My name is Nicole Schave. I’m a 25 year old woman from Princeton, Minnesota. I am 5’8 and weigh about 145 pounds. I work two jobs and go to college, but I’m putting all of that on hold for a while to recuperate from surgery properly. I would say that I’m good health overall. I work out and I don’t drink alcohol, but I do smoke cigarettes and love eating fast food and other things that aren’t so good for me.
My Symptoms: I have had one large, inflamed tonsil for as long as I can remember. I have a very bad cough (might be from the smoking too) and have always had a hard time breathing at night. It has been getting progressively worse. I seem to have bronchitis and sinus infections more frequently than anybody I know. During the last few months, I have actually started experiencing panic attacks when I lay down to go to bed. It feels like I’m not getting enough air when I try to sleep. When I wake up, I’m groggy and never really feel properly rested. I started seeing an ENT (ear nose and throat doctor) when it became clear to me that I could not continue living the quality of life that I was living at.
The Diagnosis: My ENT that I have seen repeatedly over the last few months says that I have chronic sinusitis, a deviated septum, scar tissue in my nose and one large tonsil that seems to be obstructing my airway.
The Surgery: Septoplasty (for deviated septum), Endoscopic Sinus Surgery, Tonsillectomy, and Adenoidectomy (ALL IN ONE SURGICAL PROCEDURE!!!)
Thoughts Before The Surgery: I have had increased anxiety as I have been waiting to have this surgery for over a month now. As much as I want to just get it over with, it scares the sh*t out of me. Call me a wuss, but I can’t stand the sight of blood and the only time that I’ve ever had a surgical procedure is when my wisdom teeth were removed. I can handle pain fairly well, but I have this intense fear of not being able to breathe that has been getting worse as I anticipate surgery. What if I can’t get air? That’s my fear. I have read posts regarding the procedures I am about to undergo but none of them are for all four of the procedures I am having done and many of them are just random, incomplete paragraphs. My ENT is very reassuring but I have a hard time believing him for some reason. The plan is to have the surgery on the morning on January 4, 2007, spend the night in the hospital, and have lots of liquid Percocet send home with me. My best friend Amanda will be my personal on-call “nurse”, and I plan to have a notepad, pen, and bell close by my side for anything that I may need. I will keep everyone posted.
DAY ONE (January 4th, 2008)_:
I woke up and went directly to the hospital. My father brought me and we arrived around 9:00 a.m. They went to work right away asking me questions, and putting me in a hospital gown. Everything happened very quickly. The anesthesiologist came to interview me and shortly after they put the I.V. in my arm, I was out cold. I don’t even think that they had given me any anesthesia yet, just something for anxiety! I woke up shortly thereafter in the recovery room and my brain was not coherent enough to form
any thoughts. I really was not in any pain, just a burning sensation in my throat and dazed and confused and feeling rather alone. One attentive nurse kept checking my vitals and assured me that I would be out of the recovery room soon. I slipped in and out of consciousness for what seemed like the next hour or two. I finally was wheeled into a hospital room for the night. I requested the overnight stay at the hospital in advance and if you the least bit nervous about going home without a hospital stay, YOU SHOULD REQUEST IT TOO. Don’t let them bully you around and send you home early. It’s pretty serious surgery. I can’t imagine going that whole first night without hospital staff and intravenous drugs! When I arrived in my room, I felt surprisingly good. On a scale from 1 to 10 (ten being the worst), I was a 4.5. I couldn’t really talk, but I could “croak” enough where my family could understand me without writing things down. I chewed on some ice chips, which felt great, and actually ate a cup of Jell-O even though I didn’t feel hungry. Everyone went home and I stayed at the hospital. That’s when things got worse. The nurse had come around while my family was visiting to give me my pain meds. For some reason, the doctor had proscribed me Percocet tablets. The initial problem with this was that I couldn’t swallow the tablet. You can barely feel your own throat and my tongue was visibly black and blue. Everything was swollen. When I finally did get the pill down with lots of water, it didn’t seem to work. I waited for over an hour before the nurse finally believed that the Percocet did not work for me and gave me morphine through my IV because the pain had shot up to a 9! After the morphine, I passed out. I was tired and all drugged up…
