I guess it's only so many infections I could handle in a years time before having to be told "You need your tonsils removed ASAP". I knew this past winter had been rough on me. I was getting sick it seemed like back to back which was really way to often if you ask me. I either had strep or tonsillitis. Holly, my nurse was just getting to the point it was like visitin got us. Then this last time in March on the 20th she told those dreaded words "you need to have your tonsils removed it's honestly been 8 episodes in 4 months and girls that's a lot! Who knows what a years worth may look like." Then she went into telling me how my body could become so immuned to the antibiotics that it wouldn't help me. Then what would they do? Ok so I opted right then not to go with the doctor on call because I didn't know him. I don't just go with doctors I don't know - I like past experience or a good reference. I can't put my life in someone hands (by choice) and not know that person. I told Holly I would use my daughter ENT which I knew how great he was with her surgeries. I set up the appointment. I went in to talk with him a week ago and set up the appointment. He was awesome about it an knew Holly really well as she trained some with him. Yes, see it all worked out for a reason :)
We scheduled my surgery for Monday April 6, 2015 at 8 am. I had five days to freak out possibly cancel surgey and all that stuff. Let's get real for a second I have never been put to sleep for ANY surgery I've ever had on myself. I had a c-section in 2006 and had a spinal was awake the entire time. So yes this is freaky for me. The thoughts of what will happen? Will I awake up? Will they give me too much of a medicine and make me not right any more? Yes as you can tell I don't trust doctors very well especially putting my life in their hands. I told my best friend about my surgery and she prayed a lot of me. We talked a lot and she assured me I was going to be fine. I'm lucky to have her to talk to and calm me. I even went to the Internet to search for stories of how others tonsillectomy's had went - ok so not the best idea. It was some real horror stories out there. I did get freaked out by some of them. My advise never look up anything like that before surgery lol but you know we are gonna do it neways. I did get me a good list of what to eat and what not to eat which was awesome to me. I had talked to so many people who told me "you can eat all the ice cream you want after surgery." I mean sure you probably can if you want mucus to deal with but this girl doesn't want that. I'm good with no dairy for a while. The days went by and of course I still researched lol yes still bad idea. However some like I said were rather helpful. I even watched a video at how it was done to put myself at ease and let me know it was really not a big deal.
I went shopping for surgery clothes to help with my stress level. I wanted something comfortable and easy to put on. I went and picked out some pajama pants as I call them. I know they are the latest fad this day and time but still are pajama pants and a large over sized tshirt that matched them. I knew I wanted it all easy to put back on myself after surgery.
I did stress out a lot and so much two days before surgery I got a stye on my eye. Yes OUCH!!! I freaked out because I have never had one of these before an honestly looked like I had been punched in the eye. It was going black too like a black eye would totally look. This surely didn't make me feel good and it was sore not to mention left me with a pounding headache :( I slept a good bit but still managed to go outside for a bit with my son to play with his Easter toys. I know we played with the stomp'em rockets for hours until I started to feel bad again. You can check out the VIDEO here of him playing.
Later Easter afternoon my aunt showed up at the house. She came to stay for a couple days. She lives about an hour and half from us. It's always good to see her and visit. She needed some work done on her Ford Explorer so my mom called a friend who owns a shop and he said drop it off and he would look at it first thing a Monday morning. They took it over there about 3 o'clock and dropped it off. His shop was closed of course with it being Easter and Sunday. Then they came on back home.
Mom knew I didn't feel good so she asked did I want to go with them to get my daughter from her father's. I said "no can you just go on without me. My eye is rather hurting and this headache is pounding away." Mom said "ok we will se you in a bit." They went and got her and came back. When they got home my eye under it was swollen up REALLY big this time. Yes bigger than it had been. It scares me, mom and my aunt. My kids didn't know what to think just told me "EW momma that's bad!" I knew my check under it was hurting and my head pounding so surely a sign of infection. I got me a warm wet rag to put on it and bring it down. This worked somewhat until I could stand it any more and had to come on to bed for the night.
