Tonsillectomy

Well, it's official - I'm getting my tonsils out on September 24th at 10am. The doctor doesn't think that the antibiotics will ever really kill the strep so the best measure is surgery. I'm definitely not looking forward to the surgery, but I am looking forward to not getting strep every 4-6 weeks.

My parents are arriving on the 23rd to help out with the kids while I recover and Trevor works. For adults the recovery looks pretty miserable. Here's the timeline that the doctor's office gave me (it's generic for both kids and adults):

"Day 1 - Usually few problems due to numbness of throat. Important to drink lots of fluids.

Days 2-6 - Sore throat, fever, lethargy. VERY important to drink lots of fluids. Eating is encouraged, but not as crucial.

Day 7 - Usually showing improvement.

Days 8-14 - Starting to feel back to normal. HIGHEST RISK OF BLEEDING. Keep activities limited and diet soft. Can return to school or work, but no sports or gym classes."

When I got online to look for more information this link came highly recommended. It's a guide to adult tonsillectomy. My favorite part right now is this quote, "There is a MAJOR difference between a child having a tonsillectomy and an adult having a tonsillectomy, and no its not that adults are bigger babies. The reality is that the older you are, the longer it takes for the body to heal; that adult tonsils are much larger than children's and deeper rooted. Therefore there is more skin removed and more trauma. Even though they are the same surgery, DO NOT begin to compare the adult procedure to the child's. If you start off recognizing that this is surgery and a traumatic experience to the body then your loved one will feel much more supported and it will HELP their healing process."

I am already hearing a variety of people tell me that they had their tonsils out as a kid and it wasn't that bad. The only people not telling me that are the doctor and people who have had their tonsils out as adults. The doctor tells me it's about the worst amount of sustained pain that I will experience in my lifetime and that the recovery is absolutely miserable. So, yes, I'm going into this surgery with a very pessimistic attitude about the recovery. I figure it's better to do that and be pleasantly surprised then to go into it thinking the best and being disappointed. Because here's the thing - before I had my gall bladder out everyone and I mean EVERYONE that had the laproscopic surgery and even all of the doctors told me that recovery was a piece of cake. So, I went into surgery extremely positive. I was so happy to be having it done because the alternative was the excruciating pain from the gall bladder attacks. Well, guess what?! My recovery was horrendous. I was in pain for a few weeks and couldn't sleep in my own bed for a month.

There - now that I've got that out. :o) Our dear friends are already asking how they can help us out during the recovery process. Here are a few things that I can think of right now. For the rest we'll have to play it by ear.

1. If you have a TV and/or DVD player that we can borrow for the bedroom I would appreciate it. I'll probably be spending most of my time in the bedroom away from the kids where I can rest. Any DVDs that you have that I could borrow would be appreciated as well.
   
2. I'm not sure how I will feel about having visitors. I'm sure we'll have to make decisions about that on a day to day basis, even an hour to hour basis. Please don't be offended if I can't see you. Being the extrovert that I am I'm sure that I'll want some visitors from time to time.
3. Meals for me won't be necessary because as you saw from Days 2-6 eating apparently is not crucial. From what I've read I probably won't be eating solids until the second week and even then it will probably have to be very soft food. I'm not sure if my family will want any meals - maybe a couple to ease some of the burden.
4. (Just added) If you have a comfy recliner that we can borrow for our bedroom that would be appreciated as well. The article that I mentioned above said that for the first few nights you may want to sleep in a recliner so that you're able to breath better. Since I have a long history of liking to sleep in recliners while I'm sick (gall bladder, pregnancies etc...) we're thinking it might not be a bad idea to have one upstairs during the recovery.
   

I'm sure once I've had the surgery there will be other things that come up that we'll need help with. We'll keep you posted.

For now, I'm going to try not to fret over the next 5 weeks. I have a bunch of stuff that I want to get done before hand so that I can relax and truly not think about anything except recovery when the time comes. Hopefully, my to do list will keep my brain occupied and worry-free over the next 5 weeks!