Oh God, after my tonsillectomy/adenoidectomy I am unable to sleep well. (It should be reverse huh?) My legs keep wanting to move, I feel uncomfortable at night and I don't get much sleep anymore. If I do fall asleep I wake up at the middle of the night and can't fall asleep. Today I have been awake since 3 in the morning. I don't see how tonsillectomy/adenoidectomy can be connected to my problem, but I didn't have RLS symtoms until after about two days after the surgery. Has anybody had the same problem?

Thanks

Yes. I do not think you have suddenly developed RLS.

Problems with sleeping are very common after a T&A extraction. Basically until the swelling goes down and your throat and sinuses have adjusted to the increased air flow you are going to have more problems than you may have had normally sleeping.

I don't know if you followed my daily posts about a month back in the LisaMP guide or Compiled recovery tips thread. But here is a summary of my odd sleep habits.
Stage 1:
I was awake for almost 48 hours before I managed to get my first ounce of sleep after my surgery... I believe it is a personal side effect I have to the anesthesia wake up agent.
Stage 2:
Then I just laid around awake for 3-5 hours then slept for 1-1.5 hours before resume the wake and sleep cycle this went on for about three days.
Stage 3:
Around day 6 I was beginning to have some trouble with bleeding and descabbing, but I managed to get my first 3 hour burst of sleep.. only to have to go to the ER at 2 am with bleeding complications because my scabs dried out and sluffed of prematurely. Four hours later... a lot of ice a reapplication of Barium Sulfate and I am sent home. Take a nap (3 hours) ... more bleeding, back the the ENT at 1:30 pm. More Barium sulfate and ice. Chemical caurterization take two appears to be holding. So day six- day nine, I shifted from 1 - 1.5 hour sleep periods to about three hour sleep periods.
Stage 4:
Night of day 9 and in the wee hours of the morning day 10 bleeding episode III... with vomiting this time. You got it.. chemical caaurterization and ice.. then back home. Day 11 scabs didn't come back after the Day 10 bleeding episode.. I was able to sleep for a five and six hour period. I was on the mend.

Now all the time I was sleeping I couldn't really get in a good position. Depending on how I turned my head, or openned my mouth to snore I would wake myself up irritated in the throat and tired. My ENT said that this is normal and it can take your body upto a month to adjust to the new air flow conditions imposed by surgery. It is worse this time of year, because weather fluctuations and temperature changes add to sinus dryness and increase mucus drainage... thereby increasing throat soreness. One of the things that helped me the most was rinsing my sinuses every 2 hours that I was awake, especially right before I went to sleep and after I woke up.

My son at 3.5 yrs exhibited similar sleep patterns. However, he was not awake the first 48 hours.. thank the heavens. He slept, only to wake and eat and drink, the first 1-2 days. Then he went to 3 hours awake and hours asleep. For the next 3 days and on day 8 scabs were gone and he slept for 6 hours straight... and it got better from there. I did have to moisten his sinuses before and after he went to sleep to ensure quality of sleep.

Hopes this helps.
Sincerely,
MG

Hey MG, how are you doing now with your sleeping patterns? I notice that everytime I go to sleep now, I always wake up in pain. Its very painfull but I am managing. However i am so worried that one day my body, on an attempt to catch up on sleep, will sleep longer and wake up bleeding.

Alonso

Take two Tylenol-PM at bedtime

The acetaminophen will releive any pain you have that is keeping you awake, the diphenhydramine acts as a mild sedative, and thus helps you to sleep, it also helps RLS because of its anticholinergic activity.

Alonso,

Now that I am back on my CPAP all is right with the world.. I can sleep through the night again. It wasn't until my scabs were gone and I was on day 12 that I slept more than 4 hours straight. It will work out alright. Best of luck.

Sincerely,
MG

It feels lke my scabs are starting to feel loose today or bits are coming off and its really more pain then I had yesterday. Very Weird. Whenever I eat anything it stings now, the past 2 3 days milk products were a lot easier to take down. Even water is stinging, just wondering if this is normal on this period. I am on day 8th of recovery.

AlonsoToronto,

Yes. When those scabs come off... the raw flesh under them stings like all get out and is very sensitive to cold. At your stage I was doing everything luke warm and chasing it with ice chips and ice water to help reseal the bleeding that would occur every time I tried to eat. So according to the healing pattern in my family... yes, what you are experiencing is normal... it is the ouch, Ouch, OUCH ear pain time as well. Hopefully you will by pass the ear pain if your swelling is down low enough.

Sincerely,
MG

Thanks MK
I am aimed for mashed potatoes and going to try some little beef pieces in a mushroom sauce see if I can gulp this down. I need some slids in my system.

How are you doing now?

Thanks MK
I am aimed for mashed potatoes and going to try some little beef pieces in a mushroom sauce see if I can gulp this down. I need some solids in my system.

How are you doing now?

Thanks MK
I am aimed for mashed potatoes and going to try some little beef pieces in a mushroom sauce see if I can gulp this down. I need some solids in my system.

How are you doing now?

Thanks MK
I am aimed for mashed potatoes and going to try some little beef pieces in a mushroom sauce see if I can gulp this down. I need some solids in my system.

How are you doing now?

I finally got some sleep last night. The only reason I did is because I bought some Sleeping Aide pills. I am so glad I did. I slept like I used to 2 weeks and 2 days ago. Wow I can't believe that's how much time I have since my surgery.

Good luck everybody
Thanks

Alonso,

Four weeks 3 days post operation.. eating whatever I like.. as long as it fits in my daily alloted points.. I was trying and losing weight before the surgery.. still working on it. Down fifteen pounds.. only fifteen to twenty to go.

The only issue I have is some times I still feel like my food is getting stuck and I have wash it dwn with water. I wonder when this will go away. It has decreased in frequency, but still comes out at the worst times.

Sincerely, MG

I RECOMMEND, NO I ADVISE strongly to get sleeping aide pills for the people who can't sleep. Yesterday night I was trying my darnest not to have a pill, to see if maybe I could pull it off by myself. Sadly I can't. I think my dad read my mind, because he keeps the pills in his bedrooms' bathrooms' closet. He got up at 12 to get some water & that's when I went for the pills. I took 1 and fell asleep after about half an hour. I think I should reduce my intake to half a pill. I don't wan't to get hooked to sleeping pills, because before the surgery I could sleep fine and dandy! Glad to know I will never snore. I never had the chance. I'm young lol just 18. Sooooo :blob_fire :blob_fire :blob_fire yeepee! I have let's check the calender.... 18 days since the surgery... Meaning ....2 weeks and 3 days post-op! Wow.. Amazing. Hopefully people can enter and see these forums. They were, are and will be a great tool for people going through the same thing!

Best Wishes :jester: :jester: :wave: :wave:

Ooooooooooooooooh... Right I forgot to mension my scabs are 99.9% gone. Except for a little part that is falling of, but I guess it doesn't feel like leaving and pleasing me! LoL I guess it likes my throat :dizzy: :dizzy: :dizzy:

:wave: