Hellobee

In December (the day after Christmas) of 2017, I had my tonsils and adenoids taken out. I had been struggling with constant tonsillitis and tonsil stones for the past few years and when the ENT (ear, nose, and throat specialist) finally took a look at them, he referred to my tonsils as infection factories. I had my initial visit with him on December 21st and he asked me about insurance during that visit; as a result of me meeting deductibles for the year already, he recommended that I had them taken out as soon as possible, both to alleviate the infections and to avoid having to pay an enormous bill out of pocket in the new year. His next available appointment was December 26th. I didn’t even really have time to think, I just said yes. And so it began.

On the morning of the surgery, I was really freaking out. I had not had a real surgery since before the kids were born and even though the risks for this surgery are extremely low, I was still afraid that something would happen. We got to the surgery center at 11 am, with my surgery scheduled at noon. I had to pee in a cup to confirm that I was not pregnant, and then they had to prep me with an IV and some antibiotics. The poor nurse took three tries to get my IV in before they called in another nurse to finally get it done on the fourth try. They were extremely apologetic, but this is a frequent issue for me, so I was mostly un-phased.

They finally took me back for the surgery at around 12:20 pm and I was back in the recovery room before I knew it. According to Mr. Cereal, I came to a number of times to say how fast it went, but I remember none of this. What I do remember is that they forced me to drink some water before I could be discharged and that was uncomfortable, but not that bad. Once we got home I got into my comfiest pyjamas and went back to sleep. When I woke up, Mr. Cereal was there, telling me I needed to take my pain medication and my anti-nausea meds. That first swallow was extremely uncomfortable and I dreaded all other swallowing from that point. I was very careful to sip water all.the.time so that my throat didn’t get dried out, which seemed to keep the pain mostly at bay for the first two days.

On day three, I woke up with my throat kind of dry and it was pretty painful to swallow. By this time, I had still not really eaten because I was just not hungry and I was scared to eat anything, but Mr. Cereal went to Jamba Juice and got me a protein shake with no dairy in it, which was amazing. The doctor recommended avoiding dairy for the duration of the healing because it can cause more mucous, which can irritate the throat. That night was the start of the extreme pain. I was sure to stay on top of my meds, but even with them I was in a significant amount of pain. The third, fourth, and fifth days were a bit of a blur because I was on a lot of pain meds and I slept a lot. When I was awake, I was in terrible pain, so I tried as much as possible to not be awake if possible. On the fifth day I also developed a giant cankersore on my lower lip where they had clamped my mouth open during the surgery. That was also extremely painful and added to my misery. To top it all off, Mr. Cereal’s grandfather passed away that evening and I was so out of it with pain and medications that I don’t even remember him telling me about it.

Day six was where it all started to go bad. I woke up at 2 am and immediately knew I was going to vomit. I ran into the bathroom and proceeded to vomit for the next several hours. That was more painful than anything I had experienced thus far and it scared the crap out of me. By the evening, I was in constant pain and Mr. Cereal was pretty freaked out. I had expected the pain to get worse before it got better, but I was definitely not prepared for this level of pain.

Day seven was New Year’s Eve, which I spent in bed with a bag of frozen peas on my neck because now I was having severe pain in my ears and in my throat. At just after midnight I felt blood in my throat so I went to check it out in the mirror and discovered that I had a pretty large blood clot on the right side of my throat that was bleeding pretty badly. I called my doctor to find out what to do and he suggested that I gargle with ice water to dislodge the clot and stop the bleeding. This was awful. It hurt so badly that it caused me to vomit again, which did the trick and dislodged the clot. I had to continue to gargle ice water for an hour after that to stop the bleeding, trying not to vomit any more than I already had. The zofran that they had prescribed was having the opposite effect for me and just the taste of it in my mouth caused me to vomit, so by 7 am the next morning, having had about an hour of sleep and actually being frightened I was dying, I discovered another blood clot and because of how tired and how sick I felt, we decided to go to the emergency room.

The emergency room triaged me quickly and got me into a room where they took my blood, changed my anti nausea medicine, and tried to dislodge the clot. They were not successful in doing so, which meant more gargling and more vomit. After about three hours in the ER, the doctor decided that the clot was likely not going to come out and sent me home. He dosed me with some slightly stronger pain medicine and we went home where I was finally able to fall asleep. I pretty much slept all day and woke up once to sip some broth and take another round of medications. By the next morning, I felt way better and was able to eat a little. By the next day, I was out of bed and moving around. We actually left the house that day as a family, which was probably not the best idea because it made me really sick to my stomach, but I was glad to not be cooped up for a bit.

I tried to go back to work 10 days after the surgery, but I was still so tired that I only made it a half day and decided to take the rest of the day off. I returned to work the following Tuesday and was pretty much ok from that point forward. Some of the things I did not expect were that my voice changed (less deep and it sounds more nasally to me) and that I had to relearn how to swallow and blow my nose. Swallowing was bizarre because I was used to have two huge tonsils blocking my throat and once they were gone, I felt like I was going to choke all the time. Food moved too quickly into my throat and that was a little disconcerting for a while. I still have trouble blowing my nose sometimes. I was genuinely shocked by the level of pain that I experienced. I was expecting some pain, but there were multiple times I just cried because there was nothing else I could do. Poor Mr. Cereal was so sweet and caring and I know he was also not prepared for how much pain there would be.

For anyone considering this surgery as an adult, I would still recommend it. I only had one sore throat this year, compared to nearly weekly infections in the previous few years. I am glad to be rid of the stones as well; they were painful and disgusting. I also have seen a huge improvement in the number of canker sores I have, which seems to be related to the amount of bacteria that was trapped in my throat for so long. As a precaution, be sure to schedule enough days off for yourself to really recover. I thought I would be fine after 10 days, but I ended up needing a full two weeks to feel better. I also recommend having a large pliable ice pack on hand for your neck and ears. Plus, have someone that can take care of you because you really won’t be able to take care of yourself. I also stocked up on bone broth and smoothie ingredients that didn’t include dairy. I tried to eat jello a few times but the sugar in it stung too bad. I also made sure to have a humidifier in my room to keep the air moist because dry air is killer for your throat while recovering. And remember to drink water constantly. Both to stay hydrated and to keep your throat moist. It was awful, I can’t lie, but totally worth it in the end.