Part 2: Tonsillectomy Post-Op Days 3 Through 7

*This is Part 2 of my tonsillectomy recovery, from Day 3 to Day 7.

Part 1 can be found here: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/707563/part_1_what_to_expect_from_an_adult.html

April 11^th, 2008 -Day 3 after Surgery

I'm still not feeling any better than yesterday or the day before. The only good thing about today was payday, and it's going to be the last good paycheck for a while, until I get back to working 40 hours again. This afternoon, I slept right through one of my pain medicine doses, and when I woke up, I was in A LOT of pain. I guess I still do need the medicine. When Jon got home from work, he brought me some more Jell-O chocolate pudding and some of that chicken flavored bowtie soup from Gia Russa that I love! Delicious! That was my dinner. I doubt I'll be eating normal foods for a while, especially when even soup noodles are sometimes hard to swallow. Today I weighed myself, and I'm 6 pounds lighter than before my surgery. I guess that's a good thing, especially with my Caribbean cruise coming up in a few weeks and I need to try to look decent in a bathing suit. My calorie intake per day is probably no more than 500-600. I'm mostly drinking water or Propel, which have no calories. The soups that I've been eating are normally no more than 100 calories. The only food that is pretty high in calories is the chocolate pudding, but it's not like I'm eating 5 cups of it at a time. I'll maybe have 1 or 2 snack cups per day. I also eat sugar free strawberry Jell-O, which has like 10 calories, along with sugar free cinnamon applesauce which is also low in calories. I should've kept track of what I've been eating, just to see the amount of calories I've been taking in. And the best part is, I'm not even hungry half the time so I don't feel like I'm starving myself. Too bad I can't feel that way when I'm not recovering from a major surgery. Dieting and exercise just doesn't work for me. But eating close to nothing and laying on the couch all day sure does!

I know this has nothing to do with recovering, but I'm proud to say that I stayed awake for an awesome Penguins game last night. We won 5-3. I was starting to get worried when we blew a 3-0 lead, but our awesome team and our awesome goalie kept us on top of the game. Now we're up 2 games on Ottawa, and I'm hoping we can keep it up! Next game is Monday night.

After the game, I fell asleep. I'm still waking up during the night as usual, which really sucks. I woke up more last night, and when I woke up I felt like I didn't know where I was, kind of like I was sleepwalking or something. The pain in my throat was unbearable, so I ended up taking more medicine for it in the middle of the night. I've been snoring so loud since my tonsils came out, and I did read that it's normal to snore during recovery, because there's a lot of yucky stuff, like mucus, in the back of your throat that is going to block the airway a little bit. Hopefully, the snoring will go away once the scabs go away. Or else, Jon might be kicking me out of the bed!

April 12^th, 2008 - Day 4 after surgery

Today is Saturday, although it really doesn't feel the weekend so me since I've been off work since Tuesday. I woke up in a good mood this morning, until I saw that my Comcast cable box was acting up. There was no way I was going to lie here all day without TV. So, I logged onto the online help chat for some answers, because I wasn't trying to call customer service about it, especially with my voice sounding like crap. They seemed to fix it, but the guide still isn't coming up. Oh well, at least I have my TV to watch. This morning, I went down to Wal-Mart because I felt like I needed to get out of the house for a little bit. Maybe that was a bad idea. I could just tell that my driving skills were a little off, even though I didn't take any pain medicine for hours before I drove. I knew better than to do that. Well, I did make it to the store okay. I bought a few things for our upcoming cruise, and then stopped to get gas, then came home. When I walked into my front door, all I wanted to do was crash on the couch. I think going to Wal-Mart was a little too much activity maybe. I felt so worn out and tired, like I just got done running on the treadmill. Maybe my body wasn't ready for driving 10 miles down the road and back. The whole time I was walking around in the store, I was sweating my ass off. I'm not sure if I had a fever or not, but it sure felt like it.

About an hour after I got home, my dad stopped by to give me my birthday gift. The delivery was late on it, that's why he had to give it to me later than my birthday. I got my very own Sidney Crosby jersey, only this one is the light blue and white one he wore for the Winter Classic on New Year's Day this year. I love it! I can't wait to wear it to some Pens games next season!

Tonight I had more problems with the cable, so I logged back onto online help chat and scheduled an appointment for a technician to come out and fix the problem. They made the appointment for Sunday between noon and 4. I hate when they have to come out, and I'm going to hate it even more because I look and feel like shit. Oh well, as long as they can fix my TV.

Jon ordered a square pizza from Beez for dinner. I was so hungry, that I decided to have some too. I cut a piece up into smaller pieces, and then chewed each little piece about 30 times until it turned to mush. I felt like one of my toddlers eating cut up pieces of pizza. It took me about a half hour to eat just one piece of pizza. The tomato sauce didn't bother my throat at all, surprisingly. I don't think it was really worth it, but it was nice to get some solid food down. The doctor told me that solid food will help the healing process. Well, I sure hope it helps! Bedtime is early tonight, both Jon and I were tired, we ended up falling asleep on the living room couches, then eventually made it the bed. Goodnight.