DAY TWO (January 5th, 2008) :
It was not a pretty day today. My uvula feels like it’s swollen, my tonsils are white and sore, and my tongue is still very black and blue. Everything in my mouth hurts and I feel like someone punched me in my eyes (must be from the sinus surgery). To make matters worse, I have two very large splints in my nose from the septoplasty where the deviated septum was corrected. The pressure from those splints is growing increasingly worse and causing quite the headache! Here is the new dilemma I’ve discovered: The pain meds make me sick when I take them without food, but it is impossible to eat without taking the pain meds. It a vicious cycle. I’ve had two cups of Jell-O so far today and that is all I plan on eating. I’m not very hungry to begin with, my taste buds aren’t really there as they usually are, and the taste of the medications I am having to ingest are absolutely disgusting and linger in my mouth making me hesitant to eat anything even hours later. YOU MUST EAT! FIND A WAY! Those pain meds will make you vomit in a heartbeat if you take them without food. You do NOT want to vomit up blood or make your throat any worse! Today they switched the Percocet to liquid Vicotin (which is working much better). I don’t breathe very well at night still. I would say that my pain is around a 6 or a 7. (It always seems to get worse at night.) Finally was discharged from the hospital but nobody really understands what I’m going through. My dog doesn’t even seem to want to be near me right now and that’s bad!
DAY THREE (January 6, 2007):
Today has been much better. The key is to get a good handle on your pain at night, and not allow yourself to accidentally sleep through a dose of medicine. It’s absolute hell. Set your alarm or have someone wake you up every three or four hours for medications REGARDLESS of how you feel. At this point, I feel like everything has been manageable. It’s no picnic, but it’s nowhere near the fear I experienced trying to research this stuff online a couple of weeks ago. People made it sounds like I should have a priest with me to read me my last rights or something. Today was a 5 for pain, but I hear that in the next day or two, my scabs will likely start coming off and cause much more pain…The only thing that I’ve noticed so far is that the pain is never really unbearable, but it does get difficult to deal with it morning, noon, and night with no reprieve ever. It becomes both monotonous and tiresome. The tonsils were definitely the worst (most painful) of procedures out of the four. Most of the time, I don’t even realize that I had anything else done.
DAY FOUR (January 7th, 2008) :
I have basically just been sleeping all day today. I went back to the doctor and got my splints out! He reached in and grabbed those splints out and I could not believe how big they were. I honestly had no idea and now it all makes perfect sense why I was having such bad pressure! hey are almost three inches long and one inch wide! I definitely feel better without the splints in my nose, but the one thing that disappoints me is that I still can’t breathe through my nose and I am not allowed to blow it yet either. I am kind of trying to scratch or pick some of the tried up blood on the corners of my nose, but I quit since I was starting to become disgusted with it and thought that I might somehow get bacteria in there. I am starting to get really bored and anxious during the day and don’t quite know what to do with myself. My throat is till very sore and I get tired very easy. I would say that today my pain was a 4 or a 5 this morning, but tonight my pain has been moving between a 6 and a 7. Tonight I had some Lipton rice for dinner. It was really soft and tasted great! I think I might have it again tomorrow because it was such a nice change from Jell-O. TRY IT! YUMMY! I guess I should just go back to bed before I become any more miserable. See you tomorrow.
DAY FIVE (January 8th, 2008) :
I officially want to die. The pain is a 9.5. I STILL can’t breathe through my nose, my mouth, tongue and uvula are really swollen and it BURNS to even TRY to swallow. THIS IS HELL! I wish I’d left those damn things (my tonsils) in so bad right about now. I can’t stand to feel this way another day… I’m off to overdose on pain medication. I’ll (hopefully) be back (or not).
