So this is a very long awaited blog post but I just have never felt like really talking about it until now so here we go!
Back in late October of 2013 I was finally able to achieve a surgery I had been trying to achieve for a couple of years. If you have been following my blog since the beginning, you would know I hated my nose because it has caused me a lot of health issues over the years such as:
tonsil infections
post nasal drip
frequent sinus infection
and breathing issues
I basically was always sick for 3 years straight and nothing would successfully rid my infections. I went to quite a few doctors and 1 doctor did not want to perform surgery to remove my tonsils and straighten my deviated septum because he said it was too risky which is silly because the two procedures are very common ones.
So after 2 years of visiting doctors I finally was referred to a very good surgeon who would fix the inside of my nose and remove my tonsils! I was so happy!
In late October I went into surgery. When I awoke I was in the first room where you are closely monitored. After first I was confused because after I was put under anaesthesia, I was having the most wonderful dream! Then I woke in a random room with people all hooked up to stuff and I felt confused. A nurse was asking me what my pain level was and at the time I was still dozy. I heard the women next to me say her pain level was 4 out of 10, so I said the same! They gave me some pain killer and I felt a little better. After a minute or so I suddenly start shaking uncontrollably, had a cold sweat and felt like I was going to vomit. At that moment my eyes started to cry because… I have no idea why because I wasn’t scared or sad so I thought that was weird. All I knew was that if I throw up it will be the most horrible thing in the world because I just had surgery in my throat. So I raised my hand and a nurse came over and I said, I feel like throwing up. So she went and got me a vomit dish and gave me a needle with anti-nausea stuff and in 10 seconds I felt back to normal! She asked me if I want a freezy and I said yes and she consistently kept bringing me freezys! I probably had 7 before I was wheeled into the second room!
In the second room my dad was waiting for me. I asked him how long he had to wait for me and he said it took just over 3 hours. I felt bad for making him wait around so long. The nurses were encouraging me to talk which I found odd since i just had surgery in my throat. So I was talking lots and felt pretty okay!
So I took a picture of myself to remember how I looked after surgery while waiting in the second room!
I looked pretty goofy! ๐ But surprisingly not too bad for someone who just came out of nose and throat surgery!
After 40 minutes they sent me home with my dad and as soon as I left the hospital I turned as white as a ghost and felt really dizzy and out of it. I had to endure Toronto rush hour traffic so it took around 2 hours for us to get home. Once I got home I instantly lied on the couch and took my pain meds I was prescribed. They gave my liquid codeine as my pain killer and I had to take 6-12 ml every 4 hours or when needed. The pain wasn’t too bad at the time so I was fine with 6 ml.
However I had plastic inside my nose to keep it in place plus cotton over it to absorb the blood so breathing through my nose was more or less not possible. My dad and I stayed up until 1 am to make sure I was okay and then I was sent to bed with a humidifier in my room. Kyle came to visit me to make sure I was okay for a couple hours.
DAY 1
I awoke in quite a bit of pain. On a scale of 1-10 I was at 5. My throat was dry and I felt very disoriented. I had no appetite at all. I went to the bathroom to go change my cotton pad on my nose and to attempt brushing my teeth. There was a good amount of blood from my nose and opening my mouth was impossible. I was no able to brush my teeth… I went downstair to my dad and as soon as I got into the kitchen I felt very dizzy and nauseous. I sat on the floor with my head down until the feel subsided and then I instantly took pepto to make the nausea leave as well as my codeine. I had to live off liquids since I was not allowed to eat solids. Which more or less was impossible. So I drank water as much as possible and drank boost high protein diet supplement drinks as my meals. All through a straw. For day 1 ingesting anything was very very tough to do. Even drinking through a straw was tough. I slept most of the day and only awoke to drink water and take pain killers. I had no voice.
DAY 2
Basically was the same as day 1, only my nausea was much less. However my level of pain went to a 6. I had to write on paper to communicate. I still had no appetite so I had to force myself to drink boost and water. My dad made me beef broth with fibre powder in it as something kind of healthy to drink through a straw. I was eating a lot of freezys to sooth my throat pain while I was awake. Otherwise I slept all day.
