And I still have no major complaints.
Seriously, this is SO MUCH EASIER than I was anticipating! I was dreading this surgery because of the many horror stories I read online. Even my ENT told me that this particular sugery makes grown men cry.
So far, there have been zero tears shed by me.
Today, I had a waffle for breakfast *yum!*. I had the usual macaroni and cheese for lunch, and a bagel with cream cheese for dinner.
The only thing I did notice today was when I left the house, I did feel Extremely nauseous. I don't know if that's from the percocet or what, but we did try to run some errands today that left me feeling green in the face. I was happy to get home, that's for sure. I HATE throwing up, and thankfully I didn't- but the feeling of needing to can be just as bad for me.
So I'm thinking that the car was making me feel rather sick with all of the narcotics I've been stuffing in my face (I do 1.5tsp every 4-5 hours at this point and am well managed with that).
So really... nothing to report!
Saturday, October 13, 2012
Friday, October 12, 2012
Post-Op Day Two!
I seriously need to find some wood to knock on.... because I feel amazing.
This morning I got up and had cream of wheat for breakfast. It tasted wonderful! I had to wait quite awhile for it to cool off to tolerate it, but other than that it went down perfectly.
I tried to be bold and go 5 hours in between medication reloads, as opposed to my usual 4- which actually didn't turn out to be TOO horrible. But ultimately I did decide to keep with going every 4 hours today just to stay ahead of the pain.
I truly think that staying on time with my medication, round the clock, along with drinking superfluous amounts of water has been my saving grace.
I decided to venture out today. I needed to stop at the vets office to pick up Maggie's medication, and then decided to go to Orange Leaf to get some delicious frozen yogurt. I will be the first to admit- that probably wasn't the best idea. It's easy to be doped up on narcotics when you're just sitting around your own home, but being out in public while doped up.... didn't work out as well. I did get extremely light headed while we were out, and started to get pretty shakey. So I can see why it's best to just stay home and take it easy.
For lunch (other than my orange leaf yogurt), I decided to go with macaroni and cheese. I know, it's been my "go to" meal the past several days- but it just goes down so well. The warmth is perfect and I can actually taste the food which is even better.
This afternoon I took a decent nap while my mom played with the kids. I went over to my neighbors house for a little while and helped her get ready for the halloween party she was throwing tonight. Sadly, my mom wouldn't let me go over to actually enjoy the party. Yup, 26 years old and my mommy still knows how to boss me around ;)
But anywho- dinner was waffles with syrup. DELISH! Man I make some delicious waffles. I make cinnamon-vanilla waffle batter.... downright fabulous.
So I definitely am not wanting to feel any excrutiating pain... but I do keep wondering when it's going to pop up. Everything I've read by now says I'd be in unbelievable amounts of pain, but I'm just fine. Fingers crossed that it stays this way!
This morning I got up and had cream of wheat for breakfast. It tasted wonderful! I had to wait quite awhile for it to cool off to tolerate it, but other than that it went down perfectly.
I tried to be bold and go 5 hours in between medication reloads, as opposed to my usual 4- which actually didn't turn out to be TOO horrible. But ultimately I did decide to keep with going every 4 hours today just to stay ahead of the pain.
I truly think that staying on time with my medication, round the clock, along with drinking superfluous amounts of water has been my saving grace.
I decided to venture out today. I needed to stop at the vets office to pick up Maggie's medication, and then decided to go to Orange Leaf to get some delicious frozen yogurt. I will be the first to admit- that probably wasn't the best idea. It's easy to be doped up on narcotics when you're just sitting around your own home, but being out in public while doped up.... didn't work out as well. I did get extremely light headed while we were out, and started to get pretty shakey. So I can see why it's best to just stay home and take it easy.
For lunch (other than my orange leaf yogurt), I decided to go with macaroni and cheese. I know, it's been my "go to" meal the past several days- but it just goes down so well. The warmth is perfect and I can actually taste the food which is even better.
This afternoon I took a decent nap while my mom played with the kids. I went over to my neighbors house for a little while and helped her get ready for the halloween party she was throwing tonight. Sadly, my mom wouldn't let me go over to actually enjoy the party. Yup, 26 years old and my mommy still knows how to boss me around ;)
But anywho- dinner was waffles with syrup. DELISH! Man I make some delicious waffles. I make cinnamon-vanilla waffle batter.... downright fabulous.
