My husband had his tonsils yanked yesterday morning. He is 31 years old and in good health...aside from chronic strep throat.
Surgery and recovery went well. Very smooth. He received good pain control in the hospital and was Rxed plenty of meds for the house. Got home and watched some TV...thought we got off easy!! That he was going to be one of those who breezes through....
Fast forward!! Around midnight, he started feeling like "air wasn't getting in"and he couldn't get anything down!! His water was flying out his nose!! ..he was coughing and "hocking" up lots of mucus. We just figured it was a side effect of surgery-since we were told that tightness of the throat, gagging, etc was to be expected. We had a miserable night and morning. Everytime he would fall asleep, he would awaken choking. As soon as he changed positions, it would feel better so we, once again, tapped it as normal. Around 6 am I finally begged him to let me take him back to the ER...of course, he's a man, so he refused!!! So, around noon, I decided to take matters into my own hands and called our wonderful doc. He told us to meet him at the ER. Come to find out, his uvula was quite inlarged, as was the entrance to his lungs and esophogas....so the uvula literally was "flopping" and cutting off his airway. To make a long story short, they gave him a shot of Celestone and it helped tremendously. We are back home now and he is resting.
I don't tell you this to scare you...I have read several of the posts on here and they are terrifying! It is not a very common complication,but "it happens" as the doc said. So, if the person you are caring for feels air isn't moving and wakes up choking, it could be a bit more than the normal swelling, irritation, and mucus- clearing to be expected.
Surgery and recovery went well. Very smooth. He received good pain control in the hospital and was Rxed plenty of meds for the house. Got home and watched some TV...thought we got off easy!! That he was going to be one of those who breezes through....
Fast forward!! Around midnight, he started feeling like "air wasn't getting in"and he couldn't get anything down!! His water was flying out his nose!! ..he was coughing and "hocking" up lots of mucus. We just figured it was a side effect of surgery-since we were told that tightness of the throat, gagging, etc was to be expected. We had a miserable night and morning. Everytime he would fall asleep, he would awaken choking. As soon as he changed positions, it would feel better so we, once again, tapped it as normal. Around 6 am I finally begged him to let me take him back to the ER...of course, he's a man, so he refused!!! So, around noon, I decided to take matters into my own hands and called our wonderful doc. He told us to meet him at the ER. Come to find out, his uvula was quite inlarged, as was the entrance to his lungs and esophogas....so the uvula literally was "flopping" and cutting off his airway. To make a long story short, they gave him a shot of Celestone and it helped tremendously. We are back home now and he is resting.
I don't tell you this to scare you...I have read several of the posts on here and they are terrifying! It is not a very common complication,but "it happens" as the doc said. So, if the person you are caring for feels air isn't moving and wakes up choking, it could be a bit more than the normal swelling, irritation, and mucus- clearing to be expected.
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