that will come back to haunt me later in life.
The surgeon was a bit behind so we waited and waited for the OR to open up. Finally an orderly came to transport me. I had to hand off my glasses to my mom, leaving me literally blind. I hate that because I really can't see people's faces when they're talking to me. The orderly dropped me off in the hallway just outside of the OR and I had all these people coming to ask questions. I had to say my name and birthday like 7 times. The anesthesiologist was very nice, I liked him. Last time I had surgery my anesthesiologist was named Dr. Blood. That was his real name! This guy was just Dr. Clayton and he was very chatty while he was putting in my IV. We talked about baseball, movies, intubation, why operating rooms are always so cold. I told him I had trouble with nausea and vomiting in the past so he put some special sauce in with the anesthesia.
I remember telling him it was working really fast and the next thing I knew I was waking up and I kept asking him if I threw up. He reassured me that I did not and said I was doing well. I laid there in post-op for a few minutes and then I started to feel an intense burning in my throat. The nurse gave me some kind of morphine and that shit works well. I still felt a little bit of pain, but it only like a 2 or 3 on a scale of 1-10. Pretty soon I was moved to my recovery room and my mom met me there. I promptly asked for my phone and started conducting business.
I had to drink some grape juice and then nurse made me a popsicle slushie. I was doing really well until they tried to sit me up. Just about fainted and went white as a ghost. They laid me back down and I got some more special sauce in my IV. I tried some applesauce and it went down ok. I even called a few people and I was joking with the nurse.
Soon I was able to sit up without any issues. I got dressed and I was wheeled out to my mom's car. We stopped to get a milkshake on the way home, but I wasn't very interested and it was pretty thick. I watched tv for the rest of the afternoon and dozed on and off. I kept feeling this weird blocked feeling in my throat and I could not figure out what it was. I tired to swallow it to no avail. Turns out it was my freaking uvula and it wasn't going anywhere. It kept getting bigger as the day went on. I also had some nausea and ended up getting sick. The pain still wasn't too bad and I was talking ok.
Allen and Dennis stopped by with some ice cream in the evening so it was nice to visit with them. I was feeling pretty good so I decided to watch Lars and the Real Girl with Paige and Damien. I couldn't make it through the whole movie without falling asleep, so I took a Percocet and some steroids and went to bed.
DAYS 2-4
The pain meds worked fairly well and I felt pretty good during these days. The only time there was severe pain was during the middle of the night or first thing in the morning when it had been a few hours since I had anything to drink. Swallowing hurt SO bad, but the meds kicked in after 10 minutes or so. The pain was fairly manageable and I started to think I might just breeze through this recovery. My two favorite things during this time were Gatorade and pretzels. I know pretzels sound like they would be scratchy, but they didn't hurt and the salt helped a lot. I also ate a lot of popsicle slushies: microwave a twin pop for 15 seconds, mash it up and add a splash of sprite. That's pretty much what I lived on for 2 weeks. I thought I might prefer hot stuff, but the cold things were much more soothing. Although I did have a little chicken noodle soup everyday too.
On day 3 my tongue starting hurting pretty bad and I couldn't open my mouth very wide at all. Yawning and laughing hurt so bad, but I could talk softly. My damn uvula continued to be my nemesis. I had to sleep in an elevated position and I couldn't lay on my back or my uvula would choke me. I finally found a side position that was semi-comfortable where I could still breathe, sleep and stay alive at the same time.
DAYS 5-6
I started to notice my energy going downhill these days. I was really puffy from the steroids and everyone kept telling me how pale I was. Thanks, I know I look like crap. I was really starting to feel like it too. I had to force myself to drink, it was becoming much more difficult to swallow. The pain also spread to my ears and my jaw, I couldn't even chew a popsicle. Food just didn't sound good and my taste was off. I wasn't able to concentrate on anything. I got online a little bit, but it made my head hurt. Reading was out of the question. So I just watched a lot of tv and I was also able to do a little bit of knitting. Now is the time to mention that pain meds kind of bind up your system, to put it nicely. Day 6 finally brought some relief for that! Day 6 was also the day I thought it would be a good idea to drive my sick ass to Starbucks. Bad idea. I really should not have driven. I was way out of it, almost like I was drunk. Somehow I made it there and back in one piece.
