The first 24 hours

after my tonsillectomy went fairly well. Not too much pain, considering I've have strep throat that's hurt more than this. It's more of an annoyance really, but knowing that it will soon be over makes my day! It's the lack of real food that is killing me! Not that I would really want to eat much right now, but I am steadily getting sick of jello, pudding, ice cream, ice, and yogurt. However, tomorrow, I am going to try some warm things, like my tea that I am missing horribly! and maybe some broth type soups. No semi-real food til maybe saturday or later, depending on how my throat looks, and feels, by then.

This was my first ever surgery, first time for anesthesia of any sort, and I scared myself about this procedure by reading too much stuff on the internet! Never, ever, ever look up "adult tonsillectomy" online. You'll begin to wonder what the hell you were thinking about when you agreed to go ahead with this! Everyone complains about the pain and agony, which I personally have little of so far (thanks for the high pain tolerance, whoever!), and how awful their recovery was. Well, so far so good 24 hours later, except for the lack of sleep last night.

For those of you who don't take my advice to never ever look up "adult tonsillectomy" online here is my tips that I have garnered so far:

1. Ice, and a whole bag of it! Chewed up and swallowed it feels sooooooo good, plus it helps keep you hydrated. Although, I'm sure the dentist wouldn't appreciate it, I'm sure, it is just a temporary thing!

2. water to go with the ice and to help keep you hydrated. My advice, get a pitcher, fill it up and keep it in the fridge so it will be good and cold...really.

*odd-ball foot note here: The cold stuff with help keep your blood vessels nice and constricted so that you will have little, or no, post op bleeding, which is always a plus! That post op bleeding will land you in the Emergency Room and possibly back into the Operating Room to re-cauterize your throat and you start out a square one again!

3. cool to cold foods for a few days, such as those mentioned above.

4. an ice collar. sounds strange, but it helps to reduce the swelling that occurs, even on the outside of the neck. By reducing the swelling on both the inside with the cold ice, water, and foods and on the outside, I think it feels gobs better. In fact those were one of the first things I grabbed right after I got up this am.

5. rest!!!! I can't stress that enough. I also believe that is why adults have so many more complications. They try to do too much. I found that out first hand last night, and all I did was get up, dressed, got ice with a little bit of water and then sat in the car to go to my sons school for an awards ceremony. By the time I walked into the school I was already just absolutely exhausted! By the time we got through the 30 minutes of sitting and got out of there, I was ready to sleep! And I really didn't do too much!

So, take the time off work, enjoy being a bum, don't worry about the house work, showering (for the next day, at least), or doing anything that doesn't include your butt firmly planted somewhere that you can sleep at as well! Meaning, the couch or bed! Seriously! That will do more fore you than trying to do so much stuff you make yourself sick!!!

Not to mention, you probably won't be sleeping well at night either, so it's very important to get rest throughout the day! I think I slept on and off all night a total of maybe 5 hours...maybe. I'd say closer to four, but let's not go that extreme. Maybe I slept more than I thougt...

I took a full dose of pain medication (I've been taking half doses this first day) at 11:00 pm, after snoozing some on the couch, took a full glass of water with ice in it to help keep it cold throughout the night and woke up at least 5 times to go pee, a good 10 to 15 times to get a drink of water, and twice for middle of the night pain meds (the first time it was too early, so I just went back to sleep, sorta, for another 30 minutes). I went though the whole glass of water by 6 am, so I got up and got more and laid back down for another hour before getting up for the day, where I'm now sitting on my butt on the couch listening to the news while playing on the computer. Yup, taking it easy.

So there's my advice on this subject, so far. I will probably continue to blog about it for a while, as I continue to add to my diet and activity level. For now, I have knitting to do, so that's exactly what I'm going to do for now!