Wow. A week since the operation already! I must admit, before this all started I thought I’d be feeling better than I am at this point. But you just gotta roll with it.
Today started out shittily. I didn’t sleep well, and I’m pretty sure that my throat was bleeding most of the night because I woke up with a sore throat and a stomachache, presumably from swallowing blood. Took Targen but no Endone, and phoned the hospital – the nurse I spoke to suggested I go to a GP for assessment or otherwise, if I felt like it was really necessary, to head into A&E, where they could check it out and their ENT might be able to cauterise it if needed.
The thought of getting more anaesthesia and cauterisation really didn’t appeal, and I didn’t think the bleeding was profuse enough to be be immediately life threatening, so I sat on the couch all morning procrastinating over whether to go into hospital or not and googling for alternatives. In my internetting I read studies suggesting that probably 80% of these bleeds don’t need anything more than conservative treatment (ie, what I could do at home) so I alternated between a cold pack on my neck, zooper doopers, and salt water rinses/gargles. Sure enough, it took a few hours but the bleeding seemed to eventually stop. Crisis averted.
I still felt pretty ordinary most of the day and didn’t really eat anything solid until 3pm or so, but the calories seemed to perk me up. At dinner time, for the first time in a few nights I managed to eat a whole bowl of soup without having to stop and take a break. It still took a while though! Had some dessert and took the dog for a little walk just to get some sun, and still no signs of bleeding after eating and walking around and flushing my mouth out with salt water. I really hope that’s the end of it.
Had to go out in the car after dinner to pick up the offspring, so decided not to take Targen this evening. It’s now been about 42 hours without Endone and 14 hours without Targen and the pain seems quite manageable. There’s a few more pills there if I find myself hurting badly again, but it feels kinda nice to be off them sooner rather than later.
I’d hoped to get into the gym for some super light movement this week, but today definitely wasn’t the day. Maybe I’m not too far away from starting though – once I’m confident the risk of bleeding has passed. Obviously I’m not going to do anything heavy or anything involving a valsalva! But no reason I couldn’t start doing some light curls and fluff work just to get the blood flowing. This all makes me feel like there’s light at the end of the tunnel….
Took another photo tonight, so again, look away if you’re squeamish. Not so bloody now, but still super gross looking: