The Healing Blossom: Tonsillectomy – Day 11-15, THE FIRST WEEK BACK TO WORK

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Tonsillectomy – Day 11-15, THE FIRST WEEK BACK TO WORK


Day 11

Today is my first day back to work. I need to be coherent today so I’ve decided to not take the Percocet unless I absolutely have to. It was really cold outside and I had to scrape the car this morning. The cold triggered some ear pain.

I arrived at work in a lot of pain and I decided to take the percocet. The pain in my ears and throat is increasing. I put my Millenia oil in my ears and took a few licks off the numbing lollipop. Wow..the pain is getting worse…the oil seem to be helping, but over all, I feel horrible.

Why did I come back today? Why did I fax in my doctors note stating I could return? Boy was I wrong. Its one thing to feel this pain and be knocked out by pain meds with my kitten to keep me company. But dealing with this at work is a whole different story. UGH! I want to go home :(

I will be sitting all day…but I really need to lay down. I finally make it to lunch time and set-up camp in the spare office. I took a nap on the floor and used my coat as a blanket and my other jacket as a pillow. The napped helped – a lot...but I could’ve slept a lot longer. My head is pretty fuzzy and I’m thankful I have a job where I can sit down. By the afternoon the ear pain settled.
Finally I’m on my way home and dying to take another Percocet. I would compare today’s pain to what I was feeling on day 4. Wow, I felt pretty good Friday and now the pain is just as intense as a full week prior. Ugh…

 Day 11 Diet:

·         Cultured Coocnut Milk (creamy dairy free yogurt beverage)

·         Rice Protein Shake with borage oil and green superfoods

·         Beet Soup (liver cleansing)

·         Steamed veggies

·         Warm chocolate almond milk

·         Left over salmon avocado sushi with coconut aminos (it's a gluten free soy sauce replacement)

·         Coconut chocolate ice cream

Things I tried but was too painful:

·         Blueberry Herbal tea (too tangy)

·         Coconut date roll (soft but stuck to the roof of my mouth)

·         Buffered Vitamin C (it didn’t hurt yesterday)

Cultured Coconut Milk comes in three flavors: chocolate, vanilla, strawberry. It's not as thick as yogurt but tastes just like it. Actually coconut yogurt is very creamy I prefer it over dairy.



Day 12

I decided it may be better to set an alarm at 4AM and take my Percocet. That way I'll be sleeping when it hits me. Maybe that will make my day less painful. It will be wearing off about the time I’m driving to work.

7AM came too quickly….I must peel myself out of bed….ugh…today is not as bad as yesterday – that’s for sure.  When I arrived at work, it was struggling. I took another Percocet around 11AM. I was ready for another nap on my lunch break. This time I brought a small blanket I used it as a pillow and my coat as a blanket. Nap time...

Day 13

I took my Percocet at 3AM and getting out of bed was a little easier when 7AM came around. After I got to work I realized I’d forgotten my Percocet and panicked. I almost went back home to get it but I decided to wait it out. If the pain got really bad I could always go home if I had to. A co-worker gave me some ibuprofen and I made it through the day. I took a dose of percocet when I got home and since I made it through the day, I decided I could make it through the entire night.

Day 14

Yawn…grit….yawn…grit…..I’m sooo tired and I can’t stop yawning….but I can’t yawn….I have to grit my teeth to prevent a very painful yawn. I made it through the entire day without pain meds. That night I tried to sleep and had trouble. Around 1AM I gave in and took a Percocet and was able to fall asleep. Hmm....could that be sign of pain killer addiction?

Yep...sure enough....withdrawals from the percocet caused me to yawn all day and kept me from falling asleep.

Day 15

It’s been 2 weeks since the surgery and I’m sooo tired. The pain is minimal but not strong enough to take anything for it. I went to the grocery store this evening and was carrying 1 grocery bag and fell in the middle of the store. I didn’t slip or trip….it’s like my legs just gave out from underneath me. Embarrassing for sure but I got back up and pretended like it was no big deal. When I arrived home, it happened again, this time I dropped the food I’d just purchased all over the floor…and the glass platter it was all on. I guess I need more rest. You'd think after 2 weeks of doing nothing but laying around, you'd get back your strength and be normal....I feel anything but normal.

