| Author | Message | ||
     Bluzm2 |
Well, I spent my very first night in a hospital on Monday. Not a place to be if you are totally wiped out and in pain. To make it worse, it was for a problem that should be taken care of when you are a kid. I had my tonsils taken out! Also had a UPPP done at the same time. That's a procedure where they remove part of your soft palate at the rear. Right where the hangy down uvula is. I dont' have one anymore.... What's it like? Imagine someone reaching down your throat with a wire brush and augering around for a bit. Then let them loose on the rear of the roof of your mouth. Now take that imagined discomfort level and multiply it by about 4. Now your getting close. Oh yeah, dont' forget the stitches part. Lots of those too! It's only Wednesday and I am so sick of pureed food I could barf. Actually I really hope I don't boot, I don't know if I could take the pain. Doc says no semi sold food for at least a week. The blender is my friend. I must keep repeating that... Monday afternoon, evening and night morphine was REALLY my friend. I would never have made it without sister morphine.. Actually the whole thing went better than expected. From most reports, most folks don'e even think about eating anything for about 3 days. My doc did a fantastic job. A real pro he is.. Swallowing anything sucks. Even water. The pain meds they gave me are in liquid form. What the hell kind of liquid I'm not sure. Feels like battery acid going down. It must have a bit of alcohol in it, it sure stings going down. Fortunately it acts pretty quickly. A precoating of pudding helps. So why the hell did I have this done at such a late date? I got tired of swollen glands and sore throats. Also got tired of sleeping in a separate bedroom than my wife. Had the tonsils pulled for the first problem, the UPPP to hopefully take care of the latter. My snoring was really bad, think chainsaw rasp with the volume of an open race header.. I snored so loud, I'd even wake myself up! No sleep apnea just loud snoring. I could post a pic but I really don't want to make anyone sick or further disuade anyone from getting the same thing done if they really need it. I'll know in a week or so if the pain was worth the gain! I'll keep you all posted,. More to come tomorrow regarding the hospital stay part. My roomate was um, er, interesting..... Brad | ||
| Iamike |
Brad- Get well, how's the back? I don't remember you snoring  | ||
| Henrik |
Ouch ....!!! Feel better soon. Henrik | ||
| Swampy |
As a child of the 50s-60s, welcome to the tonsiless club! (had them removed as a youth, the latest greatest medical proceedure of the time) Take your time healing, don't rush it, the recovery time they give you is ALWAYS underestimated! | ||
| Bluzm2 |
Mike, The back is still a bit hosed. My main Dr stopped in right before I was discharged on Tuesday. He asked the same question. As soon as I heal from this deal he wants to attack the back problem again. I got so frustrated last year I gave up and put up with the discomfort. It really hosed up the riding season.. Henrik, I wish it were just an "ouch" at this point. Maybe in a few days.. Time for some meds... Brad | ||
| Luvthemtorts |
Careful when you brush your teeth. I got mine taken out when I was 25 and made the mistake of brushing too rough during the first week. I started bleeding crazy bad and had to go back under to get the problem resolved. Then developed an infection from the germs on my toothbrush. Total down time was 5 weeks. Best of luck to you!! | ||
| Oldog |
Bluz: I am really curious about the ??"uppp" ?? I have heard horror stories about swallow problems I would like to get the snippy done and get rid of the machine. If I may be soooo rude please keep us posted.. OH and GET WELL SOON! | ||
| Rotzaruck |
Bluz, It's just awfully unfair to be stuck in the horspital on purpose. No big adventure that went wrong to tell your grandkids about, embellished a bit of course. I've always wondered what that dangly thing was for anyway. Don't know why the designer would put in useless parts. Maybe it's original purpose was to scare off critters while you sleep. Mine (tonsils) got whacked as a kid too, must not have been too bad then, all I remember is ice cream, lots and lots. Probably should have got that noise maker while they were whacking, might save some of those elbowings I get in the middle of the night. Oldog, suggest you don't go to the Doc, and tell him to do the snippy thing, please be more specific, no telling WHAT you might wake up missing( we have very few dangly parts that aren't useful for something). Bluz, get well, have some ice cream Rotzaruck | ||