DAY 3
The nightmare as started. I had to set an alarm on my phone to wake me up every 3.5 hours to I could drink water and take codeine. If I did not drink water every hour, my throat would be in the worst pain ever. Since I couldn’t breathe through my nose, I had to only breath through my mouth which cause horrible pain in my throat even though I had a humidifier on always. My pain level was a 6.5-7 that day. All I did once again was sleep and watch movies on netflix and force myself to drink fluids.
DAY 4
I throughout the previous day was horrible. This was the true start of the pain. I did not sleep at all the previous night and I was in so much pain I was crying. On top of which I ran out of liquid codeine and my local pharmacy ran out! I was in horrible pain and did not even know what to do with myself. I was so extremely tired but as soon as I would fall asleep I would wake up 5 minutes late in horrible pain. It was so bad that I was rolling around on the floor with my pillows trying to figure out how to sleep. I was desperate. Finally my dad found a pharmacy that had codeine and he came home with a massive bottle of it. So I took it and finally was able to sleep a bit.
DAY 5
Pain level was 9-10. I have never experienced so much pain in my entire life. All I did was take codeine and try to sleep through the pain. Kyle felt bad for me because he had to work every day for long hours and couldn’t come comfort me often to at work he made me a homemade soup to help me feel better. Unfortunately I couldn’t ingest much of it. On this day I was finally able to open my mouth enough to brush my teeth for the first time. My tongue was very sore and painful. However my nose was fine and I was able to keep it clean of dried blood.
DAY 6
My pain level was about an 8 this day. This very very horrible but better. Thankfully I had codeine but I was still lacking in sleep and had zero appetite which means I was still forcing myself to drink water and boost and broths. My dad for some reason kept trying to talk with me and ask me questions and ask if I wanted pasta which was so annoying because I had to write notes to talk to him and I kept telling him no to pasta I can’t eat food! Gosh it was so frustrating. So I slept.
DAY 7
I was supposed to go back to work today but there was no way I could work in my condition. I had to tell my boss I still was in a lot of pain and still had no voice. It also was Halloween the next day and I new there was no way I was going to be able to go out which was sad. My pain level was at a 7 today. I had plans with friends and Kyle for 2 days later so I tried very hard to force myself to drink lots of liquids and liquid foods to heal faster.
THE NEXT TWO DAYS
Where so much better pain wise. I managed to survive the 3 day horrible pain phase and it was much easier to stay awake and drink. I was able to open my mouth more to brush my teeth and I was able to start eating some soft solids like, mashed potatoes, cream soups, rice, cheese and such. I also forced myself to take chewy multi vitamins to heal faster. Kyle came over that night and hung out for a few hours but I was unable to stay awake so I fell asleep and he stayed for a couple hours after talking to my sister. The past few days I had to start sleeping with a wet cloths over my mouth so that my throat wouldn’t get to dry since I could only breath through my mouth. Kyle laughed at how I looked while I slept. The next day I was feeling way better thanks to my vitamins, I started getting a bit of a voice back and new if I kept it up I would be able to hang out with everyone. So the next day I had a bit of a voice and was able to go out with everyone. I took the night easy and drank lots of water and did not strain myself to talk too much.
After that things were better and my pain slowly went away. I had to keep the plastic in my nose for 1 month and then I got it out and I could breath better then ever before! I healed up very nicely and was so happy with my results. It is now 4 months post surgery and the only issue I have it that I still feel a little soreness when I yawn. Otherwise I am so happy! I have not been sick with an intense sinus infection once which is a first in years!
To endure 1 1/2 weeks of pain for a life time of normal breathing and less sickness was well worth it. However the pain is nothing to under estimate. It was the worst pain in my life so far and no words can describe it other them me rolling on the floor crying without being able to make a noise. Very painful indeed.
So that is my surgery story! It was too long of a story for a video. I also hope this post was helpful to anyone who is going to have a tonsillectomy and septum rhinoplasty! It is not a fun combo to have. It makes the tonsillectomy post surgery a lot harder to heal from but is still worth it ๐
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