first off, hi everyone!!! this is my first thread ever, and i hope to have many more as both a patient and provider of information, seeing as how i will begin nursing school next year!

ok for my question....

i am scheduled for a tonsillectomy over the Christmas break, so i won't miss any school. i have read some posts and heard from patients themselves that weight loss following a tonsillectomy is very common, sometimes in upwards of 15 to 20 pounds! here is my problem: I am 5'1" and 108 pounds....I am well aware that i can not afford to lose more weight than i already have (a course of birth control/accutane a few months back played with my hormones, causing me to drop from 130 to my current weight)...

can anyone give me any tips from experience on how to keep weight loss at a minimum even though swallowing even soft foods can be excrutiating?

and also, how painful is vomitting post-op? i have not thrown up since i was 8 years old, and im 19 now. so i forgot what it feels like to do so under normal circumstances, let alone immediately following a surgery in the throat area! any help would be appreciated, thank you all!!!:wave:

I lost a total of 7 pounds. I would have lost less, but I had bleeding complications that prevented me from eating for 3 days.

To keep weight loss to a minimum. Lots of broth, protien powder shakes, freeze yogurt or pudding, take a blender to soft foods (mac and cheese with ham and brocolli tossed in, pot roast and potatoes, etc), and drink 100 + ouces of water/gatoraide a day... the more you drink the easier it will be to get other things down.

Many people loss between 5-10 pounds retained water weight, and quickly regain it. I tried to maintain a healthy weight loss amount, because I have been slowly working at it for the 5 weeks prior to surgery and just losing a little over 2 pounds a week. The T&A made me lose a little more on average than that... but I stagnated once getting back on normal food because I was not free to exercise. Yesterday I was released by my doctor to perform light weight and cardiovascular training. I hope that I can get back on the slow, but steady weightloss track. I wish I was 108 pounds, but I have lost over 15 pounds... only 30 lbs to go.

As far as vomiting goes. Keep something on your stomach... whatever you can get down! Throwing up something is better than throwing up nothing. You do not want to vomit bile. An empty stomach means all that will come up is blood, mucus, and bile. Bile is the stomach acid fluid, which is a fairly concentrated form of HCl and it burns :blob_fire .

The act of wretching makes your abs hurt if done over an extended length of time, and can cause bleeding by inducing early descabbing. Keep a flashlight handy and check your wound sites regularly for bleeding. If you see some, use ice and ice water to help seal the sites. The stomach acid causes the wound sight to burn, and will linger until you rinse it clean. Sprite worked best for me... it burned, but not as bad. The Sprite burn can be alleviated by drinking water afterward.

Best of luck and I hope this helps,
MG

it definitely helps, thank you!!!!!! does anyone else have any personal experiences to share that could help as well??

Hi,

I lost 7 or 8 lbs over 2 weeks, but I had a hard recovery (a lot of pain, and heavy bleeding and recauterization on Day 10), so I ate no solid food - in fact, ate very little in general - for the better part of 2 weeks. I did, however, drink a *lot* of iced tea and water. I think it would be very easy to maintain one's weight by making a point of drinking Ensure or something like that. Ice cream wasn't, at least for me, a good choice, because dairy products tend to create more mucus, which is not a good thing. Anyway, according to everything I have seen, people tend to gain back any weight lost quickly once they are better. I don't think you are likely to lose 15-20 lbs unless you (1) are already quite heavy, or (2) have a LOT of unusual complications. Most people, I have read, are more in the 5-10 lb. range.

Edited to add a note on the vomiting issue: I did not throw up right after the operation. The anesthesiologist gave me an anti-nausea medication via IV to prevent that happening. Yours should do the same - be sure to ask and insist that they do. I *did*, however, end up vomiting violently on Day 10, due to the large amount of blood I had swallowed. From reading these boards, you may already know that the worst pain in the recovery process is not usually right after the operation, but closer to 6-10 days after, as the scabs begin to come off. Oddly enough, while the experience (of bleeding, vomiting blood, and eventual recauterization) was horrible, the vomiting didn't actually hurt. It was the gagging sensation and taste that was the worst problem. After that, the doctor gave me an anti-nausea pill to take so I wouldn't vomit again, and it worked well.

Good luck,

Jillolina

yeah, i read alot on the board about the worst pain being later on because of scabs, which made me wonder.....

is the area not stiched up after surgery?

i had my wisdom teeth removed about 2 months ago in which a scalpel was used and then the wound was stitched up afterwards. i was eating solids food within 3 days, and the pain was almost nothing at all (probably due to the hydrocodoene! hehe)...but i understand there are different methods for tonsil removal, which i am to discuss with my doctor at a later date during my consultation.

what would you all recommend from experience: cauterization or some form of scalpel removal (whether a steel dissection or harmonic device)?

Hey again.

I had coablation laser removal of my tonsils and adnoids. This is a chemical cauterization method that allows the surgery to be performed at 70 C versus 140 C electrical caurterization. The laser is accompanied by a hydrogen peroxide wash to seal and sterilize the wound sites. This method allowed the wound sites to be packed with barium sulfate and left unstitched. My son recovered extremely well with this technique... and if I had not gotten a severe case of thrush, I believe I would have as well. Most of my ENT's patients recovered in 10 versus 14 days. I of course had to buck the norm.

So to answer your question:

The technique depends on the ENT, their training and facilities. From most of the stuff I have read and the MD's I have talked to... Coablation is the way to go and the preferred method to be used on children. I believe if it was the best for my son, then it is sufficient for me. My mom and brother had the old scalple removal method as adults and they had a horrible recovery from day 1 to about day 16-18, and the stitches took over 3 weeks to come out. I am glad that by day 12, I was feeling alive and well again even given my complications. I strongly recommend the peroxide coablation technique, because there is less collateral damage to the surrounding area.

Respectfully Yours,
MG

it definitely sounds like the scalpel method is not for me! i will make sure to ask for the method you used...thank you!!