| Unibear12r |
Good luck Brad, hopefully this does it for you. Didn't you do the plastic inserts a while back? That seemed a bit painful in of itself! Get well soon. | ||
| Nevrenuf |
nothing like turning 50 this year and still have the tonsils to think about now after reading this. luckily i don't have any gland problems which causes me to have a sore throat that often. hell, i don't even get sick that often. but at least i know what to look forward to if the tonsil does have to go. hope you start filling better soon. | ||
| Daves |
hope you heal up fast Bluz Riding season is just ahead! | ||
| Phillyblast |
Brad, You're supposed to get that stuff done as a kid so the cardiologist can't yell at you about eating ice cream  Heal up quick and get the back taken care of so you can get to riding. I feel spring in the air today. D | ||
| Spiderman |
Heal fast! So do you get to eat all the ice cream you want? Did ya save em?  | ||
| Court |
Yikes . . . Brad. . . sorry to hear of your trevails! Get healed up and back to full speed soon. All the best, Court | ||
| Ragnagwar |
My son had his out a year ago at 24, and believe me it was no easier at that age. For about a week he could have fought a bear, bare handed and won! It will get better,hang in there. By the way, all of his problems have been resolved by the surgery and he's happy the little buggers are gone now.Good Luck! | ||
| Jimidan |
Get well soon and I hope it has the desired effect. Think of it this way, it was better than having a circumcision.  | ||
| Al_lighton |
Brad Get well...I didn't know that one got sore throats more when you still have your tonsils. I still have mine, but don't notice sore throats so much. Must be the weather out here. I hope your back heals up better than mine is when you start working on it. I'm past three months now with an S1/L5 herniation with no improvement at all, I'm practically crippled these days. No dirt biking, no Ultimate frisbee, can't walk 100 yards. Swinging a leg over the uly is a bit tough, but once I'm on it, it's OK. This getting old stuff really sucks. Al | ||
| Loki |
Brad, heal fast and get the back squared away | ||
| Road_thing |
Get well quick, Brad! rt | ||
| Naustin |
Hey Brad, watch out for that liquid pain killer. When I had my tonsils out last year, it made me constipated, and I mean the medically dangerous kind of constipated. Add some metamucil into your milkshakes or maybe blend up some bran flakes or something.  (Message edited by naustin on February 22, 2007) | ||
| Blake |
Best wishes and a sincere prayer or two for your full and speedy recovery Brad! Ice cream good. Tobasco bad, at least for you for a while. | ||
| Teeps |
Three for three in my family, no tonsils. The debate may still rage whether to take them or leave them... all I can say is my son had his out when he was 8, he's 24 now. He has not been sick, with anything worse than a cold since then. Look at the bright side Bluzm2, at least it's not a circy...  | ||
| Bluzm2 |
Wow! I didn't expect this much reaction. Thanks everyone for the well wishes and good juju. Last night and so far today have been rough. Not sure why but man am I sore. Even my teeth hurt! I promised more on the hospital stay, so here goes. I was scheduled for surgery at about 11:45, they even got me in early! When does that ever happen in a hospital or Dr's office? Lots of forms, questions, more forms, same questions, etc.. amazing amount of paperwork. Once they get the verced onboard, thing get fuzzy real fast. In fact, I don't remember anything after moving from the gurney to the table. When the lights finally came back on it was about 2:30 or so. My Dr was there a few minutes later he asked how I felt. I asked him if he got the license plate number of the truck that ran over me. He ordered more morphine. I got to my room about 3:30 or so. I heard the nurse talking to my roommate, he sounded a bit edgy. Turns out he had come in on Saturday evening with a blown out lower back. He was bucking the system the whole time. Rather than take pain killers and muscle relaxers he kept me up all night hollering everytime he moved. Ether that or snoring like a drunk sailor. He was one of those that knows better than the medical staff. He had no idea why they