Posted by kyle williams on September 26, 1998 at 05:31:36:

across the board, a zillion times better.

went to my ENT last thursday 9/17 and he gave me the go ahead to dowhatever i wanted excercise-wise. i play ultimate frisbee (like soccer with a frisbee - mostly entails sprinting around like a nut for an hour or so) and
wanted to play in my game on 9/19. he said i could do anything my body felt like doing. i played and had no problems - except for 2+ weeks on-my-arse induced lousy endurance.

i went to the ENT with the following questions/concerns... in no particular order. 1) my tounge still felt strange and my sense of taste was a little screwy. i had a bitter/metallic taste in my mouth that wouldn't go away with
brushing, gargling, eating, drinking.... it was annoying. he explained that the back of my mouth had a lot of trauma and tho he hadn't heard my exact complaint before, it would stand to reason given that my tounge is attached to all the stuff he took a scalpel to... 2) peering into the back of my throat, he said that the stitches had all melted away fine, that i had some scar tissue that "may take as much as a year to soften." apparently post surg, the scar back there will as it heals first harden and then soften. 3) i do get some reflux (?) coming out of my nose if i chug liquids - as i was told might happen. i won't be in any beer chugging contests from now on. this is pretty easily controlled now, but i presume with practice it will get easier to control. 4) snoring - my girlfriend says i still snore a little on my back, but it doesn't have the wake-the-neighbors quality that it had a month ago. i
snore none on my side or stomach - i used to do all three, plus whilst sitting up. it wasn't pretty. and she also says i don't seem to apnea on my side and stomach. jury is still out re on my back.

so anyway, i played ultimate that weekend, for two hours on wednesday nite and another game today. no bleeding, no bad feelings besides as i said re endurance.

i do in fact feel more energetic in the afternoon. no aching desires to go home from work and take a nap! i've been sleeping 7 hours and am feeling rested with no AM headaches. not as dramatic a change as i expected, but welcomed.

complaints - i still have a dull/numb feeling in the back of my throat that i am not crazy about. it is less today than it was a week ago, so i presume it is improving. my sense of taste is still muted. i don't know what taste function
the very back of your tounge serves, but it seems integral and it can come back ANY time. besides the TASTE part, i am again omnivorous. as i said before i lost 22 lbs.

oh, last week i told my ENT that i hadn't believed him re the 2 week recovery. (i was on codiene for 13 days) he sincerely asked "what can i tell someone so they'll believe me?!" he had said before the surgery "unless you ever get
shot, this will be the most painful experience you ever experience." that is fairly accurate, but it was hard to transfrer that pain to the back of my throat. not that this is an any better description, but to me the UPPP felt like
i had swallowed a barbie-sized holly bush and had to keep it in the back of my throat for 2 weeks - swallowing around it and experiencing the resulting pricks and pain.

that is about it. if anybody has specific questions feel free to ask.
kyle

p.s. not having a uvula is a fun party trick ;)

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