The Tonsillectomy!

I know my little space on the world wide web is mainly talking about beauty and other crap I like, but I wanted to put this post out there in case there was someone else in my position who wanted to know what its like to go through something like this.

As you can probably guess by the title (and from my lack of posts, if anyone actually follows my little blog), I recently went through a tonsillectomy (yes, its as gross as it sounds!)... I'm so glad I had it done, but if I'm being brutally honest, it was probably one of the worst experiences of my life!...

I've suffered from tonsillitis my entire life! I used to get it 3 to 4 times a year and more recently I've had bouts that just wouldn't go away, I'd get rid of it and it would come straight back.  I hated feeling weak, tired, drained and sick constantly - I needed to get those suckers out.  So after a few weeks of seeing doctors and consultants, they finally agreed to take them out - you know they only do like 12 tonsillectomies a year?!

I went in to have my operation on Tuesday 27th September and was out of hospital the next day.  Coming round from the aesthetic was the worst, I got so sick and I hated them for waking me up, ha! I had my op in the morning, I was first on the list! They wouldn't let me drink anything after the operation for a good few hours.  Dinner time rocked around and they wanted me to try and eat solids straight away - it was difficult but I managed to eat a bread roll and a jelly and managed to drink some water. The next morning I managed to eat another bread roll with some jam and another jelly.  They sent me home around lunch time - I'll say here that they sent me home with really strong pain killers and NO antibiotics, yep thats right, they sent me home with open wounds in my mouth and no antibiotics!

I was home for all of 4 days when I noticed the pain getting worse and worse (it got excruciating at night), I couldn't eat without tears welling in my eyes from the pain and I could barely drink anything - also, the pain killers I was on were so strong that if I felt constantly light headed, but I kept taking them because I wanted the pain to stop.  I didn't notice but my wounds started to smell, really bad! Like an abscess smell - thats when my boyfriend called 111 and I was hauled back in to Winchester hospital.  I remember I was in so much pain that I was popping pain killers in the waiting room.  After taking a look they wisked me off to Southampton hospital - surprise, my wounds were badly infected and needed to be treated asap!

I was in Southampton hospital for about 4 days, I was hooked up to fluids because I was massively dehydrated and was hooked up to bags of antibiotics - now let me tell you, it was no freakin holiday! The pain got so bad (mainly at night) that I was in tears, the pain felt like it wasn't only in my throat but in my jaw, in my gums and coming up the sides of my face and in to my ears, basically it felt like my face was going to explode. I couldn't eat for about 3 days and because of all the antibiotics and pain killers I was feeling pretty sicky so was on anti-sickest medication too (which sometimes helped, others not so much).  I wasn't able to swallow tablets so was on liquid paracetamol, liquid dihydrocodeine and liquid morphine - I was on ALOT of pain killers.

Well I'm home now with more antibiotics to take (4 times a day) and I gargle with Difflam (5 times a day) which is a great because it not only cleans everything out, it also numbs my throat too, I need to get me some more of this! I also take strong paracetamol 4 times a day as I still need some help managing the pain, especially at night.

I dont regret having the surgery to get my tonsils out, I cant say I would like to go through it again though, but if you've got a tonsillectomy coming up I would recommend asking for antibiotics after the op before you leave hospital! Demand them if you have to!

I'm still on a very limited diet at the moment, I cant eat anything too hard or sharp and I cant have anything with too much flavour or spice - I tried to put pepper on my jacket potato the other day and dear lawd did it sting!!!  I've just about got the foods I can eat down and I have sort of a routine when it comes to food and taking my meds right now.

I'm a big believer in silver linings and finding the positives in things - the positives that have come out of this are that i'll never ever have tonsillitis again and, because I cant stuff my face with the crap I normally eat and drink, I've lost almost a stone in weight! I guess there really is something to this whole eating healthy lark lol!

This is the first day in like two weeks that I finely feel normal again, bazaar! But however out there is reading this and you're going to or are thinking about going through a tonsillectomy and have any questions, just shoot me an email or comment, I'd be happy to answer any! :)  Hope all you lovelies out there are having a great day/evening/week/year/life! xo