mscoconut0
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Joined: 14 Jun 2007
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 Posted: 06/14/07 - 17:31 Post subject: tonsillectomy okay despite bleeding |
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I thought I should put up my 'not deathly scary' tonsillectomy information for those who are scared. I was too. Surgery was 3 weeks ago.
I'm 30, I had one enlarged tonsil from many bouts of tonsillitis age 8-20. Once I went back to working indoors, the bouts started up again. The worst one in April w/fever kept me out of work for almost a week. So I saw an ENT, and scheduled surgery.
Outpatient surgery. My boyfriend dropped me off at 11am, and a friend picked me up at 4pm. This was my first surgery ever. Ask a lot of questions, it helped put my mind at ease. Good advice pre-op was to hydrate a lot the two days before, and use chapstick a lot so your lips are not dry. They did put vaseline on mine before surgery.
When I woke up, I was alert enough to recite the phone number for my pick-up ride to the doctor. I was also in the worst pain of the event, but I let the nurse know and they put some demerol in the IV and gave me some crushed ice, then an ice pack for my neck.
When I got home, I had prepared w/ Jello, styrofoam cups, straws, etc. My mouth was too sensitive to sugary things, so not too many popsicles, and I mixed gatorade w/ water to help keep electrolytes up. I thought I had bitten through my tongue because it was SO swollen, but the swelling decreased after a day or two, and I found out the 'cut' was from a clamp they use during surgery.
Keep ahead of the pain is true and it's not so bad. Be prepared to try and eat a little cream of wheat or soup, pudding, or something w/ meds. I did have to force it a few times in the middle of the night. Liquid amoxicillin was like a treat because it was cool and creamy when it slid down.
I did end up being one of the 2-3% of people that bleeds. JUST REMEMBER that they can stop it and they can fix it. My scabs healed too quickly and were coming off on day 6 post-op instead of day 10. Heres the thing: I tried to be tough and think my body would just 'heal it.' I bled a bit on day 5 and stopped it w/ some ice water swishing. It happened again on day 6, midday. I went to the doc's office and he did an in-office cautery. Not too painful. Unfortunately, my dry throat made me cough that night, and the cautery didn't stick. I ended up ice-water gargling until 6am when I called the doc. He reserved a spot for me in the ER and met me in between surgeries. I wasn't bleeding then because I had stopped it with 5 hours of ice water. It was a bit crude seeming: he used a tongue depressor and numbed me w/shots of lidocaine and then suctioned out what was there (two clots had formed from my icing) and cauterized. Everything was then numb and dry, but not bleeding, which was all I cared about.
This was the hardest part of my recovery, as I was strung out from not sleeping for two nights and had just been 'zapped' literally.
The thing that helped me best was having little ice packs on hand. They greatly soothed the front and back of my neck, and helped when I had some referred ear pain. I also started mild salt water gargling about day 8, and that helped a lot with morning dry mouth/throat.
At 3 weeks out, I have had a follow up appointment and am not keeping up enough with fluids. I am out of the good day/tired day/good day/tired day cycle. I've been run down about every 3-4 days now, which I take as a good sign that my body is telling me when to rest.
Doc said 2 months for the 'fossa' or tissue in the back of the throat to be done scarring and healing/re-forming.
The other good news was that after 10 days-14 days, I felt like my personality came back. I was able to decrease meds and just felt a less 'numb' disposition.
Everyone I've polled who had 'em out around 30 has said they were never sick in the same way again, so I hope to have the same outcome.
It's no bed of roses those first 10 days--painful even, but you do get over it and eventually block the bad stuff out. If a tonsillectomy will help you medically, do not hesitate to highly consider it. |
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