April 13, 2008 - Day 5 after surgery

This morning I woke up in tremendous pain. I didn't even want to move. My ears and throat felt twice their size, and I felt like I just got hit by a truck. When I did get out of bed, I got right into the shower. I didn't really help the pain, but sometimes a shower is just what you need to feel normal again. I had drool running down my chin, sleepies in my eyes and disgusting, greasy hair. A shower got rid of all of that. When I got out, I immediately took a dose of Roxicet and ate some Cream of Wheat. This by far has to be the worst day, pain wise. On top of all of this, Comcast would be coming in the afternoon to fix my cable. Luckily, they were here and gone within about an hour, and everything is fixed. Then I got to take more medicine, lay down and watch a bunch of episodes of my new favorite show on Style, Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane.

I wrote an e-mail to my boss, Patty, just to let her know what's going on. I'm most likely calling off tomorrow, maybe even Tuesday. The way I feel now, I am in no shape to be working with kids. They are just going to have to understand that. I'm sorry and I feel bad. I need the money badly, but I am not going to go into work just to feel horrible all day. I'll go back to work when I'm ready. I should've requested more time off, but I didn't know it was going to be this bad. I only had off Tuesday through Friday last week, thinking that I'd be okay to work this upcoming week. I guess I was wrong.

I made a roast in the crock pot for dinner. I love to use the crock pot when I can, because it doesn't require much effort except putting the meat into the pot, adding some cut up potatoes, some beef broth and seasonings. I lie back down on the couch and let the appliance do the work. At dinner time, Jon wasn't really hungry but I was starved, so I decided to try some cut up pieces of roast beef. I made mashed potatoes and Lipton Sides Parmesan noodles to go with it. I cut the roast up into tiny pieces, but it was still a challenge getting it down. So I gave up and just ate the mashed potatoes and noodles, which I had no problem with. I guess I am not ready for meat yet.

The rest of the night, Jon and I sat on the couch and talked about our cruise. We made a list of the things we still need to buy, like bathing suits and sunscreen, stuff like that. Then we watched the NJ Devils and NY Rangers playoff game until I started to fall asleep.

April 14, 2008 - Day 6 after surgery

Another rough night of sleep for me. I went all night without any pain medicine, my last dose was at 10 pm before I went to bed. I was up a lot through the night, like every hour waking up in pain but I had no energy to get out of bed and take some medicine. When Jon got up for work, I got up and I called off work at 6:30 this morning. I'm glad to hear that my work is pretty understanding about this whole thing, or else I'd feel really bad about calling off. My boss e-mailed me back this morning and told me just to keep in touch and take my time healing. That was also nice to hear. Last night I missed my aunt's phone calls because I fell asleep, so she called me this morning to see how I'm feeling. Nothing new, I feel no different than the past few days. It seems like the recovery process has just stopped. I lowered my dose of Roxicet to 1 tsp every 4 hours, instead of 2 tsp. I thought that maybe it was the pain medicine making me feel worse. I have no idea. The medicine is making my stomach rumble, and I am constantly having diarrhea throughout the day. I'm not sure why, either it's because my diet is basically soft foods and liquids, or maybe I'm dehydrated. I think I'm getting enough fluids, I drink about a bottle of water or a glass of juice every 1-2 hours. That's about normal, right? I'll be glad when this is all over.

My aunt stopped by to visit me this afternoon. She brought me one of her Louis Vuitton purses that she didn't want anymore, and that definitely made my day! I love Vuitton purses! While she was here, I called my doctor to make sure how I'm feeling is normal. I thought that after 6 days, I should start to feel better at least a little bit. They said it's normal, and that 7-10 days is the normal recovery period to start feeling better. Tomorrow will only be 7 days, so I'm hoping by the end of the week, I'll be feeling more like myself again. I didn't take the Roxicet today, except for early this morning. Instead, I took 2 Tylenol easy to swallow tablets around 3. I actually got to go outside for a little bit to get some fresh air. When Jon got home, I went outside to help him change the oil in my Jeep and change the plugs and wires too. It made me really tired though, even after 20 minutes of being outside. After I got inside, I took a hot shower and got ready for the Penguin game. Jon wanted frozen pizza for dinner, while I made some Velveeta shells and cheese and some canned peas for myself. I had a hard time swallowing my dinner, and my throat was starting to hurt a lot. I couldn't take the pain anymore, so I took a teaspoon of Roxicet, waited about a half hour for it to kick in, and then I tried to eat again. It was much easier that time. I watched the Pens beat the Sens, making the series record 3-0! Then it was time for bed.

April 15, 2008 - Day 7 after surgery

So it's been 1 week after my tonsillectomy. I woke up in some more pain this morning, so I decided to take a teaspoon of pain medicine. I had Cream of Wheat for breakfast, and then I watched some of my usual shows on TV - Full House, Fresh Prince, Saved by the Bell and Sister Sister. Love these old school shows. I had an early lunch, around 10:30. I've been feeling so hungry lately; I guess my stomach is craving more than just Jello and soup now. I guess that's a good sign? I make some Steak-umms and heated up leftover Velveeta shells. In case you don't know what Steak-umms are, they are those thin frozen steaks that take about 2 minutes to cook, and are actually very good. I topped a steak with American cheese and put it on 2 pieces of bread. It was soft enough to eat and surprisingly easy to swallow too. It was very filling. I also had a Slim Fast shake to go with it. Then I wasn't hungry until around 5:00, which is my usual dinner time.