Annie --- are you ok???
Day 12.....I'm gonna make it!
I'm a 37 year old female, wife and mom of two boys (ages 5 & 7.) I always had strep as a kid. Bounced from one antibiotic to the next as a kid; wondering why they never took my tonsils. Fast forward to after I had kids and started subbing at the elementary schools where I found myself with strep 8 times in 14 months. It never left me. It continued to get worse, and it was torture. Laid me up in bed for 2-3 days at a time and required everyone to take care of my family when I couldn't. Get your tonsils out, they said. Ok! It's not an adult surgery, they said. Ok, well what's my other option? Exactly!!! So on a Friday morning I went into surgery. READY. I had gotten my last bout of strep just three weeks prior. It was the worst case yet. I needed to get this done and over with.
I was ready for it, as I mentioned. What I was not ready for was the reaction of the nurses when they would see what I was having done that morning...."Oh, you're going to be one unhappy lady...." Thanks for the encouragement!
Post-Op: Geesh! I could barely sit up. In fact, the only thing I remember the nurse saying was that I was turning green. Please lay me back down....! I hear voices. It's the 5 year old next to me in recovery who had her tonsils out right before mine. She wouldn't stop talking. She listed a number of suggestions for her mother to take her out to lunch, finally settling on Panera Bread. I, however, was about to slip out of the bed onto the floor. Then, the lovely nurse insisted I would beat the nausea by getting something in my system. Crackers. The kind with four points around the edges. Not at all helpful. The next recovery nurse saw them and snagged them immediately, after nurse 1 had me swallow down two. Thank you nurse 2!!!! My hero!
Much to my surprise, the sore throat was not that sore. Went home, rested in my bed and my husband (my adorable sweet husband) catered to me for the next 48 hours while the kids were away with the grandparents. (I should note, he took the entire week off of work to take care of our household. We both don't know how I could have gotten through this without his consistent help - day and night)
Day 2: Noontime. Apparently those meds and I don't get along, and I began vomiting. THAT was not in my plan. Went off the prescription meds and rode the rest of the days out with Tylenol and Motrin. It was a personal decision that I set in stone after I vomited more on day 2. Pain from vomiting was much worse than pain controlled on Tylenol. So I thought.
Day 3 & Day 4: Eh. Painful, but I was certain it was going to be so much worse. I've had strep worse than this. Granted I couldn't eat a thing. Gatorade with ice and Carnation Instant Breakfasts were the only thing going in. Nights were rough. I had new ice packs on my head constantly (thanks to my ice-pack-delivering husband!) I didn't really sleep....and when I did, I hated waking up because my throat was so dry.
Meanwhile, this awful smell and taste filled my mouth. I never could have imagined such a taste. Anything that went down tasted like this, so there was no relief. It made my stomach turn. I gargled with salt and water. I brushed as best as I could multiple times a day. My tongue because covered, and felt like the top layer was stripped off. It burned. It was, constant discomfort to say the least. I had hobbies that I had planned to do to keep myself busy. I was going to watch tv series because I just never do. I did nothing!!! My attention span didn't last more than an hour. I couldn't find a place to be comfortable. I just dreamt of foods and pinned hundreds of recipes from Pinterest that I planned to make once I was better.
Days 5-8
These days were a blur. They were filled with constant pain, icing, sipping, whincing and rocking gently back and forth while holding a pillow (typically during the night) to shake off the pain. And then one night 5, I spit up a blood clot. And started to bleed. Of course it was at 11pm. Why wouldn't it be during doctor's office hours? Panic set it. My husband found our post-op care sheet. Don't panic (ya, right!) and gargle with ice cold water for 20 mins. I gargled for 30 because I was too scared. It stopped. Thank goodness, the bleeding stopped. But, 30 minutes of using those muscles certainly added to extra
pain that night. And the next night; again. Clot, gargle, stop bleeding. And the next. Three nights of these large clots that had to Coe out (because I could feel them when I tried to lay down and breathe) I hadn't heard of this happening, but apparently that was a good sign that my blood was clotting itself. Either way, it was THE grossest part of the entire healing process. The nights continued to be rough. Although I never thought I would see the end, it was on DAY 10 that I began to feel human. I continued to dread the nights, but I could make it downstairs to the couch and sit at the dinner table with my family (couldn't eat, but just felt it was important to be there.) Night 11 I went to bed at 10pm and only woke up once for Motrin and ice. It just feels like a really bad sore throat, but I can handle that!
Today is day 12! I'm almost there! I can eat now. Not everything, but I am ready to try to eat everything. I felt like I had to re-learn how to chew. It became such a process to get food from my lips, across my tongue and then down the hatch. I've lost 15 pounds. I have more Italian ice and popcicles in my freezer than I care to ever look at again. I wasn't able to eat them, as the dyes (mostly citrus) made my throat burn. I have lists of foods that I've missed and plan to have a date with soon.
My goodness; what a journey. For something that seems so simple, it really was a challenge. For all of those middle-aged folks about to embark upon this journey...prepare ahead and line up help. You will thank yourself in the long run....
Good luck!!!