were giving him certain meds and what they were trying to do. I'm not sure if it's important or not but his stuborness may have been related to him being a retired engineer! He used to work for McDonald Douglas and Honeywell back in the day... I was hoping that they would stay on top of the pain meds and not let it build up too bad. Wrong... After I threatened to jump out the window around 6:30, they finally brought in some more morphine and my liquid stuff. They said the delay was that the liquid wasn't normally available and they were waiting for it. The never thought of splitting them up.. While killing time, I tried to watch TV, unfortunately, my side of the room didn't have a remote. I asked if they could get one installed. I got tired of asking after a couple of hours. Finally after a shift change I talked a nurse into stealing one from an unused room. Problem solved! Pretty good channel selection really, almost as good as home. Sleep was pretty impossible, it seems like they came into the room about every 30 minutes or so for one thing or another.. On one trip in around 3:00AM, the nurse left the blood pressure machine turned on. It cycled about every 10 minutes trying to measure a non existant arm. It would then beep a few times, then shut up for another 10 minutes. It took a while to figure out what was going on (the morphine makes ya a bit fuzzy ya know....) I paged the nurse to shut the damn thing off. That took another 15 minutes or so. Boy the sure move slow around there. I got another round of the battery acid around 6:00AM. The place was now in full daytime swing again. No chance of catching a nap before breakfast (i couldn't eat anyway). Fortunately I was out of there by around 10:30 or so. They wheeled me down to the loading area, I hopped in my wifes car and headed home. End of that adventure and on to the recovery phase! Nick, I too am concerned about the "binding" effects of the pain meds. Although I've not eaten anything solid since Sunday it does worry me a bit. Even blendered soup should should have some um, er , results.... Let's put it this way, I'm taking your advice and "loading up". Lots of fluids and the other stuff...... Time will tell!! I'll keep everyone posted on the UPPP results. There seems to be more than a passing interest here among fellow noisy sleepers! Brad | ||
| Iamike |
Don't tell my wife if it works, I may wake up some night with her holding a knife over me! | ||
| Naustin |
Take care Brad I'll be following your progress... | ||
| Ravensmith22 |
Brad, remind me to tell you about my room mates at the hospital sometime. It may not seem so, but it could have been worse for you. Hey, beer is a liquid painkiller, isn't it? Let me know if you need some Summit EPA. Oh, and don't let me forget the Summit t-shirt for your son. Get well soon, Julie really wants a chance to bribe, er, provide dinner and drinks. If you need anything, just e-mail or call. | ||
| Mbsween |
Brad, Hope your recovery goes quick. i had my tonsils out at the ripe old age of 5. Apparently I dropped my stuffed animal out of the bed in recovery, tried to climb out to get it and ended up with 5 stitches in the head from the fall Thanks for leaving off the pics! | ||
| Mikej |
Heal well. Still have my tonsils and dangly bits, not looking forward to any more body part removals, a gall bladder extraction a year or two ago wasn't fun at all. I do like ice cream though. One thing to consider is that by getting this done in the winter it doesn't cut into your riding time. | ||
| Etennuly |
Good luck on getting past the pain period and back to Buell time! Goodness....I see that a lot of us are having the other problem you mentioned.....turning 50this year....oooohhhhhh the painnnnn!!!!  | ||
| Bluzm2 |
Time for an update. Things still suck. Seriously, I'm still damn sore. I can't eat anything solid for a few more days. So for I've lost about 9 pounds. This is NOT a recommended diet plan. I think I'm wearing out our blender. The discomfort is different the last 2 days. It's a "deeper" pain, not like a surface pain. Doc says thats a good thing, means stuff is healing down deep. This sucks. I had a dream last night about eating a McDonalds Fillet-O-fish. You have no idea how good that sounds. Did I mention this sucks? Time for lunch. Hmmm, what to have. Maybe a can of pureed Progresso Chicken Noodle Soup! Mmmmm Good! My teeth are forgetting how to chew....... The suck meter is pegged..... Brad |
