janice
it's me again. i was the one who had to go through surgery again because of bleeding after my tonsillectomy. well not long after my post, i started to bleed yet again - except this time it wouldn't stop. by the time we got to the hospital i was so dizzy and weak i couldn't walk on my own. they took a hemoglobin count and i lost so much blood mine was down to 79 (normal is 150) - so they had to pump some blood into me. the bad news was i had a had a reaction to the blood (something about developing antibodies even though the donor was a perfect match) - and started to get hives on my back! the good news was that i stopped bleeding and managed to get my blood count up to 98 before they had to disconnect me, and the hives went away after a shot of benedryl. i was kept at the hospital the whole weekend so they could keep an eye on me. they decided to do some blood tests to see if i had problems with blood clotting as well. i never took that into consideration because no one in my family had any problems with surgery before. i just got discharged this morning and there is still a little bit of pain and dizzyness. it's a little more difficult when i wake up in the middle of the night and try to swallow and it feels like i'm trying to swallow a sharp rock lodged in my throat. also i haven't been able to get more than 3 hours of sleep a night since the surgery. yes it's been hellish but my throat does look a lot better than it did 2 days ago - none of the brown crusty stuff, more of the smooth white stuff. chewing gum keeps the jaw moving and my mouth full of spit so it doesn't get dry. this is my 10th day after initial surgery and i'm still on the soft food diet. (mostly jello and clear soup). i tried a sandwich yesterday and even a slice of carrot cake. my stomach must be in shock from being deprived of solid food for so long because it's not impressed with anything i've eaten. my taste buds too - i usually have a healthy appetite but nothing seems to taste good these days. jello is good though because it's cold and soothing going down. i got my tongue pierced awhile ago - and the maintenance required for that was NOTHING compared to this...