Day 17+

A month on now. Still experience some pain when yawning or eating certain things, but on the whole I'm much better and able to eat and drink most things again. Chips are still my nemesis, had some microwave fries rage other day and they hurt, I think cos they're quite sharp. 

Back to work now too and life is regaining some semblance of normality again. which is good. Hopefully by Christmas I will be fully healed! 

Day 15 & Day 16

Day 15 is the most active I've been post op - went up the street to collect something I'd bought online and went in to my work to say hi and check the rotas for my return. In the early evening I went out again to get my nails done. It felt good getting out and about, but also reiterated the decision to be signed off work for 3 weeks was definitely a good one as I don't think I could cope doing a full day on my feet talking to people constantly just yet. Eating is also getting easier and I'm gradually trying more things. 

Day 16 so far I haven't really done much, just been chilling at home. I am still experiencing pain when I wake up, and yawning is still super painful. Sneezing hurt less this morning though and I am now able to swallow my paracetamol whole instead of having to break the pills in half to get them down. The white scabby crap on my throat seems to be getting less and less every day too. 

I just read online that someone found exactly 3 weeks to the day of the op is when the pain stopped, hopefully this holds true for me too! I really want to hit up the Christmas market for some of the yummy goodness on offer and maybe a cup of Glühwein or two!

Day 14

I have reached the minimum recommended time off post op today, and to be honest I don't feel like I'd be ready to resume normal life fully just yet. Still some moderate pain, although I think a lot of that today is because I'm pretty sure there's scabby bits making a bid for freedom on both sides of my throat which is super uncomfortable.

I'm also really emotional today, not sure if it's PMS, frustration at not being better yet, leaving my mum's and all the nice being looked after for a few days or a combination of all three. Either way I'm lying on my bed in my dad's flat as I type this, tearing up a bit and wishing my dad was here to give me a hug and tell me to not be so silly. At least I'll see him over in Ireland next week and get looked after by him and my step-mum. My brother collected me from mum's at lunch and has left me here for the afternoon whilst he's at work then he's taking me to the train station this evening. Hopefully I'll be less teary by then - crying on the train would be mega embarrassing! Especially if someone asked if I was ok, and knowing my luck they'd be one of those "but a tonsillectomy isn't that bad, I know someone who had them done as a kid and was better instantly" people, then I'd have to explain the whole adult tonsillectomy is actually hell thing. Blah. 

Day 11, 12 & 13

Went out again on Day 11, we went for lunch at a local cafe where I had tomato soup and then to my auntie's house about an hour's drive away for dinner. This excursion kind of floored me and on Monday, day 12, I was super tired. Ended up spending most of the day in bed watching movies. On the plus side I have been eating near enough normally although I'm still avoiding spicy foods and struggle with some things. The pain is still there although not nearly as much and seems to be worst during and after eating. 

Today is day 13 and I've only taken pain medication with breakfast and with dinner which is a bonus, although I'm still quite sore although nothing unmanageable. I'm getting a bit fed up of not being fully better yet, but I understand these things take time. Heading back home to Glasgow tomorrow night for the weekend before I go and stay with my Dad and step-mum for a week, so we'll see how I get on fending for myself for the weekend!!

Day 10

I SLEPT THE WHOLE NIGHT 8 1/2 HOURS STRAIGHT! Major achievement! Was in a bit of pain when I woke up unfortunately but nothing that couldn't be sorted with paracetamol and ibuprofen. 

I left the house today for the first time since coming up north to my mum's the day after my operation. Just a trip to the supermarket in the afternoon and out to a local restaurant for dinner, but hey, baby steps! I also managed to eat half my chicken schnitzel (so around the equivelant of a small chicken breast), 8 chips and 2 onion rings, followed by half a jam sponge and some custard. This is definitely the most I've eaten in one sitting. Was in a bit of pain after from swallowing but am pleased I managed to eat more than I have been. 

Word of warning though folks, chips are quite difficult to eat. 

Going to my auntie's for dinner tomorrow so we'll see how that goes!

Day 9

I slept pretty badly last night, don't know if this was just because all the crap coming off my throat was making me uncomfortable or because I slept a lot during the day yesterday. Either way I was wide awake at 3am and totally won two episodes of Pointless I watched on iPlayer. 

Today is the first day I got up for breakfast with relatively little pain - I managed to eat a whole bowl of Coco Pops without even forcing myself. Not sure if this was down to having already been awake for 4 hours or because I'm on the mend. Either way I'll take it! 

Had a good sleep this morning after a bit of frustration and annoyance trying to buy my mum Fleetwood Mac tickets from Ticketmaster. Woke up when mum came home for lunch in a bit of pain, but made myself finish a sandwich. 

Haven't had any co-codamol since yesterday morning, am just on paracetamol, and when I feel I need it, ibuprofen that the hospital prescribed me. 

