Hi everyone,

Well, yesterday or the day before when I last posted, things seemed to be going really well. Pain was lessening, scabs thinning, and I felt overall much better.

Then ... this morning at about 6, while up with my daughter, I suddenly tasted blood in my mouth. The bleeding was from the right side, where about half the scab had peeled away, and quite heavy. I drank/rinsed with ice water and eventually it seemed to stop - only to then start up again. And so on, for about 2 hours. Bleed heavily, slow down, stop, repeat. At 8 AM I called my ENT's office, and they said to come right in. At that point the bleeding was verymild, but I had my husband drive me in anyway. Once there, the doctor looked in my throat and said he did see a couple of clots that he would suction off, and then, if there was bleeding, he would apply first a cotton ball with a vasoconstrictor and then something mercury (?) to cauterize if necessary.

Well, he started with the suctuining and cotton ball, and the bleeding continued so heavily that I gagged and vomited up a huge amount of blood and clots. I guess I swallowed more while at home than I had realized. It was one of the most disgusting experiences of my life. Once I had managed to get myself under control, he proceeded to the chemical cauterization, which did not manage to stop the bleeding. So out came the electrical cauterizer. I got an injection in my throat and then he went to work. In between the burning and smoking of the machine, I kept gagging up blood clots (the bleeding was continuing) and semi-vomiting. In all of the rushing around, I was burned by the cauterizer on the tongue, lips, and (I think) gums. It turned out I had 2 or 3 separate spots that were bleeding, and they were hard to close.

Finally it was done, and now I am home with a new prescription for Percocet, a killer pain in my right throat and ear, a terrible taste of blood and electrical discharge in my mouth, and overall a very low state of mind.

Does anyone know how likely it is that the recauterized spots will reopen? How about the likelihood that the left side will also become a bleeder? I just don't know how I could stand going through this again...

Jillolina

Once you have been recaurterized the likely hood of it reopenning is minute. You should be good. And once you have one case of bleeding the chances of bleeding again reduce dramatically. I had a similar situation, but I ended up with three instances of bleeding; all were slowed down or almost stopped by ice/ice water and mild chemical caurterization (Barium Sulfate powder packing after a mild peroxide rinse).

I made it through it you will too. I am sorry that you had the bleeding issues that you did. Best of luck on the rest of your recovery.

Sincerely,
MG

Hi, and thanks for your reply. What is barium sulfate powder, and is it someething you can try at home?

Thanks,

Jillolina

Barium Sulfate an ionic compound made of a Barium cation and Sulfate anion complex, it is a yellow powder that my ENT uses as a sulfate disinfecting and dry/packing salt for the surgical wound site. He buys the surgical, human oral grade, USDA approved chemical. It is not a dangerous compound, but it is not something the average person can buy and use. You have to have a license for the purchasing of any non-standard chemical. I wish you could have bought it and had it on hand. It worked really well for both me and my son, it also did require a special tool that dispensed and packed the paste into the area. I wish I could have told you differently.

Sincerely,
MG

I'm 29 and it is now Day 13 since my tonsillectomy (June 1st), using the Coblation method, it's been a living hell. I wish I could be one of the small % of posters saying that they were fully recovered by Day 10 and able to eat anything they wanted to. Unfortunately, that's not my case. I'm a redhead and I guess I'm supposed to bleed easily (according to my ENT) because on the dreadful Day 9, Saturday evening, I was rushed to ER to stop a broken blood vessel that was found on the left side of the cut site to get it recauterized and I had to stay overnight since the surgery was done around midnight, so it was late to go home. I left the hospital at 8:30am on Sunday. I was actually bleeding on Day 6, but stopped after 3 hours and made an appointment with my ENT and he said nothing to worry about and cauterization wasn't necessary. How wrong he was! His partner (the other dr in the office) was the one who did the emergency recauterization. I was really bummed about this whole ordeal especially the notion that I am in the 3%-6% pool of patients who had to go in to get recauterization.

