Days 6 and 7

It's been almost a week now since I had my tonsillectomy. I read online that around day 7 was the worst pain, and I'm beginning to find out. About two days ago, a spot on the right side of my throat started to hurt, and the pain has been just steadily blossoming; each time the Vicodin begins to wear off I find out it's a little worse. I hope that it's a scab forming or scaling back, not a wound. Thing is, I can't get my mouth open enough and flatten my tongue enough to see what's going on back there. I even took a cell phone picture to see part of it the other day, out of curiosity.

Last night (between days 6 and 7) must've been like an eye in the storm. I slept like a baby. I didn't want to get up and bother to take the medication; I had to set my cell phone alarm, drag myself out of bed, and voluntarily put myself through the torture of swallowing that fowl stuff. But had I not gone through the ritual every four-ish hours, I'm certain that I would've eventually woken up in agony.

When I woke up this morning—Monday morning, the day I'm scheduled to return to work—I felt heavenly. There was an insistent feeling at the back of my throat, almost like a tickling but comfortable, and my body felt nearly rested. I instinctively knew that today was a critical turning point and if I went to work I would just drag out the process. I called in and left quiet, raspy messages with two of my bosses—and suddenly my throat was on fire. So I took the medication and went back to bed. And laid there, listening, in a way, to the crawling, almost burning sensation. Sleeping fitfully. It's really not that this pain is worse than when you first have the surgery; it's just different, much more intense but also more mentally manageable.

I keep doing these silly little half-yawns. They hurt, but my body must think "If I can't get a good one in, I'll just keep torturing you with little yawn-waves."

I do have some advice for scaling back the medication to return to life and work, if you're taking Vicodin: cut the Rx in half, and grind up some ibuprofen (maybe 400 mg) and take that in your eating window with some applesauce. I can't wait to switch over to just ibuprofen. It lasts longer and doesn't put your body and mind on a rollercoaster ride.

I looked back over what I wrote when I was really on that ride, and wow. I'm not naturally an organized thinker, but that's definitely hard to read.