My Tonsillectomy: Day 1

I woke up bright and early on March 9th to go get my tonsils taken out for good.

Hate those stupid things.

After the normal pre-procedure jitters I got it together and went into the surgery room.

An hour or so later I woke up (thank God for general anesthesia), cried tears of joy (literally), and asked the hospital chaplain to do Ash Wednesday for me. My parents came in, I was in a little bit of pain, but they got the pain killers going, gave me some water and pretty soon I was feeling pretty good.

I made it home and was HUNGRY!!! My mom made me some kids chicken noodle soup (read: mostly broth with a few Shrek shaped noodles and tiny pieces of carrot). That went down well. Lukewarm is the key. Highly recommend it for first day food.

The rest of the day I spent on the couch, drank tons and tons of water, had mashed potatoes (instant ones made with the broth rather than milk and butter--worked really well), watched TV and slept.

I absolutely recommend taking the pain killer (I am on Lortab) every 3.5 hours rather than 4. It takes a little bit to kick in and around the 3 hour mark it started to wear off for me.

Another big tip: BUY minty chap stick. Even if you are drinking tons of water your lips are gonna chap. This will make a big difference.

The rule I broke: Okay, so I know dairy is supposed to be a no-no for the first 24 hours, but I decided to have a Peanut Butter Moo'd smoothie from Jamba to soothe the pain a bit. It didn't bother me, but it was definitely low grade dairy (as someone with mild lactose intolerance, I generally know what produces the phlem they worry about). Seems like non-fat frozen yogurt won't do too much damage.

I slept in my own bed, but in a pretty upright position. I would recommend this, as whenever I started to get more horizontal I would wake up and my throat would feel really wet, like I wasn't swallowing right.

Overall, the pain my first day was minimal. Actually, unlike strep the pain for me has been mostly on the roof of my mouth. Swallowing actually feels better than not swallowing. That is a huge relief for me. The pain so far has been NOTHING compared to the pain of the abscesses. I would say the worst it got was around a "3." I have read around and apparently day 1 seems to be no biggie for most people though, so I'm not getting my hopes up too much, but so far I would say, if you have abscesses, get the surgery done. You will thank yourself immediately.

Updates on day 2 later tonight or early tomorrow.

xoxo