Trial & Error: Tonsillectomy

As many of you know last Friday, August 29, 2008 was a day to be marked in the calendars. I, Glynnis Holt, your ever giving and caring Trial and Error aficionado had my tonsils removed. All for your sake- so you, kind reader, could know what this seemingly deemed "easy" surgery is really like. I went behind the scenes and under the knife for you.


So, how does the possibility of this surgery even occur? If one has a constant sore throat- and an apparent inability to scour the infection from the body, combined with swollen lymph glands and swollen tonsils this surgery will be an option. There are other types of tonsil infections that happen, I've been told that many get their tonsils removed after one too many strep infections. The main point is- tonsillectomies are a constant and current surgery. They are performed often- considered a common surgery. As my doctor said though, tonsillectomies are "easy for the surgeon, hard for the patient." Now, this goes against the general perception of the public that you get your tonsils out and it's all the ice cream you can eat for a few days and then you feel hunky dory and life returns back to its normal hectic pace. No, in my preparation for surgery I learned that there can be many painful side-affects, including but not limited to bleeding, sore throat (duh), voice change, ear ache, and weight loss.

I thought, this doesn't sound too too shabby. Weight loss I can cope with. Limited intake of foods and a soft diet, no big deal. Lots of liquids, well- I thought, I like drinking water all the time anyway. Ear aches, oh well...I mean, that makes sense. The bleeding idea frightened me especially paired with the words "scabs"...ew. Scabs should never be INSIDE your body, at least that's my viewpoint. I didn't think the recovery would be too bad though, honestly. Yet, for me, it has been a nightmare. Let me share my events with you, reader.

I went in on Friday August 29 at 6:30 am for my surgery. It was to be performed at 7:30 am. They prepped me with papers and put in an IV...I won't go into details, only that the phrase "she's a bleeder" was used. Actually, this phrase has been repeated many a time during the process. I almost passed out. I don't enjoy...anything needle-y. Anyway, that was done and they took me into the operating room- I was wearing a delightful hospital gown- and I assume they put something directly into the IV because one minute I was lying on the bed in the operating room and the next they were telling me it was over and waking me up. This is when I tried to talk and noticed that- oh, ouch...that's uncomfortable. This is also when I started feeling queasy and the first signs of the nausea that would become my common company started rearing their head. After a bit, I was awake enough to know I wanted to go home-so, we went to the car and Mom drove home. I got really sick feeling in the car on the way home...the motion did not agree with me. We made it home and I took my first dose of liquid pain medicine and antibiotics. I also attempted to eat something- I don't remember- because it was forced on me. Gross.

That day is a haze of pain medicine, nausea medicine and movies. I didn't feel too bad, and I didn't have any events happen. I actually thought- if this is how this is going to feel the whole time, it won't be that bad.

Sadly, that first day I still had anesthesia in my system which was definitely limiting the pain. On Saturday, around 3 or so I go really nauseous. We thought it was because of the foods I had tried to eat- yogurt, yoohoo, water...sugary stuff, so we assumed that was it. But I started throwing up and couldn't stop- won't go into details there- we ended up in the ER and I felt the worst I've ever felt in my whole life. They couldn't get the nausea to stop, they couldn't get me to stop dry heaving. I was throwing up stomach bile and the sensation had me crying but I couldn't even talk or think straight- all I knew was I felt absolutely terrible. They set up an IV and did two bags of fluid because I was so dehydrated. They also tried several different anti-nausea medicines including one which is normally used on Chemo patients and they didn't work. At I started having a reaction to one of them that made me get flush all over...truly terrible. Finally, they found a medicine that worked- and calmed me down- apparently, it normally puts you to sleep, but it didn't do that. I was just relieved to not feel so sick. They sent me home, which both my doctor and my mother have expressed concerns about- both believe I should've been kept overnight and watched. Oh well. That's in the past.

The rest of the days past in a constant source of nausea/dry heaving at times. I could barely eat- can barely eat still, and we're 11 days after now-but I could drink water. And every now and then I would eat applesauce or something like that. On day 7, I did have the terrible bleeding occur. Apparently one of the scabs came off early- that was extremely gross and a totally unenjoyable sensation, but we got it stopped with ice cold water and ice packs applied directly to the throat. Luckily, I didn't end up in the hospital again. I'm thankful about that.

I'm on day 11 of recovery now and I feel much better- the throat feels awkward. I can't eat really. Food doesn't taste right, mostly. Things that I normally like taste bland and gross. I can only eat a few bites of most things and I've found that food seems to get caught in the back of my throat- or at least, there's the sensation that it's there- and that' s not pleasant. So I'm sticking to mainly soft foods still. But, I'm on the mend. I'm starting to get some of my energy back. The nausea is mostly gone, so that's been great. And I'm not popping tylenol every three hours. All in all, things are looking up.
So, my rating on tonsillectomy- if it's ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY get it. Otherwise, NO NO NOOOOOO.

I give tonsillectomies a 3/10 for experiences. The 3 is only because I assume when all this is done I'll feel much better- but all the pain and stuff was not worth making it more.