Tonsillectomy at 26 Part 2: Pre-surgery preparations / Food Post

So I left off telling you that the surgery was booked and I was playing the waiting game. (Well, in between calling my family, friends, and the office with my questions and concerns...) But aside from that I preoccupied my brain with creating the perfect shopping list for my recovery. Everyone knows the typical popsicles and ice cream, but a lot of sources said to avoid dairy for at least the first few days because you don't want anything really coating your throat and tongue. (Coughing and/or clearing your throat is not even imaginable for the first few days). Plus who wants "milky tongue" as my mom says.

A week before surgery I was at Harris Teeter and saw several clearance carts filled with pouches of fancy baby food. I got a couple as a joke, but then I realized that was probably going to be one of the best ways to get some variety and maybe a little flavor in, as well as having a manageable portion. Then the major shopping happened the Saturday and Sunday before my Wednesday surgery. 

I was going to write about the surgery, but hey food is more fun so I'll just list everything and how it rated during my recovery below. Keep in mind these were my taste buds and everyone has different likes/dislikes. Here it goes:

Note: Cat was not for consumption. Pre- or Post-tonsillectomy.

• Baby food, pouches and containers: pear and butternut squash was the best, I actually got my boyfriend to go out and buy me more. He couldn't find the combination so he bought them separately and we mixed. The plum and berries were way too sweet for me to handle, and I actually didn't even eat any of the meat or plain veggie ones. The big mistake we made was crushing up medicine in the baby food to eat. DON'T DO THIS! Ugh it was terrible. I'd have to take a bite of the medicine food, sip of water, bite of real food, repeat. It took forever and was just terrible. Overall though, baby food was a good idea B+

• Jell-O: I was advised to stay away from citrus (for obvious burning reasons) and anything with red dye (in case you bleed, you're going to want to know how much is actually blood and not just red spit). The whole two weeks we (my mom, who am I kidding) only made the berry blue and grape jello. I remember it being good, but not being able to eat a lot. And I actually still have some in the fridge. Solid B there.

• Applesauce: NOPE. Tried this day 1 and it was too gritty. I didn't like the consistency or taste of this. F.

• Instant mashed potatoes: As you can see I got several different kinds of potatoes. The main thing is to read how they are prepared and what they're made with. No chunks of garlic or herbs. All of these are just made with water. I found the first week they were too thick. My mom thinned them out with chicken or vegetable broth but that made them taste too weird for me. The second week it was easier to eat them though. And I love potatoes. So let's give them a B.

• Gatorade: NOPE! All these non-red and non-citrus flavors were terrible and acidic and too sweet and burned going down. I only had a couple flavors to be honest, but I wasn't interested to try again. D- (I do like both Gatorade and G2 in my normal state of health when I'm super thirsty though)

• Chocolate Liquid Nutrition/Ensure: This was the best ever! I'm still drinking these on Day 14 as I heal. Tasty chocolaty vitamins that make you feel at least a little bit satisfied. I could only have them room temperature at first but now they're really good right out of the fridge. I went through at least two cases. They come in vanilla and strawberry, but I stuck to chocolate. A+

• Ensure Clear in peach: No no no. That burned. I hated it. F-

• Mini marshmallows: I don't know why I grabbed these but I'm glad I did. They were a fun, squishy, manageable snack around the end of the first week. I also stuck a baggie of them in the freezer. That's fun to do even when you're not recovering from a tonsillectomy. Solid A.

• Cream of Rice: my mom prepared this, I had one bite and refused it. Too gritty. Sorry Mom. F.

• Soup broths: Chicken broth was a bit too strong in the potatoes, I don't think I had too much of it. C+ The vegetable broth heated lukewarm was AMAZING! I don't think I had it until a few days after surgery, but yes, so good. That gets an A.

• Cream of wheat, pea soup, pear nectar, beef broth, tea: Didn't even open any of this yet. Maybe I'll do a post-tonsillectomy review.

• Popsicles! (not pictured): Anything frozen was way too cold the first few days. But when I could, I loved Dole banana popsicles, Philly swirl brand cotton candy ice pops, and Fla-Vor-Ice freeze pops my beef in Tennessee sent me. I bought Fruttare mango popsicles, but they were too tart/acidic. I also avoided red dyes and citrus flavors (which is harder than you think!) B

• Ice cream: Like the popsicles, too cold at first but then I graduated to milkshakes made with almond milk. That was tasty. Around Day 10 was when I could finally handle a scoop of ice cream with a spoon. C+

• Smoothies: Almond milk + frozen fruit + chocolate syrup + peanut butter. Delicious. Sometimes too thick. I didn't attempt these until the second week of recovery, but they were a good way to switch things up. B
• Vitamin Water Zero in fruit punch: Okay, here's my best secret/tip for the entire experience. If you forget to ask for liquid pain killers or they don't do that, then buy a pill crusher (should be around $5 at any drug store) and crush your pills into a few tablespoons of Vitamin Water Zero in fruit punch. Take a sip then follow it up immediately with a sip of water. There's some chemical that makes your taste buds tingle with a delightful sweet buzz. I don't really like this stuff by itself (it's ruined for me now anyway) but THIS is what you should mix your medicine with. (I had Oxycodone-Acetaminophen as my main/only painkiller just as a reference point for everyone). It takes about two or three turns switching sips, but it was by far the best way to take my medicine. And we didn't realize this until at least Day 3!

 Pill crusher, I love you.

Okay, that just a food post. I will write about surgery and recovery, but this was fun and on my mind. Comment if you have any questions or feedback!

Tonsillectomy at 26 Part 1: You're crazy, why'd you do that?

