suchlike
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« Reply #16 on: May 25, 2012, 08:25:18 PM » |
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Though this is an old thread, I can't resist commenting as I'm currently recovering from a tonsillectomy myself. Experiences with this procedure can vary widely. I've heard that the older you are, the more deeply embedded your tonsils may be, so in addition to longer healing time due to age, the wounds themselves will likely be more severe--so please be cautious when forming expectations about how fast someone "should" bounce back.
As far as taking care of someone, here are some tips based on my pleasantly uneventful experience. I'm not a doctor; this is offered as motherwit, not medical advice:
-1- Encourage the patient to drink lots of water to avoid dehydration. This can easily happen when the patient is doped up and just discovering how much worse everything feels when you try to move any part of the mouth let alone swallow.
-2- Check on him/her frequently. It's not just practical, it's also important for morale to know that someone cares. Anesthesia, meds, inability to eat real food, constant pain, etc. can hit some people hard. On day 4 I was nearly defeated by a small bowl of mashed potatoes and pureed spinach. A few encouraging words from my husband helped me brave a few more excruciating bites.
-3- Supply bags of ice as needed. These can really, really help. After the first few days, be prepared to supply warm packs also.
-4- Set a timer for pain medication doses and/or help your patient remember to take the medicine on time. My meds worked so great, I thought I was ready to back off of them on Day 2. Nope. And it was hellish getting the pain relief level back up once it had plummeted. To give you a point of reference, I birthed two babies naturally. For me, this pain was as bad as labor.
-5- Get over Popsicles and Jello. Stock some, but be prepared to offer a few things and run out to get more of whatever works for *your* patient. For the first few days, ice cream and soy protein shakes felt better and were more sustaining for me than frozen sugar water, which actually irritated my throat more. A few days in, warm may feel better than cold. Best for me have been pureed homemade chicken soup, beef broth, homemade mac-and-cheese, and mashed potato.
-6- After eating/drinking and first thing in the morning, *gently* swishing warm salt water with a pinch of baking soda in the mouth can help improve comfort and control the unpleasant taste/odor of the scabs in the back of the throat. (No harsh gargling, though.) Nasal irrigation of a saline solution once a day helps too if you know how to do this.
Keep in mind that for most adults, healing isn't a smooth progression from lowest point to highest point. There can be dips in energy and spikes in pain that make Day 5-7 as bad or worse than Days 1 and 2. Encourage your patient to be...patient...and don't put pressure on him or her to get on with work, eat solid food, give up their domination of the TV remote, etc. etc.
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