DebIreland
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- Joined
- Feb 5, 2005
- Messages
- 3,601
Oh no! What a horrible time you had. I can relate to the closed throat and difficulty breathing ordeal. I suffered from acute tonsillitis 3 times where I could hardly breathe and it hurt like hell to swallow - it felt like there was a blade jammed in my throat and I would swallow on reflex and each time, it was like pressing down on 'the blade'. I also had to spit all the time, you have no option at all as it won't go anywhere else.
I can't believe they sent you home from the hospital that night though - I'm surprised they didn't keep you in to observe you after such an ordeal. Take my advice, get those tonsils whipped out. I had mine removed 3 years ago and I never had as much as a sore throat since. When tonsillitis is as severe as you had it, with abscesses too, it's the best move in my opinion. Surgery is always a last resort but in your case it's worth considering.
Don't try to be so brave next time
I understand why you didn't want to spoil the holiday but next time, don't be a hero
I can't believe they sent you home from the hospital that night though - I'm surprised they didn't keep you in to observe you after such an ordeal. Take my advice, get those tonsils whipped out. I had mine removed 3 years ago and I never had as much as a sore throat since. When tonsillitis is as severe as you had it, with abscesses too, it's the best move in my opinion. Surgery is always a last resort but in your case it's worth considering.
Don't try to be so brave next time
I understand why you didn't want to spoil the holiday but next time, don't be a hero 
but at least you might have been able to salvage some of your vacation and feel better for the last part of your trip. 
They would have had to knock me out to get a needle like that in my throat, sounds disgusting, horrible and painful. Just glad that you are ok now,
Wednesday night Chad went to the store to get me some more soup and jell-o in hopes I could eat it and I was sleeping on the couch. I awoke with a metallic blood tasted in my mouth and ran to the bathroom. I immediately began spitting up a brown gooey liquid followed by blood. The smell of it was worse than the taste. (If you just have to know, PM me and Ill tell you exactly what it smelled like, but you may never be able to eat something again, I know I wont!) I frantically called Chad to hear his cell ringing in the living room. I called my best friend who only lives a few minutes away but she was gone to the store. I was really starting to flip out. My friend stayed on the phone with me and dashed out of the store to come to my house, while I was still spitting and gagging. I was getting ready to hang up and call 911 when Chad showed up at home. The spitting continued for about 10 minutes, but by the end it was full fresh red blood, no more goo or puss. I felt much better within an hour and since I was going to the doctor the next day I figured I would be fine. I slept great that night and didnt have any other problems.
This was not all contributed to the illness, and I knew it, but some of it was. I had a close friend get tragically killed in early November and havent had much of an appetite since, so the 16 lbs is from that combined with being sick. I hadnt been on a scale in the time between his death and me going to the doctor. Today my voice had returned and I could speak almost like a normal human. My tongue was still swollen, but I sounded much, much better. My doctor listened to all my symptoms and took one look in my mouth and turned away. He immediately sent me to see an ear, nose and throat specialist. He said I had fooled around with this stuff enough and should just nip it in the bud and go. He also mentioned that removing my tonsils was a good possibility, since it was something we had discussed in the past year or so anyway. We went to the ENTs office and I sat and waited for about 20 minutes before the receptionist tells me that they dont take my insurance. 
I cant afford to pay out of pocket again and wait to get reimbursed with what I have already paid, so we left and I contacted my insurance who quickly found me an ENT in the next city over. My doctor kept urging me to get to the ENT today so we went right away. The ENT was great, he checked me out and poked around in my tonsils for a while. He removed a small hard white lump using some tweezers and broke the news to me. I could KEEP my tonsils. 
This time anyway. He said if I had any other problems I would have to have them removed, but for now I was going to be ok. All of my acheness and pains were attributed to the massive amounts of infection in the abscesses, which had quickly built back up or where never removed fully when the ER doc drained it. The episode I had the night before was the abscess bursting and draining. By the next day when I returned to work, I felt much better and was in minimal pain. My throat continued to be swollen for about a week and I had pain off and on, but much better than before. Actually the pain in my behind where the steroid shot was given was worse than my throat! 
That lasted for about 3 weeks! 
that it was such a disaster. I am an avid scrapbooker and we kept finding awesome scrapbook stuff that would have been perfect for things I wanted to do. I got my pictures developed and the few that we had were great, but there were so many things I missed that I wanted to get. I was getting downright moody everytime someone asked me how my trip went and tired of reliving the story. It didnt help on Christmas when I got a bunch of the new scrap items that I wanted for Disney but had no pictures to use with. 
) and saw that the last days in Feb and the first few days in March were the same crowd levels that were expected during our December trip. I did some calculations and came up with a bargaining list for Chad. I figured we could afford 4 nights at a value resort and we would drive down. Now selling this to Chad would not be easy as he hates to drive that far for less than 7 days. I pitched the idea to him over lunch on the 28th. He didnt immediately shoot me down. 
I bargained a few other things (no buying any more shoes 
crowded or we dont like it we are only there for 4 days so how bad could it be! I couldnt believe I was actually able to talk Chad into this, and my 25th Birthday is March 11th, so this is going to be my birthday present. I never dreamed I would be able to go to WDW anytime around my birthday because of Spring Break crowds so I am just as excited as I was for our December trip. A new ticker was born and I am excitedly counting the days until we leave. 
Michelle
I'm so glad to hear you're going back, I really enjoyed your story the good and the bad!