So it's currently Day 12 of my tonsillectomy recovery. I'm off of the heavy duty pain meds (switched to Tylenol when I think I need it) and I finally feel like myself again. I feel like I should write a recap of everything while it's still fresh, but I will warn you a lot of the details are foggy since I was pretty drugged up. I'm going to use my facebook and twitter updates as helpful hints to remind me of each day. And if my mom or boyfriend wants to comment about their experience taking care of me or details I left out, I definitely encourage them!

Alright, let's start with the big question:
WHY did I decide to get my tonsils out?
Answer: Tonsil Stones.

I've always had large tonsils. New dentists or doctors would comment on them saying "Wow, those suckers are big!" and I've been told they were between a 2-3 on the size scale. Nice reference picture below:

 From sleepmedicineboardreview.wordpress.com/2011/10/25/tonsil-size-scoring/

But I never had too many problems, only a few instances of strep throat growing up, so I was never advised to get them taken out. Fast forward to high school and college and I started getting tonsil stones. If you don't know what they are, and are kind of squeamish, you may want to skip this part. Tonsil stones are basically calcified bits of food and bacteria that form in the crypts/holes of the tonsils. Sometimes you can cough or gargle to get them out, and some people resort to picking or squeezing them out if they can stand it. I've also heard water picks on low settings can blast them out. (If the pressure is too much it can damage or tear the tonsil) But once you start getting tonsil stones, there's no way to permanently get rid of them besides removing the tonsils completely.

Another fun side effect of having tonsil stones is that you have pretty terrible breath. Especially in the morning. Like super rank. And trust me, I brush, floss, and use mouthwash before bed but it was always terrible again in the morning. I thought this just happened to everyone, but apparently tonsil stones are the culprit. Once my recovery scabs finally come off I'm very much looking forward to not having such nasty morning breath. Alright, now back to the main point...

I tried all of the methods of getting rid of my tonsil stones (also known as Tonsilloliths or tonsilar calculi) using all of those methods I mentioned above. It would work for the smaller stones or the stones I could reach but never for the big ones in the back. And the problem with picking or squeezing or prodding very sensitive tonsils is that they get super mad. They turn red and swell up and get infected. If I didn't get the stone out, then a day or two later I'd get cold-like symptoms and feel really terrible. Sore ears, sore throat, coughing, runny nose, and all of that. Once I got the stone out though, those symptoms went away almost immediately. As the years went on this pattern only increased. Although it was never bad enough to send me to the doctor's office it was still a miserable few days to a week. And as I got older I saw the stones getting larger, meaning the crypts I was poking and prodding must have been getting bigger. I searched endlessy for solutions online but just came across what I already knew.

I hit my breaking point at the start of this year and started seriously researching tonsillectomies. I found out about laser cryptolysis which is where a doctor uses a laser to close up the crypts in the tonsils and also reduces their size. I was pretty interested in that option since a lot of online sources said the recovery time was far less painful and much shorter. I didn't find too much information about them though or specific doctors that did them. I also read about traditional tonsillectomies and typical adult recovery time. SO many sources said adults need a minimum of 10 full days to recover. I couldn't believe it would take that long, but the more I read the more I saw accounts of people needing two weeks. The best source for me was a good friend who is around my age and had her tonsils out last year. I must have emailed and texted her dozens of times with questions and brought it up every time we were together. (Katherine, you were an invaluable resource, so thank you!). Alright, so about 2 weeks... I could luckily fit that into my work schedule so the next step was finding a doctor.

I actually used www.zocdoc.com/ to find an ENT in my area that took my insurance. I settled on Dr. Jack Williams since he had over 20 reviews, and all 5 stars. I booked my consultation online and a week or two later I was in his office. He made the usual comment about how big my tonsils were and once I told him about getting cold symptoms from the stones, he immediately said I should not be suffering like that and to just get them out. I had a pesky tonsil stone that visit so I asked him to take a look at it. He got a long skinny metal tool with a tiny scoop at the end and got that guy out first try. (Maybe I should have just bought one of those!) I asked about the laser cyptolysis and the pros and cons and why it isn't done more often. His answer was that it doesn't really work as a long term solution. And if the tonsils aren't completely eliminated, they can grow back. Clearly that was not going to be for me. We discussed tonsillectomies and went over what to expect during and after. He said if I chose to do it I would be cursing him during recovery but praising him afterward (so true). He said to think about it, get a second opinion, and gave me the surgical coordinator's card if I decided I wanted to book it with him. I felt really comfortable with going ahead with the surgery but happened to have a doctor's appointment coming up.

My primary Doctor admitted she didn't know much about tonsil stones but did print out some information about tonsillectomies and gave her okay for me to get it. She also gave me a list of other doctors that could perform the surgery, but I already had my mind made up. I called my mom to see if she could come take care of me for the first week and talked with my boyfriend (we live together) to see if he could take some time off work to watch me once my mom was gone. Once that was settled, I called the Feldman ENT Group to book my appointment. Since the recovery is so long, I scheduled surgery for Wednesday, May 22. That way I'd have Memorial Day built in and one less sick/vacation day I'd have to use.

The surgical coordinator mailed me a packet of information as well as a pre-surgery physical health form my primary care doctor had to fill out 30 days or less before surgery. Luckily, again, I already had an appointment booked within that range and got those filled out and mailed in no problem. Leading up to the surgery I did call the coordinator a few times for random questions I had and they were always very helpful. I had booked the surgery more than a month in advance and got the time off approved at work, so now it was just the waiting game.

Part Two will get to the surgery, then we can go through how fun my recovery was! Stay tuned!

(I'll also add before pictures of my tonsils and even some stone pictures I think I have if anyone is interested...)