I honestly didn't get much rest Sunday night before surgery Monday morning. I had so many thoughts racing around my head. Then the dogs next door barking a good bit. Plus with extra people in house I just don't sleep comfortably. I guess it's just me I don't know. I've always been like this and gets worse if I'm traveling or at a friends house. Well I got maybe 4 hours of sleep.
I woke up to the sweetest text from my guy friend :) he remembered I was having surgery and was awake at 6 am to tell me MESSAGE. It meant a lot to me. Then my best friend wrote me and put me in a more calm mode. I love how talking to her does that. She is awesome! I just don't like us living so far apart :( by apart I mean I live in MS and she lives in WI. Yes, it's a long stretch but we keep in contact every day.
My kids woke up about 6:05 am and got ready for school and told me they loved me and good luck. Yes babies I need all the luck I can get today! They were off to school by 6:45 am.
I was then dressed and ready to go. You know I couldn't have anything to eat or drink. You would think others would respect this and not get out food/drinks (coffee) and make my tummy get all excited. No one thought about this - ugh! I always tried NOT east when my mother was having surgery until they called her back. I guess I'm just different than most people in that area. I also told them NOT to smoke around me because my papers clearly stated that "do NOT get around smoke".
We got to the surgery center about 7:21 am - least that's what I wrote on my paper. We sat in the lobby till 8 am they finally called me back to do my paper work. It wasn't all that much since I had previously filled out at least 20 minutes worth on the Internet. Then went to hospital and done blood work too all before surgery day. This really helped it seemed like because I just had to sign 5 papers and make sure all was correct. They had my name Raina K. Smith. I said that's suppose to be a L. The K. Is my daughters middle name. They acted like it was no big deal just a slip of the key board when typing. I would think big deal when they file insurance :/ so let's pray they get it done correctly on that end for sure.
Once I got to the back they made me leave a urine sample in a cup. They said because things could have switched in 5 days 😂 switched how? I haven't done anything so I know my urine is still clean. Then they made me switch out of my clothes into a open back gown (hate those). A pair of mesh like panties (boy shorts) well I got to say these are more awesome that they were in 2004 or 2006 when I had my kids. Then a pair of gripper socks and my nice blue hair cap. Oh don't you know I looked good lol. No photos of this because I left my phone with my mother out in waiting room with my purse. I asked the lady where to put my urine sample ... She said "just sit it right here." It was on a table that rolled with a good many papers on it. Ok so I sat it down. She said "good now jump in bed". Then some lady supposedly helping came to shut the curtain and spelled the urine sample everywhere. It was rather priceless. I said I can't pee again. I haven't drank/eat anything since 9:30 pm last night so you are good that you got that much urine. They cleaned it up and 5 minutes later the lady joking said "it was negative". I said "I could have told you that because I'm fertile hints on why I have a slight tempature." She said "Oh goodness lady you are bad." I said "No I just keep up with it - I had my kids 2 years and a day apart." Well after all that excitement .....
They asked did I want my mother to come back but she had already gotten rather rude with me and told me "You will make me nervous and I will make you nervous so no I'm not going back there. When you are out back there I need to go pay a bill so I WILL BE doing that." Now how rude is that to you? I think rather rude! She was more worried about paying a bill than sitting there in the lobby in case anything went wrong with me. She said "it was like wasting the day away!" I mean seriously I sat through 16 surgeries that I can count with her possibly more and never left in case something happened. Glad to have the same respect ... NOT!!! I don't care that it was just a building over where it needed to be paid that not the point. Something she does I just don't understand. Yeah she did run up my blood pressure some it was 131/97 - it's usually 120/80.
I then got these nice bracelets which are honestly the cheapest they can buy. I promote concerts and they use this kind for when people meet artist. They are honestly cheapo material and I was shocked it wasn't a nice kind of band like you get at the hospital.
They went over my allergies with me and asked me a good bit about each one; latex, shellfish and sulfa.