Day 8

Last night I discovered both chocolate and Ben and Jerry's Karamel Sutra ice cream are bad. They just kind of coat your throat in chocolate and make you feel uncomfortable. Chocolate is now on my list of things I can't wait to eat when I'm better.

Pretty much slept right through the night, only waking up briefly at 5am. Woke up again around 7 in agony. Turns out going all night without pain medication is not the way forward. 

Once I'd pretty much forced myself to eat half a bowl of porridge and taken my painkillers I ended up back in bed sleeping some more and woke up feeling loads better. It still hurts a bit to swallow, but on the whole I am feeling a lot better today than I have been the past few days. I didn't even take any co-codamol at lunch, just paracetamol.

Hoping I might even be well enough by the weekend that I can go to Ireland with my Daddy at the start of the week for a change of scenery and to be looked after by my Irish Mammy for a few days. 

Man this whole recovering from an adult tonsillectomy thing is no joke. 

Day 7

Woohoo survived the first week!!

Still sore and disgusting but I think I might be beginning to be on the mend. Found This earlier and my mum reckons that the day 7 picture looks like mine does today. 

Managed a solid 4 hours sleep this morning too which was magic, going to aim to get 6 hours straight through the night tonight. 

On the disgusting side of things, the scabs are beginning to come off now which unfortunately,is making me bleed a wee bit. It's only a wee bit though so we haven't gone rushing to A&E yet. Started gargling cold water which stops it and helps get some of the crap up off them. Unfortunately this also hurts a lot. Now I'm just psyching myself up for trying to eat something again at lunch. Had a banana this morning and managed not to cry about it event though it still hurt a lot. 

Day 5 & 6.

Day 5 was bad. Eating wise I couldn't even finish a yoghurt in the morning, half a bowl of cereal later on once the meds had kicked in, not even half a sandwich at lunch and then a bowl of jelly fluff for dinner. By evening the pain had subsided a little so I managed some stovies around 9pm. I realise I'm probably blogging and tweeting a lot about food, but that is what my life currently revolves around. When my next pain medication is and when I have to try and eat something. Not to mention the fact that I am actually hungry. It's weird because you are in so so so much pain in the throat area, it is genuinely how I imagine swallowing a ton of broken glass mixed with knives and razor blades and other sharp, pointy objects would be, but I'm also still getting hungry despite the pain. 

Last night wasn't so good either, was awake at 3, slept again until maybe 5ish then dozed on and off until it was time to wake up. I am also drooling a lot and my saliva seems thicker than normal despite the fact that I'm pretty much drinking the house dry of water. 

This morning I couldn't even finish a bowl of jelly fluff. Hoping once the co-codamol kicks in I can attempt something else.

I may also try and wash my hair today. I've been showering daily so my personal hygiene hasn't completely gone to shit, but the last time I washed my hair was a week ago the day before I went in to hospital. It just seems like so much effort. Ladies, the top knot is most definitely your friend in post tonsillectomy recovery! My skin is probably enjoying being make up free for a week too.

Mum said the girl from her work who got her tonsils out a couple of days before me was doing a lot better on day 7 after a rough weekend, so am hoping the same is true for me tomorrow!!! 

Update 15:09pm - crap coming off area where tonsils used to be. Just bled a tiny bit and phoned my mum freaking out. Seems to have stopped now. Hopefully that won't happen again. Really don't fancy having to go to A&E. 

Day 4.

Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow.

Basically.

Also pretty sure this is some disgusting crap trying to come off my throat. I just compared my throat to a fiery chasm in Mordor on twitter. 

Day 3.

I feel like I had a total false sense of security regarding pain levels on day 1. I was like sure this hurts, but it could be worse. If this is what it's going to be like then it's not so bad. THAT'S NOT WHAT IT'S LIKE PEOPLE!! The first day was a total walk in the park pain and eating wise. Today for the second day in a row I cried whilst trying to eat a banana first thing this morning. I'm trying to be a model patient and eat proper solid food to promote healing but currently I just don't know if I can do it.

Last night I googled best foods to eat after a tonsillectomy and found an about.com page about it where people had contributed. Some guy had posted on there that he'd just had his out and was fine and returning to work the next day. Like the day after his op. Crazy fool. I can only assume he was completely mental or lying. No amount of money in the world could make me go to work right now, I doubt I'd be able to function properly at my job anyway, I mean for starters I don't think I could actually speak to customers. Physically incapable because of the pain. 

Another day of bed rest is in store for me today. So glad I'm at my mums and not home alone, this would be a bajillion times worse without people looking after me. 

Day 2.

Success - I slept right through from around 11pm to 5.30am, and even then I mostly only woke up because I needed the loo.

Fail - deciding to go back to sleep after I'd been to the bathroom instead of hitting my mum up for some painkillers.

