So I had my tonsils out yesterday. I’ve been on the fence about having the
surgery for the last three months. Just
having surgery is a risk. I’m not sure
if this will ultimately help my sleep apnea.
I hope it will help with just generally not getting sick as often during
the year.
This sleep apnea journey has been a long, painful and
expensive one. That last part is why I
had the surgery now. I had met my
deductible for 2011, so I needed to get the surgery in before 2012. Terrible timing for work with our audit still
going, but thankfully my company lives out the saying that our health comes
first.
I had prepped the house as best I could. I had made two batches of jello and poured
them into individual Styrofoam cups to set.
The house was clean and as uncluttered as I could get it. My friend Josh was going to come spend the
night in my spare room to make sure I didn’t die post-op.
I was scheduled as of Friday to show up at the surgery
center at 11:30 for a 12:45 surgery time on Wednesday. On Wednesday morning around 9:15, they called
to move up my check-in time to 10:30. So
I called my friend Amy, who’d be giving me a ride to and from the surgery. To accommodate the time move-up, I went and
picked up her sister Andrea, who’d be her kids’ baby-sitter for the day,
dropped Andrea off and picked up Amy.
I had to stop eating and drinking as of midnight on Tuesday
night, so I was pretty glad to move up the time because I was starving. What I was worried about was that I was
starting to feel a little sick on Tuesday night, and it was a little more
enhanced Wednesday morning. A light
cough and a mucus-y feeling in my throat Tuesday had advanced to include a mild
headache and some congestion tightness in my chest. And I couldn’t take any drugs for it. I was a little worried they’d cancel the
surgery, but I called and they said it most likely wouldn’t be a deal-breaker,
but the anesthesiologist would make the call.
We arrived and one of my Fresno church pastors met us there
to pray with me before going in. We read
over a few verses in Isaiah that discussed God’s authority over
everything. I was finding I wasn’t so
anxious over the surgery itself, but over all the to-do list items surrounding
the surgery. e.g., I hadn’t gotten a
call from the doctor’s office the day prior to arrange getting all my
medications in advance.
I checked in, and got changed and on the gurney. The first nurse couldn’t understand that I wanted
something for lumbar support on my lower back.
She first tried bringing me two huge pillows to put under each of my
arms. I finally asked for a rolled towel
or something, and that helped her understand that. I was a little difficult with her, not
snapping and being rude, and I felt bad about that. The hunger and nerves over the surgery were
getting to me and I knew I’d need to tried to keep it in check. I was also pretty tired for some reason.
Then another nurse Kelly came in to start my IV, and she was
awesome. She just had a very calming
voice tone and presence. That helped my
reset my attitude. After my IV was in, Amy
was able to come back and help keep me entertained while I waited. We tried to get before pictures of my tonsils
with limited success. The anesthesiologist
Dr. C. and then the surgeon Dr. T. each came in separately to go over the plan
for the morning. Dr. C. was a young
Asian woman of whom Amy wanted to ask her age to make sure she could even
drive. Dr. C. was great, talking me
through her game plan for pain management and some of the what-if’s that are
natural variables depending on how I react to the pain meds and the type of
surgery.
Dr. T. came in and was a little foreboding. He had wanted to take my tonsils as well as
cut into my uvula and upper palate to widen the space for the airway. He was also coming in to check on the details
because I was only scheduled to have tonsils out. He had forgotten our phone call and couldn’t
locate his notes in my file outlining my request for the change. Based on what I had read online (I didn’t
tell him this bc I know that’d be a trigger point of the unreliability of online
info), when doing this surgery for sleep apnea, the doctor’s version of a “successful”
surgery is different from the patient’s.
There are usually side effects of liquid by mouth coming out the nose
more often, and some other stuff more related to the sleep issue that I don’t
recall now. I just wasn’t feeling at
peace about him cutting into the upper palate even before my online research,
so I told him he could only take my tonsils.
He hit it over and over again that just a tonsillectomy is not a
recognized surgical treatment plan for adults (it is for kids, but bc the
palate descends as our mouth forms into adulthood, some of that often needs to
go too). He didn’t want me coming back
and complaining later that I didn’t work.
I thanked him and reassured him that I again (2nd time for
this speech bc of our phone call) understood the risks. I was hopeful this would help (but maybe not
cure) the sleep apnea as well as also just help with generally getting sick
this year.
I was glad Amy was there because I was a little on edge
after his visit. Amy is a nurse, and she
reminded me that surgeons stereotypically have that “I know what’s best, do it
my way” demeanor. She also helped me understand
that surgeons have a monitored success rate for their surgeries, and so he’s
motivated to do a surgery that has the greatest chance of curing my
problem. He also may get paid more if he
takes the upper palate too. I hope that
isn’t part of his motivation, and am deciding not to presume that motive upon
him.
