My final tonsillectomy post

Last one, I promise.  Its been 15 days since I had my tonsils evicted.  To sum up the whole experience I will say, it wasn't as bad as everyone made it out to be.  That being said, it was VERY un-fun and hard.  Days 6-9 were probably the very worst (Those days my ears really joined in to the pain, it sucked).  After day 9 things started to turn around and I was able to eat again by day 12.  I lost a total of 9 lbs from day 1 to day 12, but as soon as I could eat again I went crazy and gained 4 back in one day, but its going back down again now that I got that overwhelming need to eat out of my system.  Things are normal again.

It still hurts to yawn and sneeze, and mornings I still feel like I have a sore throat, but the rest of the time it feels pretty normal.  Thank goodness.  There are still some nasty looking scabs back there, but they are no longer affecting me the way the used to.  I feel great!  Thanks for all the support, and for reading these posts even when they were quite puke-worthy.

Yay for better days to come!

Surprise!

Wednesday morning...I had just gotten out of the shower and was busy blow drying my hair when Dexter quietly knocked on the bathroom door.  I turned off the blow dryer to hear what he needed.  He said, "Someone keeps ringing the door bell."  So I walked down the stairs and opened the door expecting one of my neighborhood friends.  It wasn't any of them.  There at my door stood Marde and Ross.  They had driven up from Sandy to surprise us.  They had some awesome new couches to deliver from Heidi, plus they were dying to see little Malcolm.  It was such a big surprise!  I reluctantly let them into my SUPER messy house (don't judge, I'm a mother of five now!), and they stayed until Friday evening.  It was so fun to have them here, and what a surprise!  Someday we'll drop in on them unexpectedly too!  I can't wait to have my revenge!!  Just kidding, It seriously was so fun!  They helped rearrange the furniture for our new couches, Marde made me smoothies to fill my mostly empty stomach, watched little Malcolm while I napped and even watched Malcolm and Echo so Scott and I could take the three oldest kids to the Boise Temple open house.

We also had a quickly thrown together little Halloween Party with the nearby cousins and it was so fun to have everyone over (Shawn and Shelley hadn't met Malcolm yet either).

What an unexpected good time.  There really never is a dull moment around here!  Here are some fun pictures from those few days.

Our first photo of our FIVE kids together.  Do you love that Malcolm is yawning?  I think its FANTASTIC!  

Grandma and Grandpa pose with our little fam (and sit on our snazzy new couch, Thanks Heidi!)

Dressed up for the Halloween shin-dig.

Um...I don't think boy cows are milk-able, but whatever, this costume isn't anatomically correct!

Grandma cuddles with the newest member of the Brunson clan.....

 And quickly falls asleep!

Look at that sweet little mug.  We make the cutest babies!  (Too bad that's the last one we'll see on earth!  (Knock on wood!!))

King Kong

So.... other things are going on in my life besides recovering from my tonsilectomy.  Right now I want to tell you about King Kong (aka Echo).

King Kong shows up at meal times, climbs on the table, scares the other kids, steals their food, makes a mess, and pounds her fists on her chest in triumph.  Okay, there's no chest pounding, but there might as well be.  

She also does it after meal times if anyone happens to forget to clear their dishes.  She waits for the opportune moment when I'm nursing and Daddy is busy to go and destroy whatever was left and make a giant mess.  She just LOVES being messy and making a mess.  And she really does stand on top of the table and yell out in triumph.

Here is a recent incident where someone (Dexter) left their oatmeal unattended for a split second...

King Kong doesn't just show up at meal times.  King Kong also likes to come around at bedtime.  A few days ago we decided that since King Kong is almost 17 months old its time for her to move out of the crib and into the big monkey bed (we did this with all our kids between 15 and 18 months, it has always worked out wonderfully).  

Well never one to be boring, King Kong decided we had it too easy in the past.  She did okay for the first two days, then she stopped cooperating.  She kept climbing into Ivy's bed, and this is what she did while Ivy cried.

This is not the first time she has destroyed the wallpaper.  Most people complain that wallpaper is impossible to remove.  What kind of freak of nature can do that much damage in like the minute and a half it took me to get to the room and stop her!  Have you ever seen Rosemary's Baby?  Because sometimes I wonder if that is what happened with her...She can be quite a little terror at times!  We had to put her in the pack n' play in the middle of the room to keep her from doing more damage!

Man, I love that King Kong, but raising a monkey is a lot of work!

Tonsilectomy: Days 4, 5, 6, and 7

Are you sick of looking at my mouth yet?  I sure am...I'm also sick of owning it.  I'm ready for this whole ordeal to be over now.  To sum up the last four days....unpleasant.  I've still been able to speak fine this whole time, although I sound weird, and feel slobbery.  There is a lot of pain involved in the recovery, especially in the morning when I haven't had to use my mouth in a while.  But nothing I can't handle. You know what the worst part of the whole experience is, feeling like I have crud in the back of my mouth at ALL times.  I can feel it back there, like I didn't swallow all of my last meal or something.  Its so GROSS and makes me gag.  Knowing that crud (or puss or whatever that is) actually is in the back of my mouth makes me sick to my stomach.  It takes all self control not to throw up!

Now here is the gross-ness in all its glory!

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

So I've been feeling like its not getting better, but looking at the pictures, I guess it is.  I've been able to eat pretty well, as long as I take very small bites and chew, chew, chew.  Eating takes forever.  Maybe that's a good thing.  Anyway, everyday has its unpleasant times, but today probably had the worst unpleasantness so far.  It started out okay, but by dinner time my whole mouth was unbelievably painful, and so were my ears.  I couldn't eat dinner and felt like I was going to throw-up. UGH...Anyway, I can't wait for it to be over.

