Tonsillectomy Recovery at Age 18

Hemorrhage After Tonsillectomy
Tonsillectomy Recovery Experience

Victoria Shares Her Story

I am an 18 yr old female and I am currently on my 7th day post op. I have to say these has been the WORST 7 days of my life. After getting out of surgery, I woke up not feeling to bad and came home and slept the rest of the day. That night is when it all went down hill, I woke every half hour in horrible pain. Not only was my throat killing me but I had a migraine that made me want to die. The second night was even worse, my throat was so swollen that I felt like I couldn’t breathe and any time I fell asleep I would wake up gasping for air, NOT FUN. I had my mom call the doctor and he advised me to go to the ER, I went and while I was there I started to vomit. They gave me anti-nausea and told me there was nothing more they could do and they sent me home. The third day was the same, still in 10/10 pain along with a migraine that did not go away no matter what I did. The fourth day, my doctor switched my pain killers from vicodin to Tylenol with codeine because he believed that’s why I was getting headaches, luckily it worked. that day I felt a little bit better and was able to eat for the first time, I ate a little bit of salmon since it is very soft and cut up very small.
That night I woke up in my sleep with blood pouring out of my throat, there was so much blood I am surprised I didn’t pass out, I gargled for about 20 minutes with ice water and the bleeding eventually stopped. I couldn’t sleep for the rest of that night because of the fear I would start bleeding again. With that being said the 5th day was horrible and the pain in my ears began. I spent most of the day crying. The 6th day had to be the worst though. I woke up again with blood pouring out of my throat, my mom brought me straight to the doctors office where he suctioned a huge blood clot out and then cauterized the back of my throat, again NOT FUN. After this I didn’t feel too bad until around 7:00 when it started gushing blood again. This time it was the most blood and would not stop for about 25 minutes, once I finally got it to stop I sat on the couch only for it to start bleeding again 40 minutes later. The doctor told my mom to bring me to the ER again. At the ER I sat there for 3 hours waiting for someone to see me, once a doctor finally came he looked in my throat and said “well your not bleeding anymore so you can go home.”
I was so pissed. Luckily today I am feeling a little better and I have went the whole day so far with no bleeding episodes. I am also finally able to sip water without excruciating pain. Over the past 7 days I have lost 19 pounds, because I can’t even eat and ice pop without pain. Make sure if you do get this surgery you have and heating pack for your ears and an ice pack for your neck, those two things have been life savers for me the past few days.

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