THREE WEEKS LATER

Well, It's been 3 whole weeks since "the event". I have indeed survived in spite of all the gross, painful and disgusting things that have transpired. As unbelievable as this sounds.. my throat is STILL sore and I can still feel scabs way down there. I am back on a pretty normal diet but haven't had the nerve to eat chips or anything "sharp" yet... that may take a while.

Now that I am pretty much back to normal -- my advice remains the same for all of you: DON'T DO IT!!!!! I have lost count of the people who have told me in the last 2 weeks that they too are thinking of having their tonsils out. I've let each of them know that they are signing their own death certificate.

I like to help people.

DAYS TEN, ELEVEN AND TWELVE

Hi again! sorry for the group of days post but for the past 3 days I just haven't had it in me -- it hasn't been much to write about either. On Friday, I visited my regular doctor who took me off off ALL pain meds, ibuprophen, asprin and tylenol PLUS alcohol! My throat was still killing me and her idea for managing that was some kind of lame-ass gargle that she had the pharmacy whip up that tastes like hand lotion and only numbs up my tongue, NOT my throat which is where the pain is!!!! Needless to say it is not the best alternative to pain meds so I've pretty much spent the past 3 days trying to just make it through the day with no meds at all and then going to bed at 9p and sleeping 12 hours. The sleep is helping more than anything else and my boys have been so nice to let me sleep as late as I need to. Basically, I've done some damage to my liver but if I can cut out anything irritating and give it a rest it should come back good as new -- just don't know how long that's going to take. I am supposed to get some results of the new tests tomorrow so maybe I'll be able to at least take something again. Going cold turkey has really sucked. I've been able to eat even less than before since my throat is just so raw and angry. Last night I was so hungry and so desperate that I actually put cooked oatmeal in the blender and made oatmeal soup. Yep.. the oatmeal in it's God-intended form was just too painful. Today I managed some chicken soup broth with some avocado chunks in it. I figure that should be a good shot of vitamins or something.... tonight I struggled with a piece of cheese pizza and lost. The good news is that today (Sunday) is actually the first day that I can say that I feel better. I can actually believe that I might recover and live a normal life again!

This has been without a doubt the hardest two weeks of my life. It seems so stupid given that all I had removed was a couple of peanut sized pieces of tissue. I've had so many nice friends offer help of all kinds -- but I've learned that it is very sobering when you realize that no one -- no matter how good the intentions or how vast the resources -- can help you. I truly believe that there is nothing worse than knowing that the only thing that can help you is the passage of time. When you are in that position, time crawls. I can't even tell you how many times I've looked at the clock and mentally calculated the days and hours until my "two weeks" was up. It didn't make the time go any faster. So, here I am at the end of the first 2 weeks. As promised, I feel better but not remarkably better and I don't think I will be back to NORMAL for a couple more weeks at the earliest. But, I'm going to live and I felt good enough to go to Carson's soccer game tonight so I'm getting back into the swing of things. I expect that this time next year some of this will seem humorous to me!

As my dear friend Joanne always used to say "I joyously anticipate the wonders that God has in store for me today!" I'm going to try to start tomorrow more joyously.

DAY NINE

Day nine included several hours in the emergency room. Yes -I know that's crazy.

I went to work, still unable to really eat anything -- my throat is as sore as it's ever been - when will this end? Around noon I got a little heartburn so I took some dissolvable Tums. That seemed to make it better. I noticed that since yesterday, I was needing to take my Ibuprophen more frequently - I was taking 400mg every 3 hours but thought that was OK to do short term.
I was WRONG. At 4p I suddenly got what felt like terrible heartburn (I've only had that twice before, both times while pregnant) I was shifting in my seat and trying to get it to subside. I had 3 more packets of the Tums and it did not help at all. I left work at 430p to drive home and I very nearly did not make it. It is only 7 miles to my house but I almost had to pull over 3 times because I felt like I was going to throw up or pass out or both. The pain was so intense ...I've never felt anything like that. By the time I got home, I crawled to the bathroom where I laid on the floor writhing in pain and crying while Tim hovered over me trying to figure out what to do. By 530p it was obvious that I needed medical intervention so we went to the ER. Making this long story shorter: I had taken way too much Ibuprophen and not eaten enough and had basically made my stomach stand up and threaten to quit me. Everything in my GI tract was inflamed and very angry. The pain was almost unbearable and I also began having muscle spasms in my chest and back. The upshot is, it took 3 doses of morphine, 3 or 4 doses of anti-nausea meds and a muscle relaxer PLUS 2 bags of IV fluids just to get me to the point where I could talk to them and give them info. I was at the hospital for over an hour before all of this started to work. The boys were freaking out to see me crying and in pain like that. I got to come home at around 930p and I was wiped out. The good news is that with all the drugs I was given I actually got a decent sleep for once! I was given some new pain meds to deal with my throat which is still killing me and two acid reducers which I am taking faithfully!
I was also instructed NOT to take any more Ibuprophen at all --- apparently, that is a more dangerous drug than I thought, My Dr. told me that he has seen people bleed to death in just a few hours from a perforated stomach due to Ibuprophen! Fortunately that did not happen to me but I want everyone to learn from this and take the use of Motrin-like drugs seriously.. YOU CANNOT JUST TAKE AS MUCH AS YOU WANT.
I know this post is long and not very funny -- but that's how my day was too!