DAY 7
Worst. Day. Ever. I woke up feeling really weird, nauseated and in a lot of pain. I tried to get online but I could hardly sit up so I went to watch tv. Every time I moved my head I felt dizzy, even if I was lying down. I made myself get up to use the bathroom and it was instant nausea and the spins. I barely made it to the bathroom before I got sick. Let me tell you, throwing up after a tonsillectomy HURTS. Luckily I had some anti-nausea pills and they helped a little bit. I still couldn't move without getting dizzy. I think having my tonsils removed messed up my balance...that's what causes vertigo right? I'm only kidding. But it was a really miserable day.
DAYS 8-11
One word for these days: PAIN. I was so, so bored because all I could do was watch tv. I think I saw every episode of What Not to Wear and I caught up on some old CSI re-runs. Saturday was a great college football day too! The pain in my ears was excruciating and I felt like someone had scrapped a big brush up and down my throat. At first I was kind of disappointed in myself. I had been doing so well and now I felt like this was a giant set back. But the doctor did tell me that it would get worse before it got better. I'm really not a huge complainer, but it got pretty bad. There wasn't much I could do but get through it one day at a time. By day 11 I was ready to just start feeling better, I felt like I was never going to feel normal again.
DAYS 12-13
I didn't really fall asleep until 6 am so I slept until noon. I woke up and felt pretty good, but I still needed a pain pill to take the edge off. I got online and chatted with a few friends and decided I felt almost normal. I had been thinking about shopping for a week so I jumped in the shower, did my hair, put on some make up and went out. I hadn't been out of the house in a few days and it was so nice to be outside. First good sign: I didn't feel drunk while driving. I was out for about 2 hours and still felt pretty good when I got back. I was finally starting to tell a difference in my breathing, the swelling was starting to go down and I had no sinus congestion for the first time in forever. My voice still sounds a little weird, but not like a few days before when I sounded like a deaf person. No Helen Keller jokes Derek!
Later Paige and Damien were going out to eat at Cheesecake Factory and I went with them. As fate would have it, Scott was working so it was fun to see him. Turns out American Idol star David Archuletta was dining there as well. He took some weird walk about the restaurant...so everyone could see him I guess? I dared Scott to trip him when he walked by our table, but he wouldn't do it. Chicken. I ended up drinking 4 cups of coffee at dinner and that wasn't a good idea. I could not wind down when we got home. I watched tv until 2, tried to fall asleep for over an hour but I was wide awake. Got up and did some stuff online until 5 then tried to sleep from 5-7. Nothing but tossing and turning. So I got up, made some oatmeal and chatted online for awhile.
Today is Day 13. I definitely didn't feel as good today as I did on Monday, but I decided to brave the store once again. It was just ok. I was very irritable and as much as I love kids, I wanted to kill a few of them today. I went home to take a nap and I finally slept for awhile. I'm still not quite right today. I don't know if it's because I haven't really been talking to people very much for the past 2 weeks or the lack of sleep, but I think I offended like 9 people today with stupid comments. Making up for lost time, I suppose. Anyway, I feel bad about all that and I'm not in a very good mood tonight.
I'm looking forward to getting back into normal life. I haven't really talked on the phone much at all and it's weird. As much as I love my mom and Paige, I need to talk to some other people! I don't know what I would have done if hadn't been able to text or IM, but it's just not the same as real human interaction. I ended up staying at my mom's house until today. I really wasn't planning on staying that long, but I felt so crappy last week. Plus I couldn't drive anywhere and she has cable.
I'm back home tonight and my mail box had a few cards from friends and I had flowers sitting in front of my door. It was a nice homecoming! However, I left a couple of windows open the whole time and it's been cold the last couple of days so now my house is freezing. I go back to work on Thursday. I really did need the full 2 weeks off to recover, but I'm ready to get back into the swing of things.
Thank you so much to everyone for checking in on me and entertaining me in person, via text, e-mail or online. I don't know what I would have done without all of you. I really do have the best friends and family in the world!
