On Thursday, July 24th, I went under the knife to have my tonsils taken out. About time, right? For those of you familiar with my history, you know that I have had sore throats and combat bouts of unexplained voicelessness on a fairly consistent basis. For those of you who are unfamiliar with my history, this has been going on for about four years. It began when I was in school at WWU, and every time I would cone home, I would ask my dad to look at my tonsils, and he would always say, "Yep, they look pretty big and red." Every time, big and red. One of my friends told me that they looked like raw shredded beef. It's true, they were wrecked!
I would go to the student health center, and they would give me allergy medication, saying that the inflammation was due to postnasal drip. Right. I would take the drugs, only to be no better off the net week. For years this went on. Postnasal drip, allergies, it will go away.
So now that I have a real job with health insurance, I decided to make an appointment with my new Doc. He gave me antibiotics to combat the redness when I told him that the usual diagnosis of postnasal drip was not the case. After three weeks, I made another appointment when I discovered (sorry for the grossness) a sore on my right tonsil. My Doc took one look and said, "You know, I think you're right. Your tonsils are not looking too good. How about getting them taken out?" WHOOPEE! Finally a Doctor who is willing to take the challenge and not just write me off!
I had a pre-op consultation with the ENT Doc, and he said that in healthy people my age, the tonsils are almost invisible. Mine looked more like I swallowed two red golf balls that were now lodged at the back of my throat. Quite visible. He scheduled me for the procedure, and I went on my way...
The procedure itself was quite fast, and being unconscious, I didn't really seem to care much! Clint was with me during the pre-op check-in and when I was in recovery. He drove me home and stayed with me the next day, too. After the surgery, I was surprisingly awake and feeling quite well. I didn't seem to have any nausea and not too much pain. In fact, I ate some avocado chunks at dinner that night. The following day, I was up and about and feeling quite OK.
By about Sunday night/Monday is when I finally started to feel a little down, less energy, feeling groggy, in pain, not sleeping too well. It was almost like I was healing in reverse; feeling better right after the surgery, and the longer I healed, the more pain and ickyness I felt. By Tuesday, I was a wreck. All of the post-op notes mention that it is normal for people to be feeling fine, and then around day 5 or so, take a nose dive. I dove! This is because the first round of scabs start to slough off, and that is when the real pain begins. I was sucking down hydrocodone as fast as I was allowed to! I would wake up every four hours, almost on the nose, with the pain. I would sleep for ten or twelve hours, but only ever in four hour bursts. I was cranky, not my normal sparkly self.
By Thursday, one week after the surgery, I started to feel like me again. I woke up and showered, and I actually did my hair, and I think I even put mascara on! It was a breakthrough! By this point, I was SO really to be feeling better that actually feeling a little bit like me made a big difference!
So here it is, almost two weeks after the surgery, and I am still fighting the good fight. I still have some pain, but am no longer taking the narcotic pain killer except at night because it helps me sleep. The scabs haven't all sloughed off yet, so every now and then when one decides to go, there is some very acute and isolated pain. I mostly sleep through the night, sometimes getting up to take more Tylenol, but it's not as bad as it was.
Still not quite on solid foods yet. I am really good at eating yogurt, ice cream, and milkshakes. The solids that I have successfully eaten include Mac 'n' Cheese, bean burritos, cornmeal mush, pancakes, a hot dog, cottage cheese (if that counts) and a croissant with tomato and avocado. It's a start, but I can't wait until I can eat a steak again!
No comments:
Post a Comment