I found many posts regarding tonsillectomy and decided I would start my own thread. Just by visiting this site I have realized that the surgery is much more common in adults than I had thought! That is helpful to know -- takes the anxiety level down just a notch!
I am scheduled to have my tonsils and adenoids removed a little under one week from now on Monday 26 April 2004. I have been very afraid as I dont know what to expect and especially because of the location of the surgery. You use your throat for a lot of things -- its scary to imagine what could happen.
Before I tell you more about my story let me give you my background. Im a 20 year old female from Washington state. For the last 3 years or so I have had Chronic Tonsillitis. I finally went to an ENT -- Jeffery Adams at the Everett Clinic -- hes a GREAT doctor and I highly recommend him! Well my first visit with him was almost a month ago and thats when I also scheduled my appointment. My grandma is a nurse and has been pushing me to get this done so I am finally doing it, having faith that I will feel unimaginably better after its all done with!
About five days ago I started having extreme pain in my lower left jaw. I knew it was because my wisdom tooth was trying to come in. My wisdom teeth are impacted and I have been told for a few years that I need to get them out because they are coming in sideways and pushing on my other teeth. Well the pain was severe and over the weekend is was more than I could take anymore. My cheek and the tissue around the tooth were swollen and painful and I had had it. I finally was able to get into my dentist on Monday morning (yesterday) and he told me it was slightly infected. He advised that I have my wisdom teeth removed as soon as I possibly could -- he wanted to get me in this week! When I informed him I am scheduled for my tonsils to be removed one week from now he changed his mind pretty quickly! He told me to contact my surgeon because the infection could complicate things and he put me on antibiotics.
I called Dr. Adams' nurse and she told me she would talk with the doctor about it but chances didnt look good that I would be going in for surgery next monday. She told me to call her on Thursday and let her know how it was going and than we would decide. A few hours later she called back, said she talked with the doctor and he advised against surgery at this time, just in case the infection happened to spread to my surgery site.
As of now I am on the antibiotics and yesterday I slept alot and just felt plain aweful. Today I woke up quite late but found I was feeling a bit better so I went to work. At work I felt fairly fine and I feel like my infection is starting to go away. The pain is hardly noticable anymore and the swelling has gone down considerably. I will find out for sure by the end of the week if I will be having my surgery next Monday or not. Ive prepared myself for it and Ive already taken the time off work as well has my fiancee. But I dont want to risk anything happening.
As far as the surgery in general, I am quite nervous about it. I just keep telling myself that once its all over and done with I will feel so much better. Having my tonsils infected all the time is just a drag. I feel so tired and just blah most of the time. Its not a fun way to live. I know its going to be a long road to recovery and its going to be a difficult one at that, but I have a wonderful support system and I know I will be very well taken care of, especially by my extra special kitty cat, Milo
. I will keep you all informed about whats going on for me.
Let me know about your experiences as well -- this is a serious thing for adults and it can be scary too. As much information as we can share with each other, the better. Good luck to anyone else facing this too!!
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