I'm getting my tonsils out this month, after about 10 bouts of tonsillitis this year it really is a necessary evil, although I'm extremely nervous about all elements of me being in hospital for a week.
The most worrying: my household falling apart! Funny how the thought of leaving Ash and Ryota alone for a week is way more stressful that my throat being hacked at and bleeding profusely for a few days. In saying that, I'm sure that mil and grandma will come swooping in and do pretty much everything for their precious chonan, I'm kinda hoping they don't though, then the bastard might appreciate me a bit more!
I should give my usually-a-fuckface-but-sometimes-alright husband a bit of a mention though, he planned to buy me an ipad2 for when I went in to hospital so I wouldn't be bored. Awwwwwwww. Of course I foiled his well laid plans by having the same idea and then just going and buying it. But he did fuck around in a rush to make sure I had a portable wi-fi thingy so I can use it anywhere. See, he can be sweet sometimes!
I also thought that since I'll be in hospital for a week I may as we ll blog it, so it is my promise that I will blog every day I'm there, even if it is a drugged up one word post! I'm sure there will be tales of dopey nurses, hot doctors (ooooooo a girl can dream!), old women commenting on the size of my tits and all kinds of hospital stories! I'm actually looking forward to it in that sense, I've never had the extended Japanese hospital stay.
I'm wondering who will come visit me too, god imagine if the dog-fucker comes and I have to sit talking to her with no escape for an extended period of time, anything over 10 minutes and I think I'll be begging the nurse for a morphine overdose. It will be interesting to see if Grandma makes the trek too...
Ok must go work, I'm sorry for the lack of blogging, but I'm so busy at the school that I barely have time to do anything, ipad2 is bound to get my lazy arse writing again I'm hoping!
iPad 2!! Is it shallow of me that I only got that out of the whole post??
ReplyDeleteSeriously though...glad you are finally getting your tonsils out! No more painful throat! Try to chill a little in the hospital. Though, hospitals aren't really a desired vacation destination for anyone. I'll keep my fingers and toes crossed that dog-fucker doesn't visit!
Well, just hope that they don't give you the wrong operation... and that you can communicate properly when you're drugged up.
ReplyDeleteRemember, you can always say that you are tired and that the doctor has told you to rest if someone annoying turns up!
hot nurses, eh?
ReplyDeletehaving just had that operation a couple months ago, i will say i am not excited about it, for you. it's a bitch. THAT being said, here are some of my suggestions. they are obviously just what worked (or didn't work) for me, so take what you want from it and throw out the rest:
ReplyDelete1. ice your throat. sounds weird, but it feels really good. i don't know what kind of access you will have to ice in the hospital, but take some plastic baggies in case they will fill one up for you to lay on your throat.
2. wear a mask whenever possible. again, damn japan and their love of masks, right? but, the WORST thing post-op is for your throat to get dry. i don't know how they do it in japan, but in the states, they cauterize your throat as they cut the tonsils out, so essentially you have a big scab in your throat. if it gets pulled or knocked off too early, that equals bleeding. i had one bleeding incident in the middle of the night on day 14, but i think it was just a fluke because the doc told me the next day that i was 80% healed and i got the go-ahead to fly back to japan.
3. eat soft soft soft. eat anything that you actually feel like eating. i ate the weirdest combinations of food the first week because you have to get calories somehow. i think i lost about 6-8lbs over 1 week or so. so, it's really important to eat whatever you can. i SLOWLY started to incorporate normal foods that were on the soft side after a week or so. your throat will be pretty sore so things like chips and crunchy food probably won't sound good anyway. i avoided them for probably close to a month.
4. swallow as much as you can bear. this sounds kind of counterintuitive, but, at least for me, the longer i waited and avoided swallowing, the MORE it hurt when i eventually did. take sips of juice (no orange or citrus, it HURTS and milk leaves kind of a film in your mouth that makes it harder to swallow) or water or whatever other drink you can down. this also helps keep something in your stomach because...
