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!

Dinner with Andrew WK (+ my obsession with Andrew WK)

I was trying to think of a way to split this into two blog posts, but to keep it chronological and consistent, I thought it would just be easier to start from the beginning. If you're here just to read about the dinner, scroll down, I clearly labeled where that part starts.

It all started when I first heard of Andrew WK. I remember watching "Party Hard" and "She Is Beautiful" on MTV after school one day. I've never seen anything like it before and loved it. For some crazy reason I never actually bought "I Get Wet" in high school and Andrew fell off my radar. Flash forward 7 or so years later when I'm out of college and on my second year internship in Washington, DC. I'm checking my email and I see that Andrew WK is playing a show at the Sixth & I synagogue in Washington, DC with Calder Quartet. Tickets were cheap and I thought it would be fun. A few weeks later the venue ended up changing to the middle of nowhere in Virginia. I was still determined to go. I took a metro and walked a few miles to the venue. It was a strange coffee shop/venue. I got some spinach and artichoke dip (good show snack right?) and sat down. The show was awesome. Andrew played piano and sung his classics that I still knew from high school, but he was backed by an amazing string quartet. They also played more classical arrangements. It was definitely a one of a kind show, so I just had to stay for the meet and greet afterward. I was in line and knew I would miss the last metro, but I stayed anyway. The quartet guys were awesome to talk to, but this post is about Andrew. He was so friendly and genuinely enthused to meet everyone. I got a signed poster and a picture and merrily went on my $60 cab ride back to the city.



From that meeting I was hooked on Andrew as a performer, artist, entertainer and human being. I instantly scoured the internet to get copies of his old stuff and discover his newer albums. I read all the ridiculous conspiracy theories, read into all the motivational speaking and other work he has been doing all over the world. He is truly an inspiration and the party king. It wasn't long until I started following Andrew on twitter and getting his tweets sent to my phone. One night I checked my feed and saw he was performing for FREE at 8am for DC101's Kegs and Eggs. I of course woke up early, dragged myself to the 9:30 Club and got in the super long line. Andrew WK started the show and it was amazing! Complete high energy so early in the morning! He played maybe 5 songs but it was perfect. As soon as it was over I rushed to work, and even made it in on time.


It wasn't long before I found out about the Party Crew Street Team. I officially joined the Party Crew on May 26, 2010. I thought it would be a good way to spread the word about the new stuff Andrew was doing while also earning points to get free merchandise. Since joining I've gotten a pack of buttons, stickers and a t-shirt. (I'm currently just sitting on a whole bunch of points, because I don't know what to get next).

Andrew also does live chats every week. I've written about them before and try to watch them as often as possible. He does lots of giveaways and contests on there too. I won a PARTY HARD patch for correctly guessing Dave Thomas as the restaurant mascot he was thinking of.



My Andrew obsession only grew...

I wrote about my Warped Tour experience which was amazing!

I painted my boyfriend's truck for a street team order:

I dressed as Andrew for the Rally to Restore Sanity:

I also dressed as Andrew for Halloween (complete with bloody nose makeup):

I won a spot on his guestlist at Santos Party House to see Cherie Lily and Aleister X perform while he DJed:

I dug around until I found enough information to get free tickets to The Most Interesting Show in the World, which he hosted and also performed with his full band:

Family, friends and co-workers started asking me more about Andrew and my obsession so clearly I was doing my street teaming properly. A few months after joining the party crew, Andrew announced the Dinner Contest where he would fly the top street teamer and a guest to New York for one night and have dinner with them. I never really thought I would win, and just did every single order I could to spread the word of Party.

At the end of 2010 it was announced that they would be picking the contest winner soon, and it would be based on most orders completed. If you looked at just points I wasn't the top, but I was still in the top 3. Then they revealed the top 5 people with the most orders completed. And there was my name at the #1 spot with 73 orders completed. I couldn't believe it! I still didn't want to get my hopes up though. They said they would announce the winner in a couple weeks on one of the livechats. I was fully concentrated on watching that night when my boyfriend came in right as they were going to announce the winner. I literally squealed with delight, shock and awe when he said my name! I couldn't believe it! I won!

I got a congratulations confirmation from Andrew and his assistant and it said they would organize all the details in a few months. Flash forward to April and I got an email asking me for my available dates, my guest and any information they needed to know. I gave her my best weekends and before I knew it, we had Saturday, May 14 as our dinner date.

