On September 26th, I had my tonsils out. And thus began the most annoying two weeks of my life. Behold, the unabridged tale of my tonsillectomy.
My mom came down on the Wednesday night before surgery, helped make my 'Last Supper' (tacos), and took me to the hospital at 6am for my surgery on Thursday. I've never had a 'real' surgery before and was excited about my grippy hospital socks. As the nurse wheeled me down the hallway to surgery I waved to my doctor and my nurses like I was in a parade, because it sort of felt like a parade with everyone standing around watching me wheel by. It's obvious to me when you feel like you're in a parade, you wave like a beauty queen on the back of a convertible (even if you are in an ugly hospital cap and gown wearing no make-up). I would do it right now if the opportunity presented itself. They assumed I'd already gotten a little 'buzz' from the anesthesiologist...I assured them, "No, this is how I normally am."
After moving from the hospital bed to the operating table, I recall asking the anesthesiologist how really fat people fit on the skinny table. I'm not sure if he had started anything in my IV at this point, but the last thing I remember was the doctor answering, "The human skeleton fits on this table, some people just lop over the sides a little bit." I'm glad I remembered this conversation when I woke up.
I have near perfect vision, so waking up was the weirdest thing everrr. My eyes were wide open but everything was blurry, and I remember thinking, "Is this how Jamie feels all the time?" I also remember being rolled back to my room and specifically asking for our friend Jonas, who is on staff at the hospital. The nurse called for him and left a voicemail and I remember thinking, "Yay! I will have visitors in my room!"
I don't remember the timing of things, but after they wheeled me back to the room, everyone was telling me I needed to DRINK WATER and I wanted to PUNCH THEM IN THE FACE. The doctor used some incredible numbing spray on my throat (I woke up with a '0' or '1' pain level and everyone was shocked) but I literally couldn't swallow. I couldn't feel the muscles in my throat, and when my mom gave me little drips of water, I felt like I was drowning and I choked and sputtered over one little drip.
It was ridiculous and annoying.
My favorite doctor came in and said, "Just give it a few more minutes and try drinking again in a little bit." Why thank you for understanding my plight, Dr. Griffith. So I napped for a while and kept trying to swallow. One minute I couldn't, and the next minute I woke up and announced to my mom, "I just swallowed!" It was so weird.
If you're in the Ames area and in need of an ENT, I would HIGHLY recommend Dr. Griffith. He spent plenty of time explaining everything and talking to me during appointments and was a rockstar surgeon. I was actually excited to see him at my follow-up yesterday because he's like a nice G'pa...with a better fashion sense.
I had an issue with nausea while I was in the hospital (and the next two days while I was home before my mom called FirstNurse and demanded nausea medicine), so it's a good thing I'm a boss at avoiding throwing up at. all. costs. Seriously, this has been a character trait of mine since childhood. It takes a lot of focus, but I made it through my entire recovery without throwing up! Thinking about throwing up early in my recovery was absolutely terrifying because my throat looked like a war zone...and I did NOT want to find out what might happen if I gave in and puked.
I took my first round of pain medicine, relaxed, napped, attempted to text Josh, Jonas, and accidentally sent a few texts to Caleb thinking he was Josh while I was waking up and couldn't see. Woops. I think around noon I was able to get dressed and was wheeled out to the car to start the trek home.
We live two blocks from the hospital. I fell in love with the location of our house all over again on September 26th.
This was my set-up once I got home. These items didn't leave my side for two weeks. Notice the pretty pink barf bucket...I didn't let that baby out of my sight (even though I never needed it :).
These are the beautiful fall flowers Josh's parents sent me on Thursday afternoon when I was home and still feeling great!
The first 48 hours were a breeze. I ate some soft things, we watched Christmas movies and napped, my mom kept my house clean and made Josh's lunches in the morning. She ran to get medicine and other supplies I required from Target and even kept the laundry caught up. It's possible she was going a little overboard with helping because she desperately wants to be invited back for weeks at a time when we have babies...and I would say after this experience, I'll keep her at our house for as long as she'll stay.
Josh said, "If your mom is here doing all of this stuff, shouldn't we, like, pay her or something?" Forgive him and his 'business-owner' mindset. He can't help it. :)
We had heard from friends who had tonsils out as adults, that days three and four were the hardest...so my mom felt okay heading home on Sunday while Josh could be with me and Patti was planning to come on Monday.
As it turns out, the four days my mom was here were the four easiest days of my whole recovery. Part of that is because she is my mom, and part of that is because the hardest part of recovery hadn't 'hit' yet. Sunday night through Friday night were. the. worst. I didn't leave my bed except to shower and fill my princess cup with more water. I didn't feel like watching movies or working on scrapbooking or sewing projects or even talking or texting. I laid in my bed all. day. long. Josh felt helpless and I slept right through him leaving in the morning and coming home in the evening.
I wouldn't have made it through without this trusty cup:
I was consistently ready for my pain medicine an hour early, which was not good. I had to take some medicine in between for 'breakthrough' pain and that medicine was a joke. It didn't work at all. Moms are great, but they are sticklers for staying on schedule during things like this...husbands are great because when you come into their room in the middle of the night crying because you need your pain medicine 45 minutes early and you can't even open your mouth to explain anything because your throat hurts so bad, they just get up and give you what you want, no questions asked. :)
They might also surprise you when you send them to Target for more medicine and come home with THIS!
Once I started feeling better I watched a lot of Gilmore Girls, finally started and finished our vacation scrapbook from last year, organized every closet in our house, and lost 15 pounds as of today. I was glad I had my personal nurse Kylie on speed dial and texted her throat-picture-updates daily. I stayed on pain medicine every four hours (around the clock) for 12 days and last Tuesday woke up and decided to stop so I could FINALLY get out of the house to drive and get back to work. My throat bled a little last Friday when I sneezed for the first time since my surgery, but other than that it's been smooth sailing.
The doctor said I won't feel 'normal' again for a week or two because my body is still repairing the scabs at the back of my throat and fighting off germs. This probably explains why I came home on Monday and felt like I had been hit by a truck and took a two hour nap. And also why after working a long day and going to D6 Dance practice yesterday, I slept for 11 hours last night.
And now, the picture I promised...
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iPhones take excellent pictures, don't they?!
MmB
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