Day 1:
Day one went a lot better than I had originally thought. The only thing is it gave me false hope about what the rest of the recovery would be like (I was in for a shock.) I spent most of the day in hospital, as I had stayed overnight due to my heart beat being irregular. I spent the day sleeping and managed to eat two ice blocks and some jelly. My throat wasn’t sore at this point i was just nauseous from the morphine drip, and had no appetite. I went home at about 4:30 with morphine, two types of Tramadol, ibuprofen and Panadol. I was able to eat warm soup that night. with two pieces of bread and butter. All in all, good first day.
Day 2:
I woke up constantly all through the night leading up to day two, which at the time i thought was horrible, but it meant i kept my fluids up which stopped my throat from drying out. I was in agony from Tuesday morning onward. I spent most of the day scrolling through this site, trying to find out if it was going to get any better. I ended up the scaring the daylights out of myself reading these horror stories. I am not someone that can just lie in bed all day no matter the pain, and no matter the amount of medication I’m on. Tuesday i went for a drive (very bad idea) I had to go pick up some shoes which were about half an hour away. I wasn’t driving but every bump and every corner felt like glass falling down my throat. After a while i was having cold sweats, couldn’t see straight and felt like i was going to vomit. Once i got home the pain did not go away, even after a heavy dose of morphine, tramadol and ibuprofen. I tried but could not get down mashed potatoes and gravy. I hardly slept that night. It was the start of hell.
Day 3:
So in New Zealand it is currently the middle of Summer. Which means spending two weeks indoors is not very fun at all. Day three, I woke up feeling reasonably good. It is also one week until i move to the other side of the country. So I wanted to be out doing a lot of stuff that i physically could not do. I found that drinking water helped today, and by drinking water i mean going through about five litres if not more a day. After drinking about four water bottles full and taking my meds i felt fine. Still hurt to swallow, tongue was a bit tender but i felt fine. I decided to go plant shopping for my new flat. That went well, had next to no pain because i wasnt thinking about it, didnt even feel tired afterwards. Because that went so well, I decided on day 3 post op i would go to the beach! Surprisingly I had a ball. I even went for a quick swim, I was just careful not to get my ears wet. If I had taken my medication with me i feel like today would have been pain free but it had been about six hours since my last dose and the pain began to creep back. I went home, ate a reasonable amount of mac n cheese, then went to bed. Broken sleep due to having to pee every half an hour, but a good sleep.
Day 4:
(Edit: read til end, it gets better!!) Day four was my worst day so far. i woke up constantly through out the night, mostly because i had been drinking so much fluids that i needed to go to the bathroom every half an hour! Not only did my throat feel like razor blades, but it hurt so much to swallow that every time i tried water would just come out of my nose. Not only was this annoying it also was very painful. By this day i had worked out a reasonable method of taking my meds, so after those had kicked in pain was a little more manageable. I hate lying around so i spent the morning doing small jobs around house. Folding washing, dusting etc. I also spend a good hour reading through this website every day to see if im on track with all the other horror stories. It seems to me that ive got it pretty good. I can eat, i am not coughing and my ears are completely pain free, hopefully this lasts. I tried to have a banana during the afternoon. WORST IDEA EVER. Why does banana feel like the devils spawn??!? i assumed once mashed it would be a nice healthy option, oh how wrong was i. My throat, tongue, nose, head, jaw and ears ached like crazy and i couldn’t do anything other than lie facedown on my bed for a solid hour. I may have shed a few tears during that point too. After filling myself with my medication i decided to get some big jobs done as i felt fine. I ended up spending a good couple of hours furniture shopping, which was the best time id had so far. not one bit of pain. I recommend hugely if you’re feeling energetic enough, get out of the house! i completely forgot about the pain, as long as i kept sipping on my water bottle i was fine! I rewarded myself with mcdonalds, which didn’t go down very well but i still managed to eat most of it. I felt so good later on that i went out to a bar for a few drinks with friends. (my drinks consisted of water) but i felt completely well and was not tired at all afterwards, i got home at about 11pm. Day 4 equals terrible morning, great afternoon/night.
Day 5:
Day five was pretty similar to day four. I felt like i was healing quickly. I was happy, and eating fine. I went furniture shopping, and then cooked dinner. My energy levels at this stage were really high. I thought i had beaten this thing, and missed the worst of it. Dinner was fine, the normal pain when i swallowed. It as afterwards that the start of the severe pain started. Not only did it hurt like usual it started to burn further down my throat, and my ears started to throb excruciatingly. I thought i had scratched my throat with dinner. Had pain killers and went to sleep.
Day 6:
I woke up on day six and immediately started to cry. It was about 4:30 am and my throat felt so dry, it burnt worse than i had ever felt. Not only was this the worst pain so far, but I was running low on my medication. I wasnt able to go back to sleep as i was too scared of that same pain returning. The only thing that seemed to work was a heat pack covering both my ears, and an ice pack to cover my throat. I wasnt able to eat ice chips anymore as it only made the pain worse but by putting an ice pack on my throat is helped a little. I ate nothing on day six, i tried to eat pumpkin soup but i just could not handle it.
Day 7:
Day seven started off with me waking up at about 3 am with the most excruciating pain i have ever felt in my life. I tried to pick up my glass of water only to have it slip straight through my hand. I then started to panic as i was upstairs alone and my voice was not working even when i tried. i tried to walk into kitchen to take med’s to find myself in a slump on the floor about 15 minutes later. i had literally passed out from the pain. i made enough noise that my mum came up to check on me and she was able to help me settle again into bed. I have been here ever since. it is currently 8 pm and my pain hasn’t subsided at all. i managed to have a few mouth fulls of canned spaghetti but other than that, another day without food. I am scared to go to sleep because so many of these comments say that tomorrow is the worst day. i wish id never had this procedure.