They finally wheeled me into surgery and helped me get
situated. These nurses understood me
needing lumbar support. Then Dr. C. knocked
me out.
When I woke up, I was in recovery. I was told everything went fine. I think I regained cognitive abilities pretty
fast, but I was still pretty sleepy.
They set me up in a recliner, and I asked for ice chips because my mouth
was dry and my stomach was empty. I
heard Amy outside my room talking with the nurses. Apparently getting my pain meds had been
quite a journey and she still had to try and get two of the four prescriptions
because of complications with the pharmacy being out at one location and them
not communicating with releasing the orders at one to be filled by another. She was trying to decide whether to go now,
or wait and get them on the way home with me.
I said to go now, and they were all surprised that I was awake and
comprehended that.
Kelly and Mary Lou were my recovery nurses, and they kept me
loaded up with popsicles and IV meds. I
was antsy to get out of there, so I asked for writing materials and wrote up and accounting memo I knew I would need for work, and once I got my phone back I was typing out
messages for them to read. When I was
finally released to go and Mary Lou was helping me into the wheelchair, I typed
out, “So I get to drive home, right?”
That really got her and Amy laughing, and me as well. They said if I’m laughing leaving the surgery
center, it’s a good sign. I even tried
redirecting her to the driver’s side of my car when we got to the curb. :-)
There were a few other things about being an oldest child and needing to
be in control that we laughed over.
As Amy drove me home, I started to get a little woozy just
from being on an empty stomach, so we stopped for Jamba Juice on the way. Amy helped get me situated and wrote out a
pain med chart for me to keep track of them all for me, which I would later be
very grateful for. I was still starving
though, so hungry that I couldn’t fall asleep, but couldn’t figure out what I
could eat that would fill me up. So Amy
went to pick me up some ensure/slim fast-type drinks since those would be loaded
up like a meal.
While she was out, I started watching a movie but only made
it through 20 min of it before deciding to just lay down. My auditors sent me a really nice floral
arrangement that was left on my doorstep.
So I was lying on the couch and all the lights were off, and it had just
done dark outside when Amy returned. I
heard the garage door so I texted her to say I was awake and that she could
turn on lights and not worry about being quiet.
She didn’t see them before coming in.
I was cold and pretty tired, so I didn’t feel like getting up at that
point. She finally started rummaging
around in my cupboards, and so I texted her to ask what she was looking
for. She heard that notification and laughed
over me texting her about all that.
Once I finally was able to fill up my stomach, I was doing
much better, but I was wide awake. My
pain level on a 10-scale was about a 5 when I swallowed and a 1 the rest of the
time.
I brought out paper or would type on my phone so we could
converse some. We listened to a few CD’s
of a purity weekend she’s going to be taking her oldest son Jaden (11) on next
week, and I’m going to show up for some of the guys-only sessions to help her
out. Then we played Scrabble. Our friend Stephanie showed up around 7 to
check in on me, not knowing Amy would be around. She helped Amy out. As I wowed them with a couple words, I even
got a chance to mouth, “I was homeschooled” once. That brought laughter. On Vicoden (which I really don’t feel any
buzz from, so I’m really baffled now as to how people get hooked on this), I won
by 80 points, and she even got the X and Z.
We just hung out for the evening and talked. I brought out my laptop and sat between them
on the couch typing out my parts of the conversation. I kept meaning to and hope to still borrow a
projector that I can plug into my laptop so I can just project what I type onto
a wall to converse more easily with company since I’m not supposed to be
talking for awhile.
Josh showed up around 10 after his swing dance class to spend the night. Andrea drove over with the kids to pick up Amy and Stephanie left soon after. Josh and I hung out and talked (me typing) for awhile. I was glad I was as self-sufficient as I was post-op. I really didn’t want to be in a position of Josh needing to take care of me. I was wide awake, so we popped in Firefly to watch a few episodes. Josh is a teacher and a night-owl, so he’s been staying up until all hours anyway while on Christmas break. I tried a couple of times to go to sleep, and it took on the second attempt.
Josh showed up around 10 after his swing dance class to spend the night. Andrea drove over with the kids to pick up Amy and Stephanie left soon after. Josh and I hung out and talked (me typing) for awhile. I was glad I was as self-sufficient as I was post-op. I really didn’t want to be in a position of Josh needing to take care of me. I was wide awake, so we popped in Firefly to watch a few episodes. Josh is a teacher and a night-owl, so he’s been staying up until all hours anyway while on Christmas break. I tried a couple of times to go to sleep, and it took on the second attempt.
Waking up to my alarm in the middle of the night was no
problem to take my meds, and I fell right back asleep. I only ended up sleeping for about five
hours, and then just wasn’t tired anymore.
Hopefully I’ll get tired later and can sleep more then.