They then got me hooked up to an IV. I hate those thing ms do badly. They pinch and pull and just feel awful! I didn't want a gas mask though because I'm closterfobic so IV was only other way to go. I just had to deal with it basically. The nurse got it with the first try thankfully. She didn't blow any vines like some people do when they try and put them into me. I can't stand blown veins. I was happy with one pinch and stick. She hooked up all the IV stuff. The antiosyiologlist came by and introduced himself. I didn't know him but he seems really nice. Then my doctor came by and asked was I ready as I was gonna be and it wouldn't be much longer. I think it was like less than 5 minutes after that and I was in the operating room. I moved from one bed to the operating table. It was 9:30 am. The last thing I remember saying is "I won't wake up during this right!" The nurses all asured me I would stay asleep. Then the nurse at my head said im fixing to give you something to make you feel loopy ok. I don't remember anything else after that until I woke up in recovery.
Recovery when I woke up I had 7 nurses around me and rather freaked out. You shouldn't have that many people around anyone when they wake up from surgery. They like myself will think the worst like something has happened. I did ask them was I dead and where Larry was? One nurse replies who is that? I said my uncle I just saw him. She said no sweetie only person with you is your mom I think. Apparently I had saw Larry while I was asleep 😞 They asked me what I wanted to drink and I got sprite. Then came my mother to recovery. They let me get dressed. I didn't want her helping me so I told her just stand there so if I pass out or fall. She did and of course tried to help me but honestly I was good. I was a bit dizzy but I was ok. She was surprised I could talk when most people said it hurt them to talk until day 4-5. The nurse said we did nothing to her voice box honey only took her tonsils out. Haha! I'm thinking that's a nice way to put it. However maybe it's about having a good surgeon and being tough 🙌 The nurse went over all the rules and released me to my mother. She pushed me outside in a wheel chair to meet my mother with the ride. We went from there to Kroger to drop off my meds and that was going to take 45 minutes. While at Kroger the guy called about my aunts Ford and told her all the stuff wrong with it. Oh boy it was some kind of list too. Whew! It was near $800 worth of work that needs to be done to it. Mom asked me did I feel up to riding out there to pick it up with them do we did. I saw my guy friend out there and talked to him for a minute. He was happy to see I was up and about. Yes I didn't look to presentable to him lol or anyone else the way I was dressed but he knew I had just came from surgery. He called me "tougher than you would think". It made me feel good that a guy would say that :) after we got my aunts Ford back we came on to the house and would pick up medicine later. I already had some flowing in vines from doctor already.
I came in the house and got me another bottle of water plus a baby food peaches and ate it. OMG it was awesome to have food again. I couldn't really feel my throat at this time and my tongue wasn't swollen .. Thankfully.
I was suppose to rest all this day that I could but they also told me to walk around some too, chew gum, and drink TONS of water, plus eat some food. You can only do so much right? It's sort of sore and new feeling. You don't wanna rush things or I didn't. I like it all slowly and it pretty much works out better this way.
I got some rest and mom asked was I ready to go get my medicine, lime shebert, and my sprites. I said "sure!" My aunt went with us too. I pick up my meds and some children's liquid pain med just in case I needed it too in between taking mine the doctor gave me. You know crushed up pills are bitter 😜 no matter what you put them inside of - do you know what I mean?
My feeling came back around 4 pm which really didn't surprise me all that much. I expected it but also thought I'd stay on top of it too so it wasn't so bad.
This afternoon late my friend from WI was sending me a surprise which I knew NOTHING about until she questioned me what all had came to the house that say. Well some regular mail and Amazon package but nothing else. I asked her "why?" Yes not knowing she had ordered me flowers because well she couldn't be here with me. Well a lot went on with a company and needless to say they first lied to her telling her I received this flower arrangement. I told her that was indeed not true I had not seen it. Well it took some tracking down to realize that the florist was at total fault (you will hear about this on day 2). My friend showed me what I was suppose to get and etc. Yes it totally ruined her surprise but it also just let me know how really amazing she is in my time of need ☺️.
