A Post-Surgery Update

There are four things I'd like to do today:

1. Eat a pizza piled with pepperoni and sausage

2. Eat fried chicken and twice baked potatoes

3. Eat a pesto chicken panini

4. Eat a waffle lathered in peanut butter, with a side of bacon and sausage


Instead I will slurp applesauce and sip water while I lie in bed and dream about eating.

Never, in all my 27 years of living, have I dreamt about food as much as I have this week.  In fact, sometime earlier this week when I was a little loopy-de-loo from my meds, I came up with an idea for Willie Wonka that I was certain would catapult his career into new levels of fame and wealth: water that tastes like pizza.  And fried chicken.  And bacon.

The narcotics-induced brilliance that's been flowing from my brain this week is inimitable, I tell ya.

With that said, I warn you that the following post-surgery update may or may not be coherent.

Everything has gone smoothly this week.  Early Monday morning we drove to the hospital, where I was checked in and put in a bed to wait for my anesthesiologist.

A side note: I could not say anesthesiologist before this journey, but now I can.  Just one of the many perks of having a tonsillectomy.

Here is Dr. H., my anesthesiologist.  He is getting ready to administer the good stuff:

Good stuff administered:

Right about here it was like Bye, bye, George. See you next Tursday.

(Name that movie).

Three hours, 46 ice chips, two doses of anti-nausea medication, and 1/16 of a grape popsicle later, I was awake, tonsil-less, and ready to go home.

Is it Tursday yet?

Since coming home Monday afternoon I have been lying in bed moaning and drinking lots of liquids.

It's been fairly eventless, except for the first morning when the power went off for 1 1/2 hours.  Of course the freezer was full of popsicles, ice, and ice cream--that's just the sort of thing the freezer is bound to be full of when the power happens to go out.  Fortunately nothing completely melted.

I tried to prepare myself for this recovery by doing research—not enough to freak me out, but enough that I wasn't totally clueless.  But I guess research is not the end-all, because I am daily surprised by this journey.

A few of the bigger surprises;

1. The pain in my jaw
2. The pain in my tongue
3. The pain in the roof of my mouth

Basically, more things hurt than I ever dreamed would hurt.  Talking, swallowing, and even breathing (because of the swelling) have proven to be difficult tasks.  I've been especially surprised by how much eating icy things hurts.  Like the dickens.  Give me tepid applesauce over a popsicle any day. Thank goodness I have a mother who can whip up healthy, tasty, slurp-able concoctions like nobody's business.  Having her here has been absolutely wonderful.

It really has been a smooth recovery all things considered.  Although I've battled nausea all week, I've been able to keep everything down.  Apparently 'tossing your cookies' (gosh what I would give for a cookie right now) can cause bad bleeding that necessitates emergency anesthesia and cauterizing.  So I'm thankful for my steel stomach thus far. My biggest fear for recovery is that I'd start bleeding and have to be rushed to the ER.  I'm still not in the safe zone (I won't be for 10-14 days), so I'm drinking lots of water and doing lots of praying.

If you'd continue to pray for quick healing and no bleeding, I would be grateful!

Thank you, also, for praying with me the last couple of weeks. I've had a sense all week that lots of people have been praying.

Hope you all had a happy fourth!

SJ

© by scj