Kim
Hello fellow tonsilites, I originally posted a message in August of 2001 and this is my first time back because I received a messge from Health link that a tonsil message had been posted so I decided to check it out and I have read all 70 post. I feel so bad when people say they are afraid after reading the post and good when people say that they did not read the post until after and that they really helped. Please understand that this is 2004 and they no longer arbitrarily remove tonsils. If your ENT says they need to come out they need to come out. The pain is bad, yes, but you will also have a lot of good funny stories to tell about the entire operation. I was so scared when I went in that I was shaking but I felt so much better when I was called back and put in this changing room and most of the gowns for these cute little kids gowns with looney tune characters on them. Of course, I was 33 and they would not fit me so I was stuck with the old-fashioned gown. When I was changed and taken into the ward my roomate was about 4 and he sure wasn't scared so it made me feel very brave. The doctor came in to ask him what flavor he wanted in his mask when he was put to sleep and he chose bubblegum. I was never made an offer and had nothing. I remember complaining as I was falling off to sleep. Do not worry smokers you can smoke on the drive home from your surgery much to the horror of your loving relatives that have taken time off of work to be with you. That first day you feel great. Everyone is over feeling sorry for you and doing everything for you and you can just milk it for all it is worth (you have about a month of this treatment depending on how good you are). One of the funniest things to happen was my poor husband gave me my first does of liquid pain medication and he misunderstood the difference in teaspoon and tablespoon so I had about 9 time the dosage I should have had. Luckily I puked my guts out and afterward I was feeling no pain. Please do not try this I got very lucky to still be here to tell about the story. Anyway, I was cocky to say the least and then day two rolled around and knocked me over like a ton of bricks and I was in hell for about 10 days until those quarter size scabs finally came off. That is the worse and no one seems to want to talk about it. You get huge scabs and when they start to come up it feels awful (not painful). If feels like something is stuck in the back of your throat. When I went back to work I had to talk on the phone and all of our clients were so nice to me because I sounded so terrible. I was not in pain but I sure sounded like it so it did not matter I still got the sympathy and when I would tell them I felt fine they just thought I was so brave. Someone said that they were looking forward to losing weight and I am sorry to say it ain't going to happen! You are starving even though you cannot eat. I equated it to have your jaws wired shut. As soon as you can eat you make up for lost time. It has been almost 10 years for me so I do not really remember what I ate just remember I had ice cream and thought I would die. I am a soda addict and was able to drink that with a straw. Oh yeah, I ate KFC mashed potatoes and cole slaw! Their mashed potatoes slid right down. After I was off the strong pain meds which I did not take long I took a lot of liquid tylenol and it really helps because it coats your throat when you take it so it was like instant relief. I guess it is just important to know the truth. You will need to throw up a cup of blood, I was lucky and did it all at once in recovery so I was never nauseated like other people who take several weeks to do it. You will need to take no less then two weeks off of work and you should have a good honest ENT that will tell you everything about the procedure and not use misleading words like a "little discomfort". It is also important that the ENT understands the pain and is willing to back you up with pain meds for two or three weeks. Yes, the pain is bad but it is just your throat that hurts and you get time off from work and you get to watch TV and read and lay around and do all the things you never get to do. My tonsils were really enlarged so it was weird getting used to all the space in my throat. I used to sneeze really cute and petite but now I sneeze like a really big man. There is not a day that goes by that I regret my surgery and the pain memories have long since faded and I laugh a lot about all the things that happened! Good luck to you all and do not put it off. If it helps to think of it this way it is not like you are sitting in a dental chair having pain inflicted on you because you are out during the surgery. I cannot handle infliction of pain but I can handle the left over pain. Like I getting shots but feeling sore afterwards is okay. Hope that makes sense so be brave little soilders and try to post the funny stuff also! Hope you last two that had surgery are going to have a great time kicking back and recovering - sorry I forgot your names but what is one of the side effects of the tonsilectomy. Just kidding (hehe) I just losing my mind!