Non-CPAP Forum Posting

Posted by Zappa on October 10, 2001 at 22:24:49:

In Reply to: Re: DAY 5 posted by Zach on October 09, 2001 at 18:00:33:

over the counter Max strength Tylenol sore
throat syrup.

I found that popsicles were great and so was sorbet, clear soups and clear, non citrus juices. You must keep up
your fluids or you won't feel good for sure.

room temperature liquids best - I drank a lot of plain tea cooled to
room temp. For cold, the best thing I found was Italian ice.

for the short-term after my surgery, i sucked on a lot of ice cubes and popsicles (just remember to have NO
CITRUS FLAVORS).

i grew to quite like Ensure -- although i couldn't stand the store brand i tried at one point.

if the pain gets unbearable, be sure to talk to your doc. at one point i had to have my pain meds upgraded,
because the vicodin just wasn't doing the job.

i was very excited when i could move up to lukewarm cream of potato soup. strangely enough, it brings back
good memories when i eat it now :)

Hang in there! I had my surgery done Tuesday morning (8/28). I reccomend warm tea, it is very soothing. Stay
away from extreme hot and cold. Also make sure to get some nutriends. Ensure tastes like crap to me, but you
gotta find some sort of protien shake. I have lost 25lbs since my surgery and have found myself very week.

The pain medicine I am on, Hydrocodone, burns very badly when I take it. I hate it. Plus it has been coming out
my nose sometimes. But otherwise it does the trick. I plan my meals around when I am supposed to take my
meds. Get a cold vaporizer for when you sleep. I had bad problems with waking up with a pure white dry tongue.
But now I have been using a vaporizer and it has helped. Be sure not to get a warm air one, those can cause
earaches and other bad things.

Also, find something to keep your mind off of it. I found myself going crazy from the boredom. So I rented a
bunch of movies and watched them and it helped.

In the end, time will heal. Each day you will wake up and feel better. I am finally at the turning point to seeing the
light at the end of the tunnel of pain.

I am a big fan of gatorade (orange is my fav). It gets you some nutrients and some calories. I find myself walking
around all day sipping on a glass.

And a note on straws . . . some people say they work, others say they hurt. I found that the first few days it hurt
to use a straw cause it made me use muscles in the back of my throat that were raw. But now I prefer to use a
straw cause it gets the liquid more focused down my throat then out my nose.

When I was recuperating from my surgery in May, I did find that straws were a huge help to me -- especially in
the first few days.

Following a recommendation from this site, I used the straw to direct whatever I was drinking toward the side of
my throat instead of the middle. It was easier to swallow that way, so I choked somewhat less often.

Gatorade was also good for diluting the Lortab so it didn't burn my throat.

However, I have so many negative feelings about Lortab that they've spoiled my opinion of Gatorade. Gatorade is
now associated in my mind with terrible pain and haunting nightmares. So I will drink it reluctantly in the future, if
ever.

When I had this surgery done, I found that I felt like I had to "chew" jello!! My doctor told me to gargle with ice
water....like anyone can gargle! So, I opted for ice chips to instead. Another option is the old standby, chicken
broth.
I could not eat the small noodles...they seemed to "stick" in my throat. I kept everything at a tepid temperature.
Also, I found that drinking lukewarm tea seemed to soothe some....the antioxidents, maybe? I could not drink my
old standby, coffee. When I could finally swallow something other than liquids, I chose very soft (fried) eggs and
also, soft macaroni and cheese. Mashed potatoes were out, even though one would think they would be easy....I
found them difficult.

Stay away from any thick milk products! Soups and jellos,applesauce are good. My husband did drink Ensure
and Slim fast one in the morning and one at night, he didn't have a problem with them but in the begining he
couldn't eat pudding (too thick). He also drank Gatoraid. Anything really Hot or really Cold was a problem.The
more you drink the better you will feel.It gets better, Hang in there!!

You'll need a cool mist humidifier, like the ones you can buy at Walgreens. Sunbeam makes them, and Walgreen's
has its own brand. Your throat will thank you. Keep it going at all times while you recuperate. That way, you can
keep your throat fairly wet just from breathing, and you will be in less pain after you sleep than you would be
without a humidifier. If your home has hard water, you'll want to get the demineralizer that you can drop into the
humidifier. Without that, minerals from the humidifier's hard water mist will get on everything (!) within 50 feet, and
will get inside things like your TV and other electronic equipment that is nearby. Also, keep the humidifier itself off
the floor if you have carpet, or the water mist will get your carpet soaked through. If you have a ceiling fan in your
bedroom, keep it going whenever the humidifier is on, to help distribute the mist throughout the room -- otherwise,
the mist won't go more than a few feet.

I still use my humidifier nightly, 4 months after my surgery. I snore slightly without it, but am mostly silent with it.

Be sure to get extra pillows so you can sleep in a sitting position. It will be vastly easier for you to breathe that
way while your throat is still swollen from the surgery. Sleeping that way will also cut down on the severity of your
snoring, which will probably seem worse instead of better for the first few days.

You'll need something like Gatorade to cut down on the burning quality of the liquid painkiller, or the painkiller
itself will hurt you. (Lortab was a disaster for me. See if your doctor can provide you with a prescription ahead of
time for his/her second choice of a painkiller for you. If the first choice is awful in your opinion for whatever
reason, you can switch to the backup medicine without seeing the doctor again in person before you are in a
condition to travel comfortably.)

You'll need straws to drink with, so you can direct whatever you drink toward the side of your throat as you
swallow -- it's much less painful to swallow that way after your throat has been operated on.

You will want probably something very light to wear in bed, so you don't get overheated. Even if you aren't
running a fever after the surgery, odds are good that you'll feel extremely hot and sweaty. I felt the hottest that I
have ever felt in my life. If you have air conditioning, you'll probably want to have it on.

For the next month or so, keep a cool beverage with you at ALL times. It is essential to your comfort and your
healing that you never let your throat get even a little dry.

I could go on for days with recommendations, but I'm sure others here will chime in.

I do have a warning for you, though: If you are having your tonsils out, do not bend forward from your waist for at
least 3 weeks after your surgery. Bending that way, like you might bend to pick something up from your floor, can
cause the site of your tonsillectomy to start bleeding excessively. In my case, I hemorrhaged on day 10, because
no one had warned me against bending that way. Bend from your knees if you need to access anything low to the
ground. Doing so could make all the difference.

Try to remember when you are in pain that you will feel substantially better within a week of your surgery. The
worst of it is over very quickly, all things considered, much sooner than you will probably believe possible.

I've been hitting the Keflex/Pennisillin, anti-inflams and dissolved Percocet every four hours and have been feeling
fine.

Regarding dissolving pills, I'm on Day 13 now and still have not swallowed a single pill. I'm taking liquid Centrum
instead of my normal Centrum tablets. I took Percocet 7.5 for pain but was told to dissolve it in hot water. I did
that and added cold water to make it comfortable to drink. Once the pill is dissolved, it doesn't matter what
temperature the water is. The potency is all still there. Try that instead. You really don't want anything that solid in
your throat at Day 5.

One of the most important things is to keep your nose as clear as possible. My doctor had my on a nasal steriod
spray two weeks before the surgery to make sure that my nose would be clear come the big day. I've been told to
stay on it a time longer to help keep me breathing through my nose, instead of my mouth so I don't let in too much
dust, etc.

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