5. if you think the drugs are what's making you sick, try something else! i was on vicodin or percocet or some other really strong medicine and i think it's what made me sick. it could have been eating a normal sized meal (i was just SO hungry!!) after about a week of cream of wheat and apple juice, not really sure. i had several nights where i'd wake up, empty my stomach, go back to bed and do the same thing 4 hours later. probably not all the medicine, or all the "what i ate" or all the post nasal drip, but probably a combination of everything that my stomach wasn't having. (not to scare you, but puking over your recently cut into throat will be very painful. see number 1. re: ice!)
6. you will likely be frustrated that you aren't feeling better faster. well, i did. the first couple days, you are totally out of it, drugs, etc. day 4-6 were the worst. sleep as much as you can to avoid being awake (and aware of the pain). after a week of feeling like crap, i still felt like crap and was sick of it. some days you'll feel like talking and it doesn't hurt so much, other days you'll just want to curl up and cry. (which, i did. haha) i would wander to the neighbors, but then be exhausted the rest of the day. i think day 8 or 9 was the big turning point where i actually left the house to go to the grocery store. by day 12-13 i was up and almost back to normal. my uvula (man, のどちんこ is such a better word!) was really swollen, so it felt like something was stuck in my throat, even 3 or 4 weeks post-op, and my throat was tight and felt stiff, but wasn't painful by week 3.
anyway, i think those are the biggies...it's definitely not fun (though, email and gchat and facebook and all those will definitely be your best friend because you don't have to talk!) so, seriously, take it easy and don't overdo it...though i would prep your in-laws and ryota so they know that it's not a done and all better overnight kind of thing...good luck!!
I did a post about having my balls washed by 2 cute nurses till I came all over the place. Maybe we get a story about some hunk scrubbing you to heaven ;)
ReplyDeleteLets talk later about the ipad2 as a teaching tool. My kids LOVE IT!!! I have found some awesome apps for that :)
Good luck with the op. And if the df turns up, send her on pointless errands for you until she gets sick of it. Looking forward to drugged-up posts.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your operation! Hopefully your nurses will be better an inserting an IV than mine were. I swear one woman tried to stick it straight into muscle. That hurt =/
ReplyDeleteAlso, Ipad2, super awesome! Those look likes lots of fun :)
Good luck, I hope it goes smoothly, and enjoy being pampered while you're in sick bay, as you should be ;).
ReplyDeleteNaww it was sweet of him getting the portable wi-fi and thinking of getting an Ipad2 <3 <3 <3
ReplyDeleteMaybe the phone was him trying to express that he wants to keep in contact with you because he'll miss you :)
I hope you get better soon!!! ^^
Reading J's comment is full on. I didn't realize getting your tonsils out as an adult was such an ordeal. Lucky you have the ipad2 cause it sounds like you might not be talking much for a while - at least you can type some messages to the hot nurses. You might need it to help with your teaching while you get your teaching voice back!
ReplyDeleteGood luck Corrine.
xxx
Take care, you should get some real milo sent over from Australia, for liquid it can make you feel pretty full.
ReplyDeleteGood luck, the nurses in the hospitals here are pretty nice and do a good job.
Some of the women I've talked to in Tokyo love to stay in the hospital...they say its like vacation being away from home and having people take care of you....not sure if i agree....but...good luck!!
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I have to add is that if you really start to go batty in the hospital and you think you really truly belong home in your own bed, it IS possible to just leave, against medical advice, simply by getting up, walking out and hailing a taxi. I did this 4 days after my c-section here, when I reached my limit. They might hassle you and tell you you're endangering yourself (and, in my case, my newborn), but you can tell those fuckers where to go.
ReplyDeleteOH damn! You are going to a Japanese hospital. They will try to charge you for everything they can. If there is something the national health insurance does not cover, they will find a way to charge you for it.
ReplyDeleteoooh! i have the same problems!! my doctor here told me i should get them removed but i totally can't afford the ridiculous bill they wanna foot me with so... i must suffer!
ReplyDeletegood luck!
do make sure to blog about it ;)
Good luck with the surgery and ask for plenty of meds! I'm not sure if they are necessary, but it will probably help you from killing your husband or anyone else when it starts to hurt.
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