I couldn't sleep that night one because I feared going to sleep even with an alarm set I might wake up with scabs on my throat and be in worse pain. I set my alarm every 15-30 minutes apart depending. I need to keep my throat wet and hopefully swelling down much as possible. I stayed up till 1am and talked to my mom and hung out online seeing what everyone was up to or whatever. I know basically just trying to pass the time till I got so tired I couldn't stand it. I only slept about 2 hours this night. Yes that's like in total - wasn't much was it? I know! I was honestly happy to get night one over with 🙌
Just to let everyone know I made it. I could talk, eat (baby food peaches, Hawaiian delight, baked potato with just butter, salt and pepper, I also ate some cold spaghetti) drink a TON of water, sprite, and yes the best medicine ever laugh. It wasn't bad as some people had made it out to be. Yes I know we all have different surgerons and the way we heal.
Day 2
I made it through day one 🙌 the scary part is over and now it's day 2. I woke up this morning with my throat hurting a bit more which is expected. My legs are beginning to throb/cramp up on my calves when I walk which isn't good because it sucks to be honest.
I drank some water earlier which came out my nose 👃 and im like thinking to myself that was no fun what so ever.
I went to town with my aunt and morher so I could get out and move around a bit. My legs still cramping of course but it sort of helped them. I didn't want blood clots to sit up inside my legs for sure. Im sure I wasn't asleep during surgery long enough for that but still it's a risk and one I'm not willing to take.
Smoke is really bothering me today. My aunt lit up a cig around me - I was gagging. Then the guy next door started to burn some treated wood. Oh goodness that didn't mix with the humidity that was outside today at all. I nearly gagged. Mom finally asked him to put it out since I had just had surgery so he did. Usually it doesn't bother me but boy this sure did. I was nauseous and couldn't stand it basically. I didn't want to get any more this way because I knew it would hurt coming up :( thankfully it didn't come down to it.
My aunt left rather early after we got back from town because of the rain. She can't see to drive in it but she missed all of it on the way to her house thankfully.
Today; I ate baby food, spaghetti cold, like sherbet, baked potato.
The guy who use to do our yard mantaince brought me some popsicles to eat and oh my they made my throat feel so amazing. My kids enjoyed eating one too. He brought a big box so of course I shared with them. These are really great during this time.
I'm taking my medicine all on time and hoping I continue to get better.
Not much else to report on today.
Day 10
Today I woke up with ear pain on a level of 5-6 and put in my numbing drop. Then I almost threw up 😞 It was like some acid tasting stuff not too sure maybe stomach bowel? It tastes gross and omg it burnt my throat so much. I didn't know what to do YUCK!!! My kids kept asking was I ok or was I sick. I didn't know how to reply to them for at least a few minutes. Then I got better before they caught the school bus and told them I think I would be ok. I know they worry about me. No I'm not staying by myself my mother is here too. Least if something happens to me she will know first. I went back to bed once the kids got off to school till about 9:45 am. Then I got up and really didn't do much of anything today. I did run to town with mom to get a few groceries we needed.
I felt like I wanted some hot and spicy soup so of course I fixed it. My throat isn't hurting today so I think I can handle it. Then knowing me I will regret my choice tomorrow and you will have the honor of hearing about it. The soup was so good and tasted good. It wasn't too hot and spicy. It went down really easy too - ahhhhhh water too!
Before bed time I drank some warm hot chocolate because I was wanting something sweet. I thought hot chocolate would work because we don't have any Dutch chocolate which I like better. It hit the right spot!