DAY SIX (January 9th, 2008) :
This morning started off rough. I would say an 8 or a 9 as far as pain goes. The back of my throat was very dry, and it felt like little daggers in my throat. I went back to bed after having a cup of lukewarm tea because I felt miserable and didn’t want to go through another day intense pain. I woke this afternoon, took some Darvocet and began feeling better! I took a shower, got dressed (for the first time since I had surgery), and even drove a few miles up town to visit with a friend. My pain level was around a 4 and it felt amazing! On the way home, I stopped at Taco John’s and ate a cheese quesadilla. It was awesome. It took me an hour to eat, but it was well worth every bite. It’s nighttime right now, and I still feel good. I am nervous because I have noticed that this surgery is very unpredictable and I don’t want to get my hopes up too high. I know that tomorrow is another day… I want to say that the scabs started sloughing off today though. It’s honestly hard to tell. I feel them back there and they are very painful. I noticed a chunk of white flesh come out of my mouth earlier when I coughed while eating. I am hopeful that the scabs are coming off! That would mean that there is now light at the end of the tunnel for me! The tonsils are really the only thing that hurts. My sinuses and nose are still plugged and I am unable to breathe through them, but I am thinking that might be normal and I will wait a few more days before I start freaking out. Hang in there everyone! Things are looking up for me!!!
My Symptoms: I have had one large, inflamed tonsil for as long as I can remember. I have a very bad cough (might be from the smoking too) and have always had a hard time breathing at night. It has been getting progressively worse. I seem to have bronchitis and sinus infections more frequently than anybody I know. During the last few months, I have actually started experiencing panic attacks when I lay down to go to bed. It feels like I’m not getting enough air when I try to sleep. When I wake up, I’m groggy and never really feel properly rested. I started seeing an ENT (ear nose and throat doctor) when it became clear to me that I could not continue living the quality of life that I was living at.
The Diagnosis: My ENT that I have seen repeatedly over the last few months says that I have chronic sinusitis, a deviated septum, scar tissue in my nose and one large tonsil that seems to be obstructing my airway.
The Surgery: Septoplasty (for deviated septum), Endoscopic Sinus Surgery, Tonsillectomy, and Adenoidectomy (ALL IN ONE SURGICAL PROCEDURE!!!)
Thoughts Before The Surgery: I have had increased anxiety as I have been waiting to have this surgery for over a month now. As much as I want to just get it over with, it scares the sh*t out of me. Call me a wuss, but I can’t stand the sight of blood and the only time that I’ve ever had a surgical procedure is when my wisdom teeth were removed. I can handle pain fairly well, but I have this intense fear of not being able to breathe that has been getting worse as I anticipate surgery. What if I can’t get air? That’s my fear. I have read posts regarding the procedures I am about to undergo but none of them are for all four of the procedures I am having done and many of them are just random, incomplete paragraphs. My ENT is very reassuring but I have a hard time believing him for some reason. The plan is to have the surgery on the morning on January 4, 2007, spend the night in the hospital, and have lots of liquid Percocet send home with me. My best friend Amanda will be my personal on-call “nurse”, and I plan to have a notepad, pen, and bell close by my side for anything that I may need. I will keep everyone posted.
DAY ONE (January 4th, 2008)_:
I woke up and went directly to the hospital. My father brought me and we arrived around 9:00 a.m. They went to work right away asking me questions, and putting me in a hospital gown. Everything happened very quickly. The anesthesiologist came to interview me and shortly after they put the I.V. in my arm, I was out cold. I don’t even think that they had given me any anesthesia yet, just something for anxiety! I woke up shortly thereafter in the recovery room and my brain was not coherent enough to form
any thoughts. I really was not in any pain, just a burning sensation in my throat and dazed and confused and feeling rather alone. One attentive nurse kept checking my vitals and assured me that I would be out of the recovery room soon. I slipped in and out of consciousness for what seemed like the next hour or two. I finally was wheeled into a hospital room for the night. I requested the overnight stay at the hospital in advance and if you the least bit nervous about going home without a hospital stay, YOU SHOULD REQUEST IT TOO. Don’t let them bully you around and send you home early. It’s pretty serious surgery. I can’t imagine going that whole first night without hospital staff and intravenous drugs! When I arrived in my room, I felt surprisingly good. On a scale from 1 to 10 (ten being the worst), I was a 4.5. I couldn’t really talk, but I could “croak” enough where my family could understand me