I'm on Post-Op Day 1, had surgery yesterday morning at 7:30 a.m. Tonsillectomy and Turbinate Reduction.
Yesterday was not a whole lot of fun (vomited twice last night getting the anesthesia out of my system) but today is much better. It wasn't terrible, it was just day of surgery stuff. My ears were thinking about hurting last night but not enough for me to do anything about it. If they do I have my rice socks and olive oil ready!
I'm on roxicet every 4 hours and I have to say the pain isn't too bad. In fact, it doesn't hurt at all except when I swallow. All the medications sting on the way down so I dilute with water and just be patient while drinking them. I also have maintained my sense of taste so thankfully the medicine doesn't taste so bad! I just have a hard time swallowing anything with all the swelling.
My main issue is that my uvula swelled up so big it was hard to breathe when the sterioids wore off. I've been sucking on ice and have an ice pack around my neck. Any different advice on getting the swelling down? About when did the swelling go down for you guys? I'd do a search but I'm so drugged up I can barely type, much less wade through search results.
I still have steroids to take but it's only every 12 hours and dr. won't let me take any more.
I'm glad to say I'm able to sleep all right. Not a deep sleep, but sleep. I designed a "moisture tent" that my husband built me out of pvc pipe and pretty much stay in that. I discovered while having strep that if I could keep the atmosphere around me pretty humid my throat wouldn't dry up so badly, and thought it might come in handy for the tonsillectomy. Boy am I glad I did, and highly recommend building a little tent either before surgery or when recovering. Since it's pvc it's easy and quick to make.
Basically it's just pvc pipe made into a frame and covered in a sheet that fits around me on the bed with the mist humidifier inside. For strep the vaporizer worked better but I think the hot was contributing to the swelling so this time so I switched to the cold mist. The tent comes up high enough for me to sit up and sleep elevated, and I can lift the sheet to sit up and watch tv. I'm not completely enclosed because I wanted some air flow, but it works great!
I want to thank everyone who posts their experiences. It is so much easier to deal with this recovery knowing what to expect and hearing ideas on how to make myself more comfortable.
tonsillectomy (and turbinate reduction) at 38
So much I'm going to ask the dr. how much tylenol I can add to the roxicet at night, just to carry me past that last hour when the rox wears off. Otherwise it hurts too much and my water intake is adversely affected. I'm on 1 tsp. rox every 4 hours and would frankly like to sleep more than two hours at a time, but if I don't wake up to hydrate my throat I pay, big time.
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