So I definitely am not wanting to feel any excrutiating pain... but I do keep wondering when it's going to pop up. Everything I've read by now says I'd be in unbelievable amounts of pain, but I'm just fine. Fingers crossed that it stays this way!
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Post-Op Day One
After my couple hours of pain from sleeping wrong last night, I've had no problems today.
I woke up this morning, took my percocet on time, and immediately went on to drinking water again. I had breakfast this morning (pasta again, with margarine and cheese haha) and had macaroni and cheese for lunch. For dinner, I had orange chicken with rice. Throughout the day I had several popsicles and continued to drink my ice cold water. And per usual, was very diligent about taking my percocet every 4 hours.
What did happen today, I noticed, was that around 3 hours after my last dose... I did start to get very sore with swallowing. So I decided to experiment and started taking 1.5 teaspoons of percocet as opposed to 1 tsp. That definitely did it. I can now easily go the 4 hours without having any discomfort whatsoever.
I managed to sleep a few hours here and there throughout the day (thanks to my mom being here to help with the kids!) and for the most part, took it easy.
My uvula and tongue are still swollen, but not in pain. The place where my tonsils used to be are covered in a white film. It's pretty gross to look at, I won't lie.
While I can easily talk without being hoarse at all, I do think I sound somewhat funny to myself. Almost like how a deaf person would sound. I think, due to my tongue being swollen, it's messing with my ability to talk fast. I do have to work to enunciate.
But other than that, I've been having a very decent day after making that slight medication tweak. We will see how post-op day 2 treats me! :)
I woke up this morning, took my percocet on time, and immediately went on to drinking water again. I had breakfast this morning (pasta again, with margarine and cheese haha) and had macaroni and cheese for lunch. For dinner, I had orange chicken with rice. Throughout the day I had several popsicles and continued to drink my ice cold water. And per usual, was very diligent about taking my percocet every 4 hours.
What did happen today, I noticed, was that around 3 hours after my last dose... I did start to get very sore with swallowing. So I decided to experiment and started taking 1.5 teaspoons of percocet as opposed to 1 tsp. That definitely did it. I can now easily go the 4 hours without having any discomfort whatsoever.
I managed to sleep a few hours here and there throughout the day (thanks to my mom being here to help with the kids!) and for the most part, took it easy.
My uvula and tongue are still swollen, but not in pain. The place where my tonsils used to be are covered in a white film. It's pretty gross to look at, I won't lie.
While I can easily talk without being hoarse at all, I do think I sound somewhat funny to myself. Almost like how a deaf person would sound. I think, due to my tongue being swollen, it's messing with my ability to talk fast. I do have to work to enunciate.
But other than that, I've been having a very decent day after making that slight medication tweak. We will see how post-op day 2 treats me! :)
Day of Surgery!
So my surgery was set for 10/10/12. Two days prior, I had to do some pre-surgery bloodwork (aka... a pregnancy test).
My stepmom came down the day before my surgery to help me out. She lives in Michigan and I live in Kentucky. We have no family close by, and with having an almost 1 year old and an almost 3 year old.... we need the extra hands. Knowing that the recovery was going to be rather hellacious (Dr. Kempiners confirmed this himself), I knew that I would need all of the help I could get!
10/10/12 rolled around. Comfy clothes and my mom accompanied me to the surgery center that morning. I was thrilled to find out that the surgery would be in a surgery center, as opposed to the hospital. I just wasn't fond of the idea of having to navigate through a huge hospital when being all drugged up and in copious amounts of pain.
The process was extremely smooth. I got there and immediately checked it. They informed me that I was their oldest patient of the day (at the ripe old age of 26). The nurse brought me back and did a quick history and verified all of my information.
I got undressed and was put up in a comfy recliner with a heated blanket while waiting.
Dr. Kempiners came out and spoke to my mom and I before bringing me back. He immediately made me feel at ease and ready to go (despite reading entirely too many horror stories the night before).
I said a quick goodbye to my mom and they brought me back to the OR. I got hooked up to my IV and was put under with a gas mask. It went very quickly- the only thing that irritated me was that they lied to me about "it's just oxygen you'll be breathing in"..... pssh. Nope. I work in the medical field, I know that I'm breathing in more than just oxygen. But whatever. I was out anyway haha :)
I woke up in the recovery room. I have no clue how I got there, but I was back to being on a comfy recliner and a warm blanket. My mom was there. They told me that the surgery went well- obviously my tonsils were removed, they removed some adenoid tissue, and removed and reinserted a new tube in my ear that was plugged. The surgery itself was about 45 minutes, and then I slept a good 45 minutes in recovery before they woke me up.