without writing things down. I chewed on some ice chips, which felt great, and actually ate a cup of Jell-O even though I didn’t feel hungry. Everyone went home and I stayed at the hospital. That’s when things got worse. The nurse had come around while my family was visiting to give me my pain meds. For some reason, the doctor had proscribed me Percocet tablets. The initial problem with this was that I couldn’t swallow the tablet. You can barely feel your own throat and my tongue was visibly black and blue. Everything was swollen. When I finally did get the pill down with lots of water, it didn’t seem to work. I waited for over an hour before the nurse finally believed that the Percocet did not work for me and gave me morphine through my IV because the pain had shot up to a 9! After the morphine, I passed out. I was tired and all drugged up…
DAY TWO (January 5th, 2008) :
It was not a pretty day today. My uvula feels like it’s swollen, my tonsils are white and sore, and my tongue is still very black and blue. Everything in my mouth hurts and I feel like someone punched me in my eyes (must be from the sinus surgery). To make matters worse, I have two very large splints in my nose from the septoplasty where the deviated septum was corrected. The pressure from those splints is growing increasingly worse and causing quite the headache! Here is the new dilemma I’ve discovered: The pain meds make me sick when I take them without food, but it is impossible to eat without taking the pain meds. It a vicious cycle. I’ve had two cups of Jell-O so far today and that is all I plan on eating. I’m not very hungry to begin with, my taste buds aren’t really there as they usually are, and the taste of the medications I am having to ingest are absolutely disgusting and linger in my mouth making me hesitant to eat anything even hours later. YOU MUST EAT! FIND A WAY! Those pain meds will make you vomit in a heartbeat if you take them without food. You do NOT want to vomit up blood or make your throat any worse! Today they switched the Percocet to liquid Vicotin (which is working much better). I don’t breathe very well at night still. I would say that my pain is around a 6 or a 7. (It always seems to get worse at night.) Finally was discharged from the hospital but nobody really understands what I’m going through. My dog doesn’t even seem to want to be near me right now and that’s bad!
DAY THREE (January 6, 2007):
Today has been much better. The key is to get a good handle on your pain at night, and not allow yourself to accidentally sleep through a dose of medicine. It’s absolute hell. Set your alarm or have someone wake you up every three or four hours for medications REGARDLESS of how you feel. At this point, I feel like everything has been manageable. It’s no picnic, but it’s nowhere near the fear I experienced trying to research this stuff online a couple of weeks ago. People made it sounds like I should have a priest with me to read me my last rights or something. Today was a 5 for pain, but I hear that in the next day or two, my scabs will likely start coming off and cause much more pain…The only thing that I’ve noticed so far is that the pain is never really unbearable, but it does get difficult to deal with it morning, noon, and night with no reprieve ever. It becomes both monotonous and tiresome. The tonsils were definitely the worst (most painful) of procedures out of the four. Most of the time, I don’t even realize that I had anything else done.
DAY FOUR (January 7th, 2008) :
I have basically just been sleeping all day today. I went back to the doctor and got my splints out! He reached in and grabbed those splints out and I could not believe how big they were. I honestly had no idea and now it all makes perfect sense why I was having such bad pressure! hey are almost three inches long and one inch wide! I definitely feel better without the splints in my nose, but the one thing that disappoints me is that I still can’t breathe through my nose and I am not allowed to blow it yet either. I am kind of trying to scratch or pick some of the tried up blood on the corners of my nose, but I quit since I was starting to become disgusted with it and thought that I might somehow get bacteria in there. I am starting to get really bored and anxious during the day and don’t quite know what to do with myself. My throat is till very sore and I get tired very easy. I would say that today my pain was a 4 or a 5 this morning, but tonight my pain has been moving between a 6 and a 7. Tonight I had some Lipton rice for dinner. It was really soft and tasted great! I think I might have it again tomorrow because it was such a nice change from Jell-O. TRY IT! YUMMY! I guess I should just go back to bed before I become any more miserable. See you tomorrow.
DAY FIVE (January 8th, 2008) :
I officially want to die. The pain is a 9.5. I STILL can’t breathe through my nose, my mouth, tongue and uvula are really swollen and it BURNS to even TRY to swallow. THIS IS HELL! I wish I’d left those damn things (my tonsils) in so bad right about now. I can’t stand to feel this way another day… I’m off to overdose on pain medication. I’ll (hopefully) be back (or not).