Tonsilectomy Day Three

Today's picture is not much different than yesterday.  The only difference is that I couldn't open my mouth as wide because its terribly painful.

Sleep is still hard to come by, even though I feel more tired than I have ever been.  It is impossible to sit down for any period of time without nodding off.  I'm not exaggerating.  I CAN'T keep my eyes open all day.  I think the lortab is a big contributor to that.  I decided to wean myself off of it.  I started out by taking 3 teaspoons every 4 hours, so yesterday I did 2 teaspoons every 5 hours and then every 6 hours.  I took the last dose at 5:30 pm...just so I could try to eat dinner.  I wanted to nurse Malcolm again because I worried he would forget how, and I want to keep my milk supply, so that is why I don't want to take the pain meds anymore. I switched to tylenol.  So far it hasn't been THAT bad. (Malcolm didn't forget how to nurse, by the way.  He's still a pro).

Anyway, Its hard to open my mouth very wide.  Its hard to talk and swallow of course, and I'm dreading the time when I need to sneeze (by the grace of God, I haven't sneezed yet!).  Yesterday I ate some soup, but I have discovered a terrible side effect.  Everything tastes gross, because my mouth tastes gross.  Brushing my teeth doesn't help, eating just makes it worse. I mostly just drink a lot of water. I'm sure I have the worst breath ever.  I wore a doctor's mask to Parent-teacher conferences yesterday just so I wouldn't kill the teachers with my horrible breath.  Maybe this is all good, I lost about 5 lbs so far....just 30 more to go!

So far day four hasn't been bad, but I will elaborate on that in the next post.

Tonsilectomy: Day Two

Prepare to be disgusted!  The pic from day two is horribly gross.  You have been warned!  Once you see, you cannot unsee!

Day Two:

Still not as bad as all the hype.  Night one I didn't sleep well.  Between pumping, taking meds, feeding Malcolm and consoling a sick Echo, it was a LONG night.  When I tried to get up for day two I felt very nauseous.  I had to take half of an anti-nausea pill to be able to move around.  As soon as I felt better I was pretty much able to do the usual activities.  Until it came time for Malcolm's follow-up appointment with the eye doctor who looked in on him at the hospital.  I'm not allowed to drive while taking meds, so Scott had to take us there.  

I still felt tired all day, but that could be from the lortab and lack of sleep.  My neck just below my chin is quite tender now, especially on the right side, and of course its still painful when I swallow.  I feel like I have marbles in the back of my throat and I just want to spit them out.  If I think about it, it makes me gag.  Surprisingly I am still able to speak, but it hurts to open my mouth wide, so I'm pretty mumbly and quiet. My ears have begun to crackle, especially on the right.  The docs told me to expect some ear pain, so I'm sure that is just around the corner now.

I was able to eat a little better today.  I had some yogurt, cheese, and even chicken!  Not much of any of them, but something is better than nothing.  I think I've still managed to avoid dehydration, and everything else is going well.  I'm hoping to get a little more sleep tonight and still be able to talk so I can go to parent-teacher conferences in the morning.

Bring on Day three.

Not for the squeamish...Tonsilectomy day one:

Hey seriously, if you get grossed out by pictures of open wounds and such, don't read this post!  

Did you know that I have chronic tonsil issues?  Yep, since I was a kid.  My tonsils were disgusting, huge, and always getting infected, so yesterday I had them removed.  Bye bye, gross tonsils.  

I decided to do a daily update on my recovery for y'all.  I had many warnings from doctors, and friends that have experienced a tonsilectomy in adulthood.  Warnings about how miserable it is. "Stuck on your back for 2 weeks!"  They said.  I just wanted to make a journal about this little adventure, so I could see how I really felt about it.  WARNING:  There are going to be pictures, and they are going to be gross.  Not for the squeamish.

BEFORE:

As you can see, these are my gross tonsils on Monday night.  I was not "sick" at the time.  No sore throat, no cold, nothing.  This is what they look like all the time. You should see them when I'm sick!  (I think I've posted tonsilitis pics before if you are really curious). They needed to go.

AFTER TONSILECTOMY: Day one:

Tuesday morning at about 9ish I fell asleep with tonsils (although I don't remember falling asleep), and an hour or so later woke up without them. (before I fully woke up I could hear the nurses talking about how I had an adorable brand new baby in the waiting room!  They wouldn't lie about that unless they knew I was awake, so just proof that he must really be adorable.) 

While I didn't feel great, it wasn't as bad as I expected.  The most uncomfortable thing was that my tongue was swollen and felt bruised (which they told me was likely to happen), but I could still talk.  I kind of sounded drunk and raspy, but it was better than I thought. We were discharged by about 11:20am.  I spent the next several hours in and out of sleep, taking pain medication every four hours, and pumping and dumping every three hours (have you ever had to pump and dump?  Its so sad to see all that milk go to waste running down the drain.  But I can't nurse while I'm on the pain meds so I gotta do what I gotta do). 

Anyway, drinking anything was hard, and eating was downright impossible.  I quickly learned to drink as much liquid as I could within the first 30 minutes of taking the pain meds because that is when it hurt the least.  I somehow managed to stay hydrated throughout the day.  I tried to eat too, just because I'm trying to keep my milk, and I need calories to do that (plus the doctors said I could eat whatever I wanted, but most people don't want to eat).  By the end of the day I had only managed to eat 2 puddings and 2 popsicles.  And I'm pretty sure my milk supply is suffering because of it.  If you have any suggestions on how to get more calories in by liquid, please don't hesitate to give them to me.  Right now I'm actually drinking egg nog.  I don't even like egg nog, but it has so many calories!

To sum up: By the end of day one I felt very tired, queasy, and pretty sore in my throat.  Especially when swallowing and talking, but overall things went better than expected.