salve

Post-Op Day One

Let's see, where to start? I guess the best thing I can say about this experience so far is that it hasn't yet been as bad as I feared - in other words, it hasn't lived up to all of my worrying. Don't get me wrong - it really sucks, but it's manageable from one moment to the next.

Last night I started to get a true taste of the pain everyone talks about. I've been taking my pain meds religiously and they work for about the first two hours and then I spend the second two hours frantically counting down to the next dose. Things came to a head at 2am - I woke up with my throat hugely swollen and the codeine syrup just wasn't cutting it anymore. I lay there silently whimpering and determined to call my doctor in the morning and insist on some Demerol. Then I remembered his suggestion that I could add some Advil in to the mix (the only concern with NSAIDs is bleeding, but he didn't seem too worried), so I chugged some of Norah's Children's Motrin and it helped with the swelling enough to let me sleep. I'm going to continue to alternate the two meds today to try to keep the swelling down, and I'm still guzzling ice chips. My tongue is swollen and I'm experiencing the referred ear pain - two things my Google reading warned me about. I have to say, despite the intense worrying that the Google reading engendered, I'm glad I did it, as I feel pretty well-prepared for how to tackle this recovery, at least so far...

I haven't had anything to eat or drink since Wednesday night other than ice, water and popsicles, so I'm starting to get uncomfortably hungry. The good thing about the pain is that when it's really bad, it takes your mind off being hungry and you can't really imagine trying to force anything more than water down your throat anyway. I'm allowed to add dairy to my diet today, so I'll try a milkshake this afternoon, assuming all continues to go well.

Jeff's mom is here helping Jeff with the kiddos. The kiddos are at daycare now, Jeff's at work, and I'm still pretty groggy and sleepy, so I'm going to go crawl back in to my bed. One other note - using my iPhone timer function to tell me when to take my next med dosage has been invaluable - Tonsillectomies! There's an app for that!

Day Zero, 4pm

So far, so good. Surgery itself only took about 20 minutes, so most of the day entailed waiting, waiting, waiting, and then fighting nausea in the recovery room.

The local anesthesia the surgeon injected in to the site is starting to wear off and I can already tell that this is going to eventually really fucking hurt. I'm too groggy to care right now though. More meds and nap time.

Day Zero

The kids are dropped off at school and Jeff and I are headed to the surgery center. Wish me luck!

T-minus 1 day

Tomorrow! It's tomorrow! Augh!!!

I think the best word to describe how I am feeling today is "doomed". God I hope the anticipation of this whole thing turns out to be way worse than the reality. I'm a huge worrier, so I find that many things in my life end up being that way, which is great!

This afternoon I shopped for post-surgery supplies. I'm already nauseated and bored just thinking about eating the following foods for the next 10 days:

• Ensure
• Ice cream/milkshakes
• Yogurt smoothies
• Popsicles
• Pureed soups
• Mashed potatoes

Also, after many, many phone calls, my doctor has finally called in my prescriptions. I didn't ask which specific meds I'm to receive - I'd rather the particular brand of painkiller, anti-nausea med and antibiotic come as a lovely surprise when I pick up my prescriptions this evening. Drug roulette, as my friend Patrick described it! Hoping for the good stuff!

It is now 3:17pm and I still don't know what time my surgery is schedule for tomorrow. Sigh.

Update: Arrival time at the surgery center is set for 9:15am. Hurray for not having to wait all day while fasting!

T-minus 2 days

Today is Tuesday. Thursday is the big day - the day I say goodbye to my tonsils. Here's what I'm doing to prepare for the surgery:

1. Eating cupcakes - specifically from Hey Cupcake. I figure if I'm going to be off solids for up to ten days, I deserve all of the cupcakes I can stuff in to my belly for the next two days.
2. Not exercising - what's the point? I'm going to be inactive for ten days and living off ice cream - any fitness attained between now and Thursday will instantly be lost.
3. Drinking wine - I have a feeling that come Thursday I won't feel like drinking anything at all and even forcing down ice chips and water is going to be uncomfortable, so I'd better live it up now.
4. Worrying - occasionally lapsing in to daydreams of what it's going to feel like when I wake up from the surgery and swallow for the first time. Hugely helpful, as you can imagine.
5. Trying to find out what time the surgery is actually scheduled for - the stupid surgery center won't confirm my surgery time until 3pm the day before. Dumb doctors and their patient priorities! This makes it very hard to plan for kiddo drop off and pick up for Thursday.
6. Calling the doctor's office to inquire about what kinds of drugs they're going to put me on post-surgery - anesthesia makes me vomit, and I DO NOT WANT TO VOMIT after my tonsils have been taken out. I cannot stress this enough. They've promised me some anti-nausea meds. They've also promised to call in all of my meds ahead of time so I can pick them up tomorrow and not have to dick around on Thursday trying to get Jeff to pick up my meds. The one hard and fast rule of tonsillectomy recovery (from what I gather ) is "Do not let your pain meds wear off, ever, for any reason, or you will be very sorry."

That's it, really. Tomorrow I'm shopping for ice, ice cream, Ensure, pudding, yogurt, and any other liquid foods that sound appealing. Oh, and ice packs to wrap around my neck, as I hear that helps. I am anticipating that tomorrow I will be a nervous wreck - won't that be fun for everyone?

Fear

Ok you guys, I've got some stuff coming up that I'm kind of scared of. Cause for fear #1:

My Upcoming Tonsillectomy

The big day is June 30th, and it really sucks to have this thing hanging over you that everyone says is incredibly painful. I made the mistake of reading this site. It's terrifying and informative and funny, all at once. Some of the comments are pretty priceless. To whit:

"Its[sic] all true!! Pain,,,[sic]is all I can say. I am post op day 4 and was re-admited[sic] to the hospital day 3. I read about the ice on the outside of the neck and was told about it at the hospital,(after the fact) but is it to[sic] late now? I think the vicodin are fake as they do nothing for the pain. Considering cutting off head…."

and

"I was in bed for 4 days (day 3 was the WORST, I threw up all morning and wanted to DIE)."

Law School

Orientation is on August 24th. I don't even know how scared to be because I have no clear idea of what I'm facing.

SO - as a means to deal with my fear, I've decided I'm going to blog my way through my tonsillectomy recovery. Provided I can function well enough to type semi-coherently, I will try to post daily updates. As for blogging my way through Law School, we'll see about that. Will I even have time?

Hello, good people!

So let's see, where have I been? I have been tremendously sick (the sinus infection from hell) and am just now starting to feel better. Have been feeling pretty generally overwhelmed by life but getting it all back under control again (I think?). It's been 100+ degrees here every day for I-don't-know-how-long and the days are starting to run together in to one long blur of being too hot and having to blow my nose.

Let's just look at some cute pictures of the kids, shall we?

Julian at his 9-month check-up:

Norah at a recent birthday party. Somehow she seems so very grown up to me in this picture:

In other news, only 29 days until my tonsil surgery. Gulp.
And only 54 days until law school starts - huzzah!!!!!!