DAY SIX (January 9th, 2008) :
This morning started off rough. I would say an 8 or a 9 as far as pain goes. The back of my throat was very dry, and it felt like little daggers in my throat. I went back to bed after having a cup of lukewarm tea because I felt miserable and didn’t want to go through another day intense pain. I woke this afternoon, took some Darvocet and began feeling better! I took a shower, got dressed (for the first time since I had surgery), and even drove a few miles up town to visit with a friend. My pain level was around a 4 and it felt amazing! On the way home, I stopped at Taco John’s and ate a cheese quesadilla. It was awesome. It took me an hour to eat, but it was well worth every bite. It’s nighttime right now, and I still feel good. I am nervous because I have noticed that this surgery is very unpredictable and I don’t want to get my hopes up too high. I know that tomorrow is another day… I want to say that the scabs started sloughing off today though. It’s honestly hard to tell. I feel them back there and they are very painful. I noticed a chunk of white flesh come out of my mouth earlier when I coughed while eating. I am hopeful that the scabs are coming off! That would mean that there is now light at the end of the tunnel for me! The tonsils are really the only thing that hurts. My sinuses and nose are still plugged and I am unable to breathe through them, but I am thinking that might be normal and I will wait a few more days before I start freaking out. Hang in there everyone! Things are looking up for me!!!
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Hi Nicole, I just sent my son Tony your story. He is having surgery in Denver on Tuesday the 10th of June. I hear it can be horendeous. I wanted him to be informed. Your story did that for me. I worry about him there, and I am here. -What does one EAT ??????????? I hope you continue to better health. Sincerely, Judy Gorski
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I'm glad my story may have helped someone else. I would like to add that I stopped blogging after day six because I could manage the pain pretty well. It took a full month before I was completely "normal" again, but I went back to ten days post surgery with no real problems (besides occasional fatigue). This surgery was worth it! I feel incredible now today, and rarely get sick anymore. It changed my life and I would do it all over again if I had to. Stay positive, and tell your son to eat Jello and soup broth and popsicles for about a week. After that, he can return to most normal foods if he eats slowly. Best wishes!
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i'm 20, in college, and having the EXACT same surgery in two weeks (over my Christmas break). I, after reading your story, have even more anxiety about the four procedures in one. I've seen many ENT's, allergists and asthma specialists, and the conclusion was surgery after I no longer respond to antibiodics or nasal sprays. I am absolutley petrified and am on the verge of calling my doctor and cancelling this surgery... are you sure it was worth it? the pain sounds miserable. This will be my fourth surgery this year- emergency appendectomy, colonoscopy, upper GI, and wisdom teeth. My BIGGEST fear is not be able to breathe....or something going wrong during my surgery. i am having outpatient surgery so i dont get any hospital attention.
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Yes it's worth it, i'm on the eighth day, and not using my pain medication, although right before writing this i sneezed, and it felt as if i was going to die. I'm still okay though, the worst worst worst part of the operation, is the taste of the scabs. You may want to ask to have them NOT cauterized as some problems come with this, like sometimes bleeding can occur. And you don't want that, i'm only 14 (: and it's probably the worst pain on the 2nd day, the sleeping was... dumb, i woke up every 2 hours with a dry mouth, and had to wake my mom up to give me medicine.
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Hey there, I am need to have my tonsils out ( I am 40 yrs old) and may need to have sinus surgery ( I see another doc about it on Tuesday to get a 2nd opinion on that tho) so the last doc I went to this week said I need to have my tonsils out with sinus surgery ( adnoids and he wants to clip my uvula too) and wants to do it all in one surgery and the doc I talked to the nurse for the doc I see Tues and she said that that doc would prob do them seperate if I need to have the sinus surgery at all so my question to you is do you recommend me gettin them done seperate or together.
Thanks so much,
Renee
Thanks so much,
Renee
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Hi Nicole,
I know you probably don't check in on this post anymore, but I just wanted to thank you for your writeup! I'm scheduled for a similar surgery (plus some more things) in a little over a week, and your description has really helped me to know what to expect. Hopefully things go well!