I feel like I can pretty much eat anything. I tried crackers and nuts today and it all went down ok. The only thing that bothered me was pineapple….it stung.

After falling twice today, I’m in pain all over. I took one last Percocet before bed– but it’s the last one I’m taking (I still have 1/3 of my bottle left).

Next: Tonsillectomy - If I Had To Do It All Over Again

13 comments:

  1. Omg i feel so bad for you, ya know, falling like that. Im on day 8 right now and this is exactly why im taking another week off work to rest. Idk why i was planning to rwturn on day 10 but my dr said Don`t push it. You took the words right from me, when u went back and said what am i doing here why did i come back so soon. I imagined myself suffering at work like that and could not put myself in that position. Stories like this reassure that im on the right path. I know this post is old but i appreciate the advice and input, god bless.

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  2. It's Day 9 For me. I feel way better but still have these sores on the back of my tongue which hurt every time my mouth gets dry. I can't manage to sleep for 3 hrs straight and Still rely on my perks to get me by. Having a humidifier does help. Drinking ensure has also helped me maintain some energy. Due to the pain meds I've been really constipated :-(

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  3. Day 11 for me and somehow I thought it was gonna be a lot easier by now, I should've read a few blogs first cause Oh man does this stink. And I hate hate hate hate yawning. It's sooo painful but somehow it's all my body wants to do. When is normal coming back???!?!!??

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  4. I'm on day 12 ( counting surgery day) and I can say that up untill this point it has been like I'm dancing with the pain...one day I feel ok like I finally going to get through this...then the next thing I know it feels I'm 2 days back...I have had complications on days 3-5 such as bleeding and swelling of my tongue and throat...i just went and got advil extra strength that sh#* works! The swelling went down instantly and the pain subsided too...now the advil said 3 pills in 24 hrs but I noticed the pain recurring after only 4/5 hrs so I just kept taking more thankfully I had my mom around( you definitely need someone around for a good week and on call for week 2)...today being day 12 counting surgery day ( oh I forgot to say I'm 29 yrs old and suffered from strep and tonsillitis A LOT so after almost 5/7 yrs of this I said I needed to have the surgery it was affecting my work and lifestyle for to long) but today I feel bit better I managed to sleep majority of the night and had taken my last advil at 930pm yesterday my mouth this morning feel bit dry and like I have soar throat but the pain is managable finally! :)....for past 3 days my sleeping did increase from 1to 2 hrs to me sleeping 5 to 6 hrs straight... I have been trying to get my regular food / diet back but it's a very slow process... I eat with family but my portions are still what I call child snack size and that take me almost an hour to completely finish it if I don't get frustrated and just not eat anything but milkshakes (home made) and ice water...what I fine now is yes I'm yawning a lot but also coughing which is hard to do but I'm making it through...and I can tell you all this is something that is definitely tough  and love ones are going to try to understand and be there for you but some days your are going to be so irritable and depressed that they are going to feel worse then you since that can't imagine(unless they done it) the pain or frustration post surgery people have .... I'm been blessed that my family knows I suffered a lot and have tried to cheer me up but telling me what I can look forward to after I'm healed ( example no more strep or lest frequent loss of voice) and this fourms helped me with the depression I've felt it's really nice to see all different ages and experience and stages of people who went through the same or similar thing I have... abd for everyone still in the early days let me tell you it will get better I promise...it feels like it's so far for you to reach but trust me you will get there :)....and I hope and wish all of you a speedy recovery! :) ‎

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  5. I am on day 11 today, went to have PHO with friends yesterday. Today I am really in pain on on the left side of my throat and left ear. Regardless of how much I sleep I am so tired. I am 47. I went shopping yesterday to buy my niece a fancy frame to but her degree in, she just graduated college. I could barely move for the rest of the day. Luckily I am not going back to work until the 15th.

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  6. I'm on day 13 and I feel more pain on the right hand side of my tongue and ear. It's so painful especially when I swallow spit. I take pain killers and anti inflammatory pills and they don't seem to be helpingood.
    As a result of been on pain killer for a long time, I am now constipated. My Dr insisted that I refrain from soft food from day 2 till now. I have been forcing myself to eat solid foods.