I woke again at 6.30am but decided although I was kinda sore I was too sleepy to get up, plus my mum has the day off so I thought I'd let her sleep in a bit. Slept another hour or so then couldn't avoid getting up. Worst pain I've had yet since my tonsils came out. Cried my way through eating a banana, because as painful as it is I am trying to be a model patient and do as I'm told, and I'm told eating helps you to heal faster. Thankfully the pain has subsided a bit now since I've had my meds, but I am now dreading day 5 which the doctors said is the worst day. Nobody knows why this is the case, it just is.

Planning to spend most of the day in bed with Netflix.

Day 1

I managed to get quite a bit of sleep on and off throughout my night in hospital, with the nurses just checking my observations a couple of times through the night and one wee mishap in which I rolled over and knocked my cup of juice off the table onto my bed resulting in a change of sheets.  The next morning I was again surprised at the pain levels, it was more painful than the night before, but still less painful than I was expecting. By this point they'd switched me to liquid meds, so instead of having to swallow tablets I got to swallow tropical fruity tasting medicine. I managed to eat a bowl of Rice Krispies for breakfast, and shortly after the nurse came to remove my cannula and told me I was good to go home once my mum got there to collect me.

After a quick stop off at my flat for a shower and to pack my stuff, most of the day was spent in the car with some of my family - my step-sister is currently signed off work with a broken finger, so the pair of us were invalids together in the back of the car.

We stopped at a garden centre on the way up north for lunch and everyone was surprised that I ate an entire baked potato minus the skin and half a cupcake. Pain levels were better than they had been first thing in the morning too, and although my throat did still hurt it was bearable.

At home I ate well in the evening and just relaxed watching tv before taking my last lot of pain killers before bed.

Day 1 post op, not too shabby  at all. Obviously there has been some pain and discomfort but no worse than a bad bout of tonsillitis. My best friend also rang me to check I still sounded like me because she didn't know if it would change how I spoke haha.

Pre-op - post op.

5th November is a date we celebrate Guy Fawkes night here in the UK, however on 5th November 2015 I had something very different to celebrate. After 4 years, goodness knows how many antibiotics and, except for a glorious almost 6 month spell of being tonsillitis free last winter, trips to my GP, I was finally getting my tonsils out!

Having had my pre-op assessment a couple of weeks prior, I was declared fit and healthy for the operation, so naturally I had my last bout of tonsillitis a week before the operation. I was nervous when I arrived at the hospital - what if they looked at me and decided they couldn't do the operation? I arrived at day surgery before my call time of 8am and got all checked in, so far so good, and sat with my mum until a nurse came to take me through to the pre-op ward. Once I was in the ward the surgeon came and spoke to me about the operation, hooked me up with a sick note for my recovery time off work and looked at my tonsils to check I was ok to have the op, luckily the super strength antibiotics I'd been on had done the job and I was good to go. One of the anaesthetists also came and spoke to me, asked me some medical questions etc. then I got told to change into my sexy hospital gown (on the plus side they let me keep on my own underwear) and dressing gown and slippers as out of the 4 or 5 of us there I was getting taken to theatre first.

I didn't have much longer after that to wait, killed some time reading the magazine I had brought, and at around 9.30am the nurse came and walked me down to the room where I was getting the anaesthetic. The anaesthetist put the cannula in my hand to give me all the drugs etc. and was chatting away to me. The last thing I remember was chatting about my year abroad in Germany and the next thing I knew it was around 11am and I was being woken up in recovery. The first thing I noticed was I was super thirsty, I guess that's a side effect of the anaesthetic and also having not had anything to drink since my last sip of water at 6.30am.

I don't really remember much else from this portion of the proceedings other than being told my tonsils were out and being wheeled to the ward I would be staying in. The first couple of hours post op I pretty much spent lying in my bed drinking as much water as I could manage to swallow. The nurses tried me with some lunch around 12 but it was a bit too soon after the operation and I only managed 4 wee bits of pasta before giving up. A while later I got offered a sandwich, this went slightly better and I managed half, however unfortunately I then decided to get up to the bathroom unaided which was a big mistake and the sandwich decided to reappear in the sink. The rest of the afternoon was spent dozing on and off, drinking water and apple and blackcurrant squash and being given pain meds at some point. They also gave me something for the nausea. Dinner wasn't much more successful, I managed a little of the cottage pie they gave me and a yoghurt, then was sick again trying to swallow my co-codamol. Cue more anti-nausea medicine and the decision that I should spend the night in the hospital. Later in the evening I managed to eat a ham sandwich and around 11pm I went to sleep.

Post op the pain wasn't nearly as bad as I was expecting it to be, and although swallowing was difficult because of the swelling, it could have been a lot worse. The surgeon came round to see me in the afternoon and said that I must have had a fair few infections because my tonsils were horrible when he took them out. In the pre-op assessment a few weeks back they asked if I was ok donating my tissues to medical science, so I guess some poor medical students are probably having the joy of poking about at them round about now.