I recall that Days 3 through 6 were the toughest, pain was insane through the 8th I think with the ears hurting and all that which is normal. I was taking tylenol and liquid codeine plus antibiotics (amoxicillan), but right now I'm taking tablets (Percocet) and a stronger antibiotic running for a week-- meaning I should be done and done by Day 18! And what's more is that I have a week-long family vacation in California on that day... So I'm really hoping (praying/thinking positive) that I'll be back on my feet by then and no further complications arise. There is some soreness from the cauterization sites and bouts of paranoia of bleeding (who could blame me?). I been sleeping upright most nights, taking less painkillers so it seems, most of scab has been gone from right side of my throat except the left side where cauterization took place, eating crummy jello, popsicles, pudding, campbell chicken noodle soup, ramen -- chicken flavor, scrambled eggs, soft bread (w/o crust), Boost energy drink, tons of cold bottled regular water, apple juice, Propel (vitamin water), and every once in a while Mac n Cheese. I guess I better continue using cold/ice packs around the neck too.

There, I've shared my experience and am looking for additional feedback/comments from those who have experienced recauterization-- like how much longer did it take for you to heal after the procedure? Any further bleeding? I hear that there may be minimal bleeding discharge from scabs falling of but nothing more serious. The dr who performed the cauterization said there's a 99% chance I'll be fine! Let's hope that rings true!

Thanks!

Ok, so this post has officialy scared me. :( I am up at 4:30 in the morning because of bleeding in the back of my throat. I haven't looked to see if any scabs came off but after reading everything I am sure they have. I really dont want to go back to the hospital for re-cauterization. I'm just starting to eat half-solid foods and feel semi normal. Last night I only woke up once, same with tonight but for a different reason. I'm trying the ice water to try to stop the bleeding. It seems to have worked. I'm going to keep trying this if the bleeding occurs again.

Hi everyone,

Well, yesterday or the day before when I last posted, things seemed to be going really well. Pain was lessening, scabs thinning, and I felt overall much better.

Then ... this morning at about 6, while up with my daughter, I suddenly tasted blood in my mouth. The bleeding was from the right side, where about half the scab had peeled away, and quite heavy. I drank/rinsed with ice water and eventually it seemed to stop - only to then start up again. And so on, for about 2 hours. Bleed heavily, slow down, stop, repeat. At 8 AM I called my ENT's office, and they said to come right in. At that point the bleeding was verymild, but I had my husband drive me in anyway. Once there, the doctor looked in my throat and said he did see a couple of clots that he would suction off, and then, if there was bleeding, he would apply first a cotton ball with a vasoconstrictor and then something mercury (?) to cauterize if necessary.

Well, he started with the suctuining and cotton ball, and the bleeding continued so heavily that I gagged and vomited up a huge amount of blood and clots. I guess I swallowed more while at home than I had realized. It was one of the most disgusting experiences of my life. Once I had managed to get myself under control, he proceeded to the chemical cauterization, which did not manage to stop the bleeding. So out came the electrical cauterizer. I got an injection in my throat and then he went to work. In between the burning and smoking of the machine, I kept gagging up blood clots (the bleeding was continuing) and semi-vomiting. In all of the rushing around, I was burned by the cauterizer on the tongue, lips, and (I think) gums. It turned out I had 2 or 3 separate spots that were bleeding, and they were hard to close.

Finally it was done, and now I am home with a new prescription for Percocet, a killer pain in my right throat and ear, a terrible taste of blood and electrical discharge in my mouth, and overall a very low state of mind.

Does anyone know how likely it is that the recauterized spots will reopen? How about the likelihood that the left side will also become a bleeder? I just don't know how I could stand going through this again...

