Category: UPPP Surgery

I have been a bit slack about blogging the last few days – so here’s a few updates.

Bleeding – only some very minor bleeding on Friday (day 11), as far as I can remember. Mostly, it just seems to be phlegmy now.

Pain – it’s gradually diminishing. It’s still the worst after periods of lying down, and mostly just uncomfortable when eating and drinking. Since Thursday night (so the last three nights) I’ve been back sleeping in bed, much to my wife’s chagrin – apparently my snoring has been horrendous. I’ve been taking Panadol once or twice a day but honestly don’t think I’ll bother from here on in – it’s not hurting too bad now and I honestly think a cold ice block is more effective relief anyway.

Training – I got back into the gym for a relatively light session of squats and bench pressing on Friday (day 11) and that all went fine. Naturally I’ve lost some strength – probably more than I expected – and the session also made me quite sore. As I write this though, it’s Sunday afternoon and I’ve just finished my second comeback session – best way to get rid of the soreness is to get acclimatised to training again.

Body weight – the day before the surgery I was 91.6kg on waking, and on Friday (12 days later) weighed in at 85.4kg – over 6kg gone in 12 days. A lot of it is water/glycogen and gut contents of course, but wow… it’s entirely unsurprising I’ve lost some mojo in the gym as well.

Overall feels – mostly just tired and run down, like I’ve got a bad cold. Can’t get enough decent sleep, and training is an added stressor. But I’m going to go attempt to go back to work tomorrow. Luckily I’ve done a few hours work from home in the past few days to stay on top of things and I’m hoping I’ll be able to avoid doing a full day and just ease into it.

Now it’s time for lunch, and hopefully a nap this afternoon.

Well, I did wake up and watch cricket at 3am. That was OK. But I’ve been even more zonked than usual today – napped after breakfast. Walked the dog, had lunch, then instead of lifting as I’d planned, dozed off again. I figured there’s no hurry, another day won’t hurt and clearly my body still needs lots of rest to heal.

Ate a few different foods today – french toast for lunch, a hot cross bun at afternoon tea, and I finally got the nerve to cook a hot apple pie for dessert. None of them caused major issues in terms of throat pain or irritation, so like I said to the wife it’s just a matter of trying things. I probably still wouldn’t eat salt and vinegar chips right now but a few more foods are back on the menu.

Pain wise today’s been good. Was sore when I woke up, but after hydrating and showering it improved a lot. Eating is more uncomfortable than painful now; I’m probably getting more pain in my ears than my throat. Still getting some minor bleeding as bits of scab fall off though.

I’m going to attempt to sleep in my own bed tonight for the first time since the operation. Hopefully my wife can deal with the snoring. Also, hopefully I sleep better and feel more refreshed tomorrow because I have plans to run some errands and do some light lifting just to get back into the swing of things.

Here’s to a good day tomorrow.

Obligatory yukky progress photo:

Still here.

Slept part of the night horizontal for the first time since hospital. It was on the couch, but the wife heard me snoring from a couple of rooms away and I woke up with a crazy sore throat (as usual). Probably won’t do that again tonight, but there’s a cricket match at an ungodly hour so I’ll try to keep myself amused with that.

Could only manage a smoothie for breakfast, and generally feel like I underate even more than usual today – eating is still just a battle, generally. But I’ve gotta say, it’s 10 pm as I write this and today has clearly been the easiest day so far in terms of throat pain. I’ve probably felt more phlegmy than usual and have had more radiated pain in my ears than previously. But if it improves again tomorrow, I’m thinking I might be able to get into the gym and do a few light sets to get the blood flowing a bit.

That’s about it really – nothing noteworthy really happened. I did do some work from home, and emailed my boss an update on how things are going. I’m supposed to be back at work on Monday, but don’t want to go if I’m still unable to eat or talk normally. Also, I feel like this has taken more out of me than expected – I need a nap every time I take the dog for a walk! Right now I feel like I’m an 80% chance of being back on time, but thankfully they are flexible – I can do plenty from here if needed, so if I need extra time I’ll take it.

Another night on the couch – two decent snatches of sleep (a few hours each) broken by waking up in agony that Panadol and Zooper Doopers barely make a dent in. I’ve also had a bit of a stomachache all day, I think continuing to take the laxatives even after stopping the opiates might’ve been a bad idea. Will leave them out tomorrow and see if things improve.

Aside from that, it’s been a pretty unremarkable day. Walked the dog twice, did lots of Netflixing, and tried to keep the throat pain at bay. It was mostly manageable – down to maybe 3 or 4 out of 10 – but mealtimes still suck donkeys balls and jump back to 6 or 7. Ate pretty light, but forced down some soup, ice cream and custard for dinner tonight. Was pleasantly surprised that swallowing some Panadol an hour or so later didn’t take a whole lot of effort.

My voice still feels pretty weak and I don’t want to talk loudly or for long periods, it hurts and I get hoarse very fast.

Today was Tuesday – I’ve got aspirations of getting into the gym for some very light lifting most likely on Thursday, and possibly going back to sleeping in bed that night too. Fingers crossed.

