This blog is a very small part of a master plan. Its other purpose is to remind me to always be thankful especially for the little things and try to find a silver lining in every dark cloud.
About three years ago when I was renting a room from a lovely Husband and Wife, I started too feel like there was something stuck in my throat or behind my tonsil. There have been plenty of times that I've gone to the doctor with some weird thing only to be told that it's just something weird, and there's not much they can do about it. My first reaction now is to try and wait out whatever problem I'm having. If it doesn't go away in 3 days or if the symptoms are extreme and severe or worsen then I'll go to the doctor.
It was the third night and I hadn't been able to dislodge or see what I thought was a piece of food in my throat and it was getting increasingly irritated. I was complaining about this at the dinner table one night when the husband, who is a fantastic doctor himself offered to look at it for me. He got out a pen light said "Hrm... interesting" and explained that I didn't have anything stuck in my throat but rather a nubbin or a horn on my tonsil. He drew a picture for me and said that I could go have it looked at but it was probably a virus or something and would go away on its own.
I decided to be safe and went to my doctor the next day. My doctor only mirrored what my roommate had said, took a culture and gave me a script to see if it would go away. It did, life was great and went on. Since then, that "nubbin" has been making an appearance at an increasing rate. Finally after dealing with it no less than six times this year, I went to my doctor for an ENT referral.
Interestingly my ENT has a very similar disposition to my old roommate. He was straight forward and said that it was just a little extra piece of lymphatic tissue (Oh! How nice! At 24 my body just decided to grow a little something extra!) and if I wanted to do something about it, I could have my tonsils removed. He was very clear that it would not be a pleasant experience and that I would curse his name after. Even with that, I felt as though someone were handing me the opportunity of a lifetime. The thought of not waking up to surprise tonsillitis was absolute heaven.
Now almost two months after the surgery I'm fully healed and back to "normal". During my recovery period (about 3 weeks total) I managed to stay hydrated so I never had much of a fever post op, but the pain was pretty intense. Within a couple of days after the surgery I was able to eat hot dogs, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes and pasta along with the standard jello and popsicles. I thought I was home free until about the fifth day when my tonsil pockets found new and exciting ways to hurt.
I didn't know it at the time, but that pain signified the beginning of the end of my healing process. While I had been using pain meds sparingly up to that point, I started using them as often as prescribed and if I was even a half hour late the pain intensified to unbearable levels. Also during this time no matter how many times I brushed my teeth or rinsed my mouth out with a salt water gargle I had the most hideous breath imaginable. To say I had dragon breath would be putting it lightly. It smelled as though something had crawled inside my throat, died and was decomposing.
A couple of days after the smell started I was laying down with an ice collar and suddenly coughed. Lo and behold out came the "scab" from my surgery that was the sure source of the offending odor. After that ordeal my throat felt so much better. It was a little scratchy, and my muscles back there hurt and were tight but that all resolved in a matter of a week.
After everything, I am still so very glad I made the decision to have my tonsils out. It sucks to do as an adult but just a few weeks of pain means a lifetime free from my tonsils whim.
No comments:
Post a Comment