I am a 17 year old female who is on day 5. Swallowing anything hurts like a b***h. I cannot help but want to cry. My toungue is still severally swollen do the force they used to keep my tongue down. I have dropped nearly 14 pounds. I’m starving haven’t eaten a solid food since day 1. I told my mom I’d rather have strep throat then to had gotten my tonsils taking out. I had no choice but to get my tonsils removed mg right tonsil was the size of a bouncy ball and rubbed a raw place on my uvilia I had strep throat 7 times I’m the year of 2017. It’ll get better I hope manage with the pain everyone.
I am 36 years old. I had my tonsils out on Dec 13th. On Dec 21st I woke up choking on a large scab. The scabs on one side fell off all at the same time. I spit out the scab and bleeding started. I was able to stop it with cold water but only for a little bit. Then, it started again and got worse. By the time I got to the E.R. I had filled a 32oz cup with blood. They stopped the blood in the E.R. with Afrin, but that only lasted about 15 minutes and the bleeding started again. I was at a small town hospital and they did not have the capability to cauterize the bleeding. I would get huge blood clots that would get so big they would run into my uvula and gag me causing me to heave and then spit out a blood clot about the size of two golf balls. After a few hours of trying to stop the bleeding I was transported by ambulance to a larger hospital. By that time I had swallowed so much blood that I kept throwing up and had the worst nausea. I was put under and cauterized to stop the bleeding. After surgery I was given a blood transfusion because I had lost too much blood. It is now Dec 31st. I quit taking the pain medication yesterday and I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. 3 weeks of hell and almost dying of blood loss. The pain after the second cauterization was way worse than the first time. The swollen uvula and pain was such that I could not swallow. If I tried to swallow the water would come out my nose. If I plugged my nose to swallow the water would go into my ears. I had to put ear plugs in my ears and plug my nose in order to swallow anything. So I set an alarm for every 30 minutes, day and night and I would take one swallow of water with ear plugs and plugged nose. That way I was able to keep from getting dehydrated. For 4 days after the second cauterization I did not have any food except a cup of jello with each pain medication. So every 4 hours. This is definitely a miserable experience, but, it’s looking almost over now and at least I will never have to do it again.
Day of the operation I was given morphine and so I could talk just fine and wasn’t really in any pain however I knew this wasn’t to last.
I found that I couldn’t sleep at all unless I was sitting upright (I still can’t!) because my uvula is the size of a fish finger and just completely blocks my windpipe.
Days 3-5 were bearable but I was completely unable to talk. I was on Solpadeine Plus (contains Paracetamol, Codeine and Caffeine) and Ibuprofen. I bought both of those from the chemist. During this time I was eating custard, ice cream and ice lollies. During this time I had an absolutely rancid taste/smell in my mouth that actually made me throw up a few times and so I dealt with this by keeping a pack of super strong mints close at hand and eating those. The swallowing of the mints was a little painful but it was the lesser of two evils as that smell was absolutely vile. On day five I started to lose some scabs off my throat, I kept coughing little chunks up which was proper disgusting.
Day 6 was absolute AGONY! I couldn’t swallow my own spit and I couldn’t drink so therefore couldn’t take barely any pain medication. The ear pain was absolutely unbearable. I managed to have some solpadeine as it’s soluble and not tablets. It literally did nothing I was in so much pain. So I called 111 (UK medical non emergency) and they asked a few questions and they said it sounds infected so they sent me to the hospital where the doctor confirmed I had an infection and he prescribed me antibiotics and tramadol for the pain.
Day 7 I was still in a lot of pain but was coping better as I had the tramadol which knocked out the pain but made me very drowsy but thats fine as I needed to get some sleep anyway.
Day 8 I was feeling so much better! However I think I over did it and spend the whole day pottering around the house and talking and now my throat is quite sore so I think tomorrow I’m going to take it easy.
The main thing that’s bothering me at the moment is firstly dangly bits of scab that won’t come off tickling the back of my throat. Then secondly my tongue is still really sore and a bit achey and swollen. I can’t move it a whole lot and my teeth are leaving sore little indentations on the sides of it where it’s swollen still. Does anybody know when the tongue pain starts to improve ?