Oh, and I had my follow up appt yesterday -- My ENT says that I should feel a whole lot better by Monday -- that seems like a long time from now!

DAY EIGHT

I'll make this short.
Went to work 1/2 day which was good - I was out of the house.
Had bouts of severe ear pain throughout the day and have consumed mass quantities of Ibuprophen today. Around 5p - ear pain worsened along with some of the worst throat pain yet.
Spaghetti is too sharp and I am STARVING and that is making me very unpleasant. Had mashed potato soup again.
I can now only tolerate warm food or beverage - cold anything makes it feel like electrical shocks are going through my throat and ears. I actually microwaved my iced tea. I got a bottled water today and then could not drink it until it warmed up.
My follow up appointment is tomorrow.
I'm going to punch my doctor.
This sucks.



PS: I'm now making a weird sound when I swallow. WTF?

FYI

The tree is still up.
Decorations are off but tree still up.

DAY SEVEN -- will this never end?

OK, so last night at about 11p I was treated to what feels like a large piece of tree bark slowly making it's way half way down my throat. Whatever it is, it is small enough that I can swallow around it but large enough that it has been gagging me all night and day. I can neither move it up and out nor down and out. Its just sitting there, not moving and making me miserable. I even got up at 3am armed with a flashlight and some tweezers absolutely intent on picking the offending whatever out so that I could sleep. After about a 20 minute investigation I determined that it must be part of the scabbing (gross I know but I have to say it - how else will you know?) and that it is too far down in my throat to really look at let alone have a prayer of reaching with tweezers. Accompanying this delightful new development is the most searing and stabbing ear pain that I have ever felt. Seriously, it is ridiculous how much it hurts. The pain seems to be centered around my right ear and side of my throat and I have discovered that I can keep it at bay enough to keep from going bat S&^t crazy by drinking liquid motrin exactly every 3 hours and 45 minutes. If I wait 4 hours it is too late and I start the whole process all over again. Honestly, it feels like what I imagine it would feel like if someone stuck a BBQ skewer through your ear. Make no mistake, I cannot make the pain go away - just knock it down enough to survive and go about some simple tasks. I had been hopeful that I would be able to go to work today but had to email my boss-- since it is now just too painful to talk at all --and tell him that I am having my ass handed to me by a tonsillectomy. Thankfully he was fairly understanding. I did manage to actually leave the house today for two items -- I went first to SONIC for a large cranberry iced tea which was heaven for about an hour before I ran out and had to go get another one.... the second was was during happy hour so it was 1/2 price. Then I lived out a shining example of how marketing does work for everyone even if it takes a while -- which I will cover in a separate post because I think its a good lesson. In short, I actually bought and consumed a mashed potato bowl from KFC. (again, gross but how else will you know?)
Tonight when Tim came home we decided to go up to one of our favorite restaurants in the neighborhood, Cristina's, because they have an avocado soup that i thought I could eat.
Words cannot express the despair one feels when realizing that something as welcoming and friendly as a homemade flour tortilla fresh off the press is simply just too dangerous and challenging to eat. Yep, I was so excited to FINALLY get some real food in my hungry stomach and I was thinking that warm, soft flour tortillas soaked in cheese sauce would be just the thing to build my flagging calorie count back up -- but I'll be darned if I could NOT eat the thing. No matter how much I chewed, it still felt like rocks wrapped in barbed wire going down. As a matter of fact, it hurt so much that I also couldn't eat any soup and it actually brought me to tears right out in public! The boys had no problem cleaning their plates right in front of me and thought nothing of telling me how great it all tasted. Show offs. I am still hungry by the way.

I'm getting ready for bed now and dreading what wonders may await me tonight. Seriously -- what else?? what else could possibly be coming?? I would like to leave you with this piece of newly formed advice: If you are over age 10 and someone wants to take your tonsils out -- make sure that you are within 24 hours of death as your only alternative before you consent. As far as I can tell, that is the only acceptable circumstance that should require you to have your tonsils out. My dad made a good point... they should just take everyone's tonsils out at about age 3. You don't need them, they just make trouble and if you wait too long to yank them, it leads to a lot of days of rambling posts on a blog.

A big THANK YOU to my friend Carrie who made an awesome meal for the boys and some jello for me. We all appreciated it!
Until tomorrow -- enjoy every pain free swallow! This is a really, really crap two weeks!

I just found this helpful little bon mot on the internetweb:

"As for recovery time, 2 weeks is about right but it is a crap 2 weeks. I mean, really really crap. But after that, you do get better fast. "

I could not have said it better.......