I'm having endoscopic sinus surgery (frontal, maxillary, ethmoid, and sphenoid), septoplasty, turbinate and concha bullosa resection, extensive nasal polyp excision, tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy. Wish me luck!
I know you probably don't check in on this post anymore, but I just wanted to thank you for your writeup! I'm scheduled for a similar surgery (plus some more things) in a little over a week, and your description has really helped me to know what to expect. Hopefully things go well!
I'm having endoscopic sinus surgery (frontal, maxillary, ethmoid, and sphenoid), septoplasty, turbinate and concha bullosa resection, extensive nasal polyp excision, tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy. Wish me luck!
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2skoops-how did all of that go? I'm 34 and been sick with tosilitis and chronic sinusitus for for 4 years now and have been told by my ENT to have both procedures done....I'm so scared though but I am on antibiotics every 3 months at least, which is not good for me, I know, but that's the ONLY time I feel halfway decent and I have fibromyalgia so when my tonsils and sinuses are inflammed the rest of my body becomes inflammed as well. I have 3 kids and they've just gotten used to me being sick all the time and an awesome husband who helps and understands tremendously BUT I hate it! I feel so depressed about being sick all of the time and like my husband and children have a defective mom and wife:( Any advice or thoughts about your surgery would help me.... thanks Amanda
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Thank you so much for writing this:) I'm 34 and have suffered from tonsilitis and strep throat and chronic sinusitis for 4-5 years now and have been on antibiotics at least every 3-4 months that long! Recently it's gotten worse; I was on them at the middle of May, first of July and first of Aug. and now I'm hurting and sick worse than all three of those times combined it feels,bc of my fibromyalgia my whole body hurts when sinuses or tonsils are inflammed. One of my ent dr's say I shld have the sinus surgery and the other one says its my tonsils, but I'm so sick of feeling horrible all the time I'd take them out today if I cld-but I currently have no insurance until November:( My husband switched jobs in May, but before that the reason I haven't had either procedure done was bc of pure fear! Everything I've read and heard other people say is horrible! But I'm am noticibly getting worse, I can feel it with every fiber of my being so I'd be willing to try anything now. My question to you is "was it worth it?"
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Hi Sophie,
Sorry for the delay in response, I saw your message but forgot about it!The surgery actually went really well. I was out of work for more than a week, but to be honest, I was never in very much pain. I took pain killers for the first couple days, but in hindsight, they weren't really necessary. They actually made me feel pretty out of it (and constipated), so I stopped taking them and realized that I was fine without them.
The only bad part were the follow-ups to remove the nose splints, and the 2 cleanings in the weeks after. The doctor told me to take some pills before coming in though, so although it was uncomfortable, it wasn't very painful.
Since the surgery, my nose has been very clear, I can smell a lot better, and my health has been a lot better. I rarely feel sick, and haven't had to be on antibiotics since the surgery (something I was doing quite frequently before the surgery, sue to sinus infections).
All in all, I'm very glad I had the procedures done, and I have no regrets (except not getting it done sooner!) . I was very worried leading up to the surgery, but everything worked out great.
Best of luck to you, and let us know how it turns out!
Devin
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I have a six year old that just had this done. We made the mistake of letting her sleep and not waking her for her pain meds and she has woken up cring twice. So make sure to set the alarm for pain meds. I was reluctant to give her much due to the problems I had with pain meds in the past, Do Not Do What I Did!!!
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Hi Nicole I just want to thank you for your awesome information you posted on your surgery last year. It has been so helpful I pray everyone can read your post before they have this done. May God bless u in so many ways for helping my son and so many other people. We would have never known what to do and not do if it weren’t for your post. Thanks so much
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I am 37 and had the same procedures exactly 5 days ago. It is the worst pain I have ever been in. I have been struggling with thoughts that I may have septicemia. I Have had chills, headaches, passing out from pain and waking up incoherent. I cant swallow at all, my throat is nearly closed up, I force food down every once in a while, but it causes me so much pain. If you do this, make sure they give you strong pain meds. the meds they gave me are not enough, I am in a very bad way. Everyday keeps getting worse.
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