I woke up extremely happy. I was in zero pain. I remember I was introducing myself to all of the recovery room nurses. They brought me over a popsicle and some sprite to drink and I easily took that. The nurses informed me that I was by far the happiest patient they'd ever had, which made me feel good. They said usually people were crying shortly after waking up.
They made me sit there for another hour or so before letting me go home. I easily walked out to the car. We had to stop by the pharmacy to get my liquid percocet and antibiotic. I went in and had no issue sitting there waiting for the 20 minutes or so while they filled it.
We headed back home after that. I got to the surgery center at 9:30, and we got home a little after 1 that afternoon. So all-in-all, it wasn't that long.
I was up the rest of the day. My mom and husband kept insisting that I lay down, and I attempted to follow that rule, but I am just too much of a busy body. I was diligent about taking my 1 tsp of percocet every 4 hours, which I know helped. I immediately started eating popsicles and drinking lots of ice cold water through a straw when I got home.
That evening rolled around and I was rather hungry at this point. I was able to eat pasta noodles with some margarine and grated cheese without a problem.
I did start experiencing some slight discomfort upon swallowing, but it just felt like a sore throat. Nothing I hadn't already experienced before. My worst pain was actually in my ear- more specifically, the ear that they replaced the tube. Just felt a lot of pressure which was annoying but went away.
My first night went swimmingly. I slept propped up in bed, and made sure that I got up and took my narcotic at the 4 hour mark. The only issue I had was when I apparently, in my sleep, moved off from being propped up and was flat. I did wake up with the worst of my pain when that happened- but after propping back up I was back to fine fairly quickly.
So far... so good!
My stepmom came down the day before my surgery to help me out. She lives in Michigan and I live in Kentucky. We have no family close by, and with having an almost 1 year old and an almost 3 year old.... we need the extra hands. Knowing that the recovery was going to be rather hellacious (Dr. Kempiners confirmed this himself), I knew that I would need all of the help I could get!
10/10/12 rolled around. Comfy clothes and my mom accompanied me to the surgery center that morning. I was thrilled to find out that the surgery would be in a surgery center, as opposed to the hospital. I just wasn't fond of the idea of having to navigate through a huge hospital when being all drugged up and in copious amounts of pain.
The process was extremely smooth. I got there and immediately checked it. They informed me that I was their oldest patient of the day (at the ripe old age of 26). The nurse brought me back and did a quick history and verified all of my information.
I got undressed and was put up in a comfy recliner with a heated blanket while waiting.
Dr. Kempiners came out and spoke to my mom and I before bringing me back. He immediately made me feel at ease and ready to go (despite reading entirely too many horror stories the night before).
I said a quick goodbye to my mom and they brought me back to the OR. I got hooked up to my IV and was put under with a gas mask. It went very quickly- the only thing that irritated me was that they lied to me about "it's just oxygen you'll be breathing in"..... pssh. Nope. I work in the medical field, I know that I'm breathing in more than just oxygen. But whatever. I was out anyway haha :)
I woke up in the recovery room. I have no clue how I got there, but I was back to being on a comfy recliner and a warm blanket. My mom was there. They told me that the surgery went well- obviously my tonsils were removed, they removed some adenoid tissue, and removed and reinserted a new tube in my ear that was plugged. The surgery itself was about 45 minutes, and then I slept a good 45 minutes in recovery before they woke me up.
I woke up extremely happy. I was in zero pain. I remember I was introducing myself to all of the recovery room nurses. They brought me over a popsicle and some sprite to drink and I easily took that. The nurses informed me that I was by far the happiest patient they'd ever had, which made me feel good. They said usually people were crying shortly after waking up.
They made me sit there for another hour or so before letting me go home. I easily walked out to the car. We had to stop by the pharmacy to get my liquid percocet and antibiotic. I went in and had no issue sitting there waiting for the 20 minutes or so while they filled it.
We headed back home after that. I got to the surgery center at 9:30, and we got home a little after 1 that afternoon. So all-in-all, it wasn't that long.