Now, since I live in Washington, DC getting a flight to New York seems silly when I can just take the train. The flight is less than an hour, but once you add in getting there and going through security you have just as much time and double the stress. So before I knew it I was sent an Amtrak reservation for that weekend along with the hotel details. About a week before the dinner date, the location was finally revealed. Big Nick's Burger Joint at 9pm.

My boyfriend and I rode the train up to New York and got there around 2pm. There was a slight snafu at the Ramada Inn (they needed to see the physical credit card the reservation was booked with). I kind of freaked out, but thank goodness I had Andrew's assistant's cell number. She was gracious and amazing enough to drop everything and come down. We got to our room, dropped off our bags and then went exploring. We first went to lunch at Pho32 and then got some Pinkberry to satisfy my sweet tooth. Then went on to Times Square, walked around the fashion and theatre districts before becoming bold enough to figure out the Subway system. I grabbed a free 11x17 map at the hotel, and am so glad I did because that thing took us everywhere! We went to the Lower East Side, explored Little Tokyo and many other side streets before heading back to the hotel around 8. Did some brief resting and got ready for dinner. Throughout the day I got a few texts from Andrew's assistant checking in and then saw Andrew tweeted about me and our upcoming dinner that night. It was all so exciting!

(THIS IS FINALLY WHERE I TALK ABOUT THE DINNER)

We took the subway up to Big Nick's Burger Joint and met Andrew's assistant inside. It was a tiny restaurant packed with character. Wall to wall signs, head shots and knick-knacks. The menu was a pretty thick paper booklet. It even had a table of contents on the back! (seriously, check out their menu!) I wasn't even through page 2 when Andrew walked in in his signature white jeans and t-shirt along with an awesome leather jacket. We all stood up and hugged and I introduced my boyfriend. We sat down and Andrew explained his love for Big Nick's and took us on a brief tour of the menu. But before I could go further into the menu Andrew pulled out his new EP from Japan, Aleister X's EP and a signed EP from his wife, Cherie Lily. He said she would have loved to come, but unfortunately couldn't make it. I was not expecting extra gifts, so this really made my jaw drop. I profusely thanked him for everything and he thanked me in turn for being such a great party crew member.


Andrew started off ordering a pizza slice with pepperoni and grilled jalapeno slices. Andrew's assistant ordered a frisco melt, my boyfriend ordered the bistro burger and I got the aloha burger. The slice came first and Andrew piled on the red pepper flakes, parmesan cheese, garlic salt and black pepper. Then sliced into up into bite size samples for us all. It was delicious!! The rest of the food came and I have to say everyone else ordered such tasty food. Mine was just a plain burger with some fresh pineapple chunks on top. It was still good but after trying everyone else's food and eating all my fries (and 2 tator tot garnish) I was stuffed. Andrew went on to order french toast with bacon and we all talked and ate until it was almost midnight. I'm pretty sure I was just starstruck half the time and all of things I had months to plan to say went out the window. Still conversation was fantastic and it's so easy to talk to Andrew. And to listen! He has such great stories.


Andrew got some food to go for Cherie and then paid the bill. At the cashier there were some Big Nick's balloons for children, but you better believe I got one. Outside the restaurant we snapped some pictures and Andrew asked if we still wanted to go to Santos Party House (we asked about what was going on there at dinner). My boyfriend and I said definitely and Andrew hooked us up by emailing some people and giving us a $20 for a cab. We hugged again and parted ways, and my boyfriend and I took the Subway to Chinatown.


There was a little issue with walking past the huge line for Santos and trying to explain to the bouncer that Andrew just put us on the guestlist. But after the 2nd time trying to explain he just sighed and let us through. At the will call our name wasn't on the official guestlist, but said they could get us in for the reduced $20 fee. Andrew's $20 came to the rescue! It was a huge slumber party themed rave and it was out of control amazing! There was body painting and a photobooth (I took full advantage of both) and the DJ was awesome. (They were even throwing free CDs to the crowd, adding to the previous 3 in my purse!). We danced and grooved and finally left at 3am, coming back to the hotel exhausted and completely content.


That morning we went to the Andrew WK recommended Barney Greengrass (The Sturgeon King) where I got Nova Scotia salmon scrambled with eggs and onion with a bialy and my boyfriend got the sturgeon with a bialy. Both were tasty and not something I would normally ever get. Afterward we walked around Central Park until it was time to take the train home.


It was an amazing adventure that I'll never forget, and I'm so grateful it happened. Andrew always says his fans are his friends. And I can't wait to hear more of Andrew's new music, go see him again on tour and be supportive in any and every way I can.