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:

Sleep last night was OK – maybe because I didn’t try to force it and stayed up until my eyes were closing by themselves, and drifted in and out of sleep til 2am or so. Got up to go to the toilet, spat out a big gob of brown stuff, and immediately felt a big lessening of the pain on one side of my throat – it went from maybe 7 out of 10 to 3 out of 10. I think the scab has started to come off.

Unfortunately the other side is still pretty sore, so I stayed up for a little while, took an Endone at about 3am and crashed pretty hard after that.

When I woke up I was very sore and clogged up as usual, so had a shower (which seems to loosen the gunk and help provide relief) and while showering, spat out something small and black. On closer inspection, it turned out to be an (intact) stitch. This concerned me a bit, as I expected them to stay in until they dissolve… but while I’ve still been spitting small amounts of blood on and off throughout the day, it doesn’t seem excessive so I don’t think anything’s opened up that shouldn’t have.

Skipped the Endone this morning, and just took Targen plus the anti-bleeding pills. Managed to get out and walk the dog, as well as vacuum and mop the floors this morning, and spend a bit of time with the kidlet this afternoon so it’s been a kinda productive day.

Mealtimes, as usual, have been the most painful, so I haven’t eaten a great deal today. But aside from when eating/swallowing, the normal day to day pain has definitely eased a little, particularly on the side where the scab has fallen off (which is where the blood seems to be coming from). After dinner (which was a bit of a battle pain wise.. it was only chicken soup!) there was a bit more blood in my spit than usual, and I was pretty close to phoning the hospital for advice. However I sucked on a zooper dooper and the bleeding seemed to settle down so I decided not to bother – if things are still bad tomorrow I’ll give them a ring, but I’m about 80% sure it’s normal to bleed a bit more as the scabs fall off.

I’ve managed to get through the whole day without Endone. There’s a T20 game on tonight from South Africa, so I’m sitting here drinking a cold bottle of electrolyte water, and I’ll try to watch the cricket for a while instead of sleeping.

When I was considering phoning the hospital, I took a few photos of the current state of my throat, it’s pretty disgusting looking. If you’re squeamish, maybe don’t enlarge it or look too hard:

I mentioned in my Day 5 post that I did a huge poo today. Well I actually wrote a couple of posts about it on a forum, and decided to cross post it here, just because. So here goes:

It’s true what they say about opiates and constipation, probably exacerbated by eating a lot less than usual. I’ve just produced (and it took some work) one of the most amazingly huge BMs in the history of log cabins. A triple flusher, as long as my forearm and almost as thick. I kid you not, it was almost Instagram worthy.

Oh seriously, it was a doozy. Like you know when the midwife is telling the mother not to push til it’s time? I was in there for like half an hour feeling this immense weight on my o-ring, but nothing was happening and I didn’t want to force it, but then all of a sudden this contraction happens and there was absolutely no control, it was time to strain. So that went on for a few very long moments, at the same time I’m trying to make sure I don’t valsalva and make my throat pop open. Then when it’s over I realise that I barely felt a thing snap off, and didn’t really hear a splash either, so I’m expecting to see these little rabbit pellets like what happens sometimes. So I look down to see something the size of a large blue tongue lizard stretching from below the waterline to half way up the bowl. I wouldn’t have thought it was anatomically possible if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.

I found some Senna laxatives after that and popped a couple. Not going through that trauma again… it’s been a rough week.

Saturday today – the fifth day since the operation on Monday. I had really hoped that by now the worst of the pain would be past, but I really didn’t feel any better this morning.

I was lights out by 10:30pm, but seemed to be waking up sore every hour or so and spent quite a bit of time up and down to spit in the sink and gargle. Took an Endone about 1am, and ended up taking Targen and paracetamol a couple of hours earlier than usual at 5am. Managed to get a couple of decent hours sleep after that, but once again woke up feeling awful. Lost my rag with miss five and the dog a little bit, was feeling pretty down and had zero motivation to cook breakfast, nor was I feeling particularly hungry. But I’ve gotta eat, so forced down some greek yoghurt and frozen blueberries with a drizzle of honey, washed down with a cup of weak tepid tea. I’ve been trying to limit dairy a little bit because it does tend to make my throat more phlegmy but I didn’t feel congested afterward.

Did some grocery shopping after that, it was nice to get out and about, and buy a few more soft treats including some scallops for tea tonight. Had some heartburn while I was wandering round the supermarket – been getting that a bit this week, I assume it’s related to the surgery and the gunk I’m swallowing.

I also had a frozen Coke No Sugar from Maccas on the way home and boy, did that hit the spot. Made it last all the way home, through unpacking the shopping, and most of the way through a walk with the dog. Then I took another Endone when I got home and since the womenfolk were out for the morning, had a chance to chillax in front of the cricket for a while and enjoy the blissful silence.

Had soup for lunch, and the wife, unbidden, brought home a McFlurry from McDonalds – bless her. That went down well too. I also tried to drink some diet ginger beer but that burnt too much, although I put it back in the fridge to flatten out a bit and it was quite tolerable a few hours later.

Experienced a bout of proper constipation this afternoon, and ended up producing the biggest dump the world has ever seen. I’m hoping to avoid a repeat performance, so took some senna based laxatives and intend to keep taking them til I’m eating normally and off the painkillers.

Unfortunately, I had another meltdown