I was up the rest of the day. My mom and husband kept insisting that I lay down, and I attempted to follow that rule, but I am just too much of a busy body. I was diligent about taking my 1 tsp of percocet every 4 hours, which I know helped. I immediately started eating popsicles and drinking lots of ice cold water through a straw when I got home.
That evening rolled around and I was rather hungry at this point. I was able to eat pasta noodles with some margarine and grated cheese without a problem.
I did start experiencing some slight discomfort upon swallowing, but it just felt like a sore throat. Nothing I hadn't already experienced before. My worst pain was actually in my ear- more specifically, the ear that they replaced the tube. Just felt a lot of pressure which was annoying but went away.
My first night went swimmingly. I slept propped up in bed, and made sure that I got up and took my narcotic at the 4 hour mark. The only issue I had was when I apparently, in my sleep, moved off from being propped up and was flat. I did wake up with the worst of my pain when that happened- but after propping back up I was back to fine fairly quickly.
So far... so good!
Why oh WHY would you want a tonsillectomy?
My entire life, I've suffered from horrible throat pains. Tonsil stones. Frequent bouts of tonsillitis.
As I've gotten older, it's actually gotten worse. Enough to finally make an appointment with my ENT to discuss the possibility of getting my tonsils removed.
After making this appointment, I decided to go to the world wide web and mistakingly read through blog after blog of people's personal recovery stories.
Ignorantly, I thought that the recovery for an adult was the same as for a child- a few popsicles, sleep for a few hours.... and then back to good.
Nope!
A tonsillectomy in an adult is signficantly harder to get through than as a child. The risks are much higher and the recovery is extremely painful.
I also read that most ENT physicians won't just willingly take out an adults tonsils because of the risks associated with it. You actually have to have a decent reason. So I went in to my appointment with many questions. I very much trust my ENT, Dr. James Kempiners, as he's been around for previous ear problems I've gone through.
Unfortunately there was a problem that arose the day of my consultation. An elderly person actually drove their car into the doctors building where my appointment was that day- so I had to reschedule with another physician within the group. I was slightly leary about that because like I said- all of my trust is with Dr. Kempiners, but I begrudingly went in with the other person.
He took one look in my mouth and immediately said "so... when would you like to get these out?" I was prepared to have to argue my case to get my wishes of having them removed. Nope!
The only thing that I had to wait for was to finish breastfeeding, as you are put under general anesthesia and have a 2 week recovery with decent narcotics. So my consult was quite awhile ago, but they said that the "go ahead" to get the tonsillectomy would be fine for whenever I was ready.
After finishing up with breastfeeding, I immediately called the office and was elated to find out that even though I didn't have my initial consult with Dr. Kempiners, I was still able to schedule my surgery with him. He brought me in for a pre-surgery consult and confirmed what the other physician had said: these tonsils had to go!
As I've gotten older, it's actually gotten worse. Enough to finally make an appointment with my ENT to discuss the possibility of getting my tonsils removed.
After making this appointment, I decided to go to the world wide web and mistakingly read through blog after blog of people's personal recovery stories.
Ignorantly, I thought that the recovery for an adult was the same as for a child- a few popsicles, sleep for a few hours.... and then back to good.
Nope!
A tonsillectomy in an adult is signficantly harder to get through than as a child. The risks are much higher and the recovery is extremely painful.
I also read that most ENT physicians won't just willingly take out an adults tonsils because of the risks associated with it. You actually have to have a decent reason. So I went in to my appointment with many questions. I very much trust my ENT, Dr. James Kempiners, as he's been around for previous ear problems I've gone through.
Unfortunately there was a problem that arose the day of my consultation. An elderly person actually drove their car into the doctors building where my appointment was that day- so I had to reschedule with another physician within the group. I was slightly leary about that because like I said- all of my trust is with Dr. Kempiners, but I begrudingly went in with the other person.
He took one look in my mouth and immediately said "so... when would you like to get these out?" I was prepared to have to argue my case to get my wishes of having them removed. Nope!
The only thing that I had to wait for was to finish breastfeeding, as you are put under general anesthesia and have a 2 week recovery with decent narcotics. So my consult was quite awhile ago, but they said that the "go ahead" to get the tonsillectomy would be fine for whenever I was ready.
After finishing up with breastfeeding, I immediately called the office and was elated to find out that even though I didn't have my initial consult with Dr. Kempiners, I was still able to schedule my surgery with him. He brought me in for a pre-surgery consult and confirmed what the other physician had said: these tonsils had to go!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)