Day 11
Today I woke up around 4 am - I'm laying in bed and trying to think to myself "why am I in pain so much?" My ears hurt, my tongue feels tender more towards the back and OMG my throat feels raw and just painful. I haven't felt this much pain through any of this until today. I got up put some ear drops that numb my ears in both of them. I'm slightly praying at this point it kicks in fast because this is bad pain. I went down to the kitchen to take something for my tongue and throat. I stopped at the fridge got out my bottle water and went to drink some and WOW! The pain hit me like bam! I felt like I was trying to swallow something thick and like glass. Omg! It hurt. I haven't hurt like this the whole time. After taking some tylenol and praying I wouldn't need anything stronger later. I went to the bathroom with my LED flashlight so I could check out my throat. Yes, I wanted to know exactly what was going on back there. This is when I noticed some scabs are missing more and it's very pinkish back there. Ok so bottom line folks scabs hurt when they come off I don't care if you haven't been in much pain this whole time. I'm honestly lucky I've had an average of a 3-7 level most days. It's nothing that I really couldn't deal with, but today was well worth a 10 and sometimes a 10+ on the pain charts. I didn't expect this for sure. I now don't think I should have ate that hot and spicy soup last night even though I was wanting it. That warmth of the soup probably let them scabs come on off too and made it a bit worse on me. However I was thinking I was doing good before today that I could eat some foods I liked again. Haha it showed me who is boss and let me tell you what it's not me! I won't be trying that again for a while.
Today I also noticed that my tongue where it's cut on both sides is feeling better. It shocked me that it wasn't hurting like everything else. Let me not jinx it lol.
I've honestly stayed in bed most of the day because I've felt so bad.
I did get up at lunch and try to eat some chicken and Mac and cheese. It was all I could do to swallow it. It hurts today to eat anything 😞
My friend came by and dropped off some jello and some pudding for me - which was really sweet of him. He didn't have to do that. I guess me complaining he was trying to make me feel more comfortable having soft foods to eat haha! Love him for thinking of me.
It's 9:05 pm and honestly I just took some meds and fixing to go back to sleep. My ears still have some slight pain, tongue is still sore and throat isn't hurting as bad but oh boy it does if it drink or eat. I guess I will be back on soft foods :/ you know that's no fun. I've lost 10 pounds and honestly hope I don't find it again. I know some people say they lost more but I've been trying to do good and keep food/drinking much as possible.
Day 12
I woke up with some ear pain today but it's not like yesterday. I put in some numbing drops and within a couple hours it had helped me. I took a couple tylenol today too just for the pain that was a level 3-4 not too bad but still there. I looked and see more pink color today but lots of scabs left too. Gross I know! I call them spider webs lol. It's just what it reminds me of and gross feeling when I do swallow.
Today I went to a customer appreciation at a car dealership to see my DJ friend. It was fun. They had BBQ, chips, drinks and etc. I was actually able to enjoy most of it but I didn't push myself to eat fast either. My kids loved getting out and having fun at a social event. I know they miss doing things like this with me feeling so bad.
Today I've had a great day and it's not been too bad on pain level. Hopefully this is a sign I'm getting better.
Day 13
GREAT NEWS!!! I woke up this morning with NO ear pain! Can you believe it? I know me either. I couldn't believe it. I was like whoa! Is this real? Yes it's real.
I went to town and bought groceries and now I'm back home. I've ate some lunch and well it's maybe a 1-2 on pain level now. It's still not bad. Hopefully this is a sign of getting better. I have taken some Tylenol. My ears are still doing great with no pain so far in them.
Tonight is the ACM's which I'm looking forward to staying up and seeing all my friends. I want to see which ones win awards! I've been waiting on this show a while. I hope I'm still pain free when it comes on so I can enjoy it.
It's raining here in MS so we know that means pain comes with the rain ☔️ prayers that it doesn't but usually means it.
I plan on having hamburgers for super because the kids want some. Sounds good right? I know! I miss good food. Im just happy that I'm slowly able to get back to "real" food.
Day 20
Today I'm feeling great and 100% back like myself ☺️ it's Thomas Rhett day at our campus and he is playing a free show. I can't wait!
He said "I KNOW YOU!" Yes he knows me is exactly right.
I'm leaving you on my updates for now. I go back to the doctor Thursday. I will update you then and end my journey of my tonsillectomy.
Thanks for all who have followed. I hope if you are having a tonsillectomy it goes well as mine did.
No comments:
Post a Comment