Jillolina

Sorry this had to happen to you! I'm on my 2nd full month of recovery since the second recauterization. For my recauterization I went into ER and was put down under gen asth. and the wound has never reopened since. I've had several false alarms, mostly paranoid (I had some trauma because of how much I bled before the recauterization). I'm not sure how effective your recauterization was since this was done locally while you were awake. Not to scare you or anything, but just stay positive and make sure you dont play around with your throat (move it around or gulp) so much. Good luck and you'll be fine in no time! Everything is just great months later; my voice gets hoarse every once in awhile every other several weeks just bc I am in the recovery months. :)

Oh you poor things! I am in pain - acute pain and it's my birthday with no cake in sight, no lovely dinner out a a restaurant etc. but I am not bleeding like this. I am on day 10 today and hopefully these scabs will be gone soon and I will be away laughing. It's my birthday today and I can't eat any cake or anything else for that matter! :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

We have had some bad luck though. I live in England but my and my husband's families come from New Zealand. His parents are here at the moment working over the summer as pharmacists. They took a couple of days off to look after the children so that my husband could go to work - he has been trying to look after me, the 2 and 3 year old and juggle full time work as a solicitor - he couldn't take any time off so is working every evening until 3 in the morning! Then when his parents were looking after the children my father in law tripped over and has broken his hip and is in hospital (due on operation tomorrow) and they can't go on holiday in France for the week!

:eek:

Rachel

My 17 and a half year old daughter had her tonsils removed 7 days ago. She's been in so much pain it's not funny. She seems to be getting gradually worse with some bleeding in the saliva. Dr. says scab probably came off. She sees the ENT today so hopefully he'll be able to up her pain killers. She's on panadeine 15 and penicillin. It seems like she's never going to get better. How long does it take to feel better? Her throat is really white and the area quite large where the tonsils were removed. I hope this is all worth it. I didn't want her to have them out but they were giving her so much trouble. It's damned if you do and damned if you don't by the looks of things. Hopefully someone can tell me how much longer this will go on.
:angel:

My 17 and a half year old daughter had her tonsils removed 7 days ago. She's been in so much pain it's not funny. She seems to be getting gradually worse with some bleeding in the saliva. Dr. says scab probably came off. She sees the ENT today so hopefully he'll be able to up her pain killers. She's on panadeine 15 and penicillin. It seems like she's never going to get better. How long does it take to feel better? Her throat is really white and the area quite large where the tonsils were removed. I hope this is all worth it. I didn't want her to have them out but they were giving her so much trouble. It's damned if you do and damned if you don't by the looks of things. Hopefully someone can tell me how much longer this will go on.
:angel:
About 10 to 20 days, realistically speaking...

Last night I woke up twice from my throat bleeding. I can't explain it to anyone at work why I'm late because they get grossed out. I was late to my first day back at work today because my throat didn't stop bleeding until 6:45. I called the doctors office once I got to work and they told me that once my throat started bleeding, I should've gone to the Emergency room. Oops. I waited two days. I had my throat re-cauterized today and it really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I'm not back to square one because it doesn't hurt that bad. The doctor just held down my tounge and touched the back of my throat with this weird looking utensil. I didn't even feel him do it. It doesn't feel like its been burned again. I just hope my throat doesn't bleed again tonight. :(

My daughter went back to the ENT surgeon yesterday and he put something on the spot where it was bleeding and it helped a lot. The burning stinging sensation seems to have passed. He gave her some stronger medication which I gave her and it totally elimated her pain;Tramadol I researched it on the net and it's pretty heavy duty stuff. I've decided to go with the panadeine forte which is another medication he gave her because it seems safer to take. The tramadol is addictive and as she's on aropax it could have serious side effects. Hopefully she's better today day 8.
What a long journey this has been.
:angel:

Oh you poor things! I am in pain - acute pain and it's my birthday with no cake in sight, no lovely dinner out a a restaurant etc. but I am not bleeding like this. I am on day 10 today and hopefully these scabs will be gone soon and I will be away laughing. It's my birthday today and I can't eat any cake or anything else for that matter! :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

We have had some bad luck though. I live in England but my and my husband's families come from New Zealand. His parents are here at the moment working over the summer as pharmacists. They took a couple of days off to look after the children so that my husband could go to work - he has been trying to look after me, the 2 and 3 year old and juggle full time work as a solicitor - he couldn't take any time off so is working every evening until 3 in the morning! Then when his parents were looking after the children my father in law tripped over and has broken his hip and is in hospital (due on operation tomorrow) and they can't go on holiday in France for the week!

:eek:

Rachel