    However, day 15 is around the corner and he promised that final scabs would have fallen by then.

    Looking forward to be normal again and start exercising again.

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  7. I also had recent tonsillectomy tonsils were bad sick all the time so decided to have them removed .. The day of my surgery started out horrible I was a little dehydrated so they couldn't find a good vein so they had to do a central iv in my neck by then I was like screw that i wanna go home . when i woke up after surgery I just wanted ice water no meds just water an my Husband bout an hour later I went home pain was about 1/10 I ate 2 can ckn noodle soup an crashed out I'm not gonna lie I'm a smoker an smokes a cigg when i got home praying if be ok that first night I went to sleep was ok for about 2 hours then realized the pain is setting in an new I was in trouble day to for me was horrible the pain meds I had wasn't doing nothing for the pain so day 2 I suffered only slept bout 1 hour at a time that night only thing that helped was really cold ice water day 3 was even worse I ended up at er for help the pain was agony I got some relife an went home day 4.5. Was about the same still sleeping only hour at a time an I'm smoking like normal again . 6-9 Was fairly ok by day 7 I was eating with no problem no bleeding or anything I'm now on day 14 an feel bout 90% back to normal . but not gonna sugar coat anything it is painful very an I've suffered some pain broke everything in my waist in 2012 an the pain was nothing compared to this . just know there is light at end of all this

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  8. Age 29, I'm on day 13 and I'm able to eat oodles and noodles and fluffy scrambled eggs. I stopped taking my strong pain meds because I was tired of feeling like a zombie. I am much better than I was day 1-10 but my ears are so sore and sharp pain goes right up to them when I drink or eat. When I yawn or sneeze it's so painful and my mouth feels really tight. I'm in pain but more or so agitated that I can't really eat or drink with out being in pain. I'm starting to see the light at the end of tunnel but this is a really slow healing process and you are so weak from it. So stay strong try to drink water or warm tea or Luke warm coffee and eat if you can. Also don't talk if you don't have to or drive the first two weeks because you are very weak even if you feel fine don't over do it.

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  9. Age 20 I'm on day 13 and it's just weird I can't find anyone who has this same problem where I just cough and cough and choke to the point where I gag and it's so painful on my right side of my throat and my right ear. And the coughing in non stop to the point where I had to go to the hospital and they just prescribed like 2 pain killers 1 cough syrup and an anti inflammatory still haven't seen any change in the coughing. I was fine 2 days ago to the point where I finally ate a full meal from Taco Bell and now 2 days later j have this itching cough

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  10. Age 20 I'm on day 13 and it's just weird I can't find anyone who has this same problem where I just cough and cough and choke to the point where I gag and it's so painful on my right side of my throat and my right ear. And the coughing in non stop to the point where I had to go to the hospital and they just prescribed like 2 pain killers 1 cough syrup and an anti inflammatory still haven't seen any change in the coughing. I was fine 2 days ago to the point where I finally ate a full meal from Taco Bell and now 2 days later j have this itching cough

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    Replies
    1. Hi, I just had my tonsillectomy 12 days ago and wanted to let you know that, I’ve ha the same violent coughing attacks. So amazed I haven’t started bleeding. Still waiting on the damn scabs to fall off. So over the pain and constant mucus and bad taste.

      Hope you are doing well

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  11. Im 46 yrs old and on day 11. I think Im dying a slow & excruciating death. This pain has been off the charts. I cant eat or sleep. I went back to work last night which was a HUGE mistake. I pray that this doesnt get any worse. I dont think I can take any more pain. It's on my left side. My ear, teeth, and throat hurt. I want my mommie.

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  12. Hi guys. Im on day 12 and honestly still in so much pain. Since surgery I tried about three solid meals, all which has been painful. Im back to work the 16th but might ask for an extention as this pain is just dreadful. I cannot deal with pain and dahm this pain is agonizing. I promised myself from today on I wouldn't take anymore meds as im sick of feeling like a pure zombie and just sleeping all the time. Going to try and fight through the pain without meds starting today.
    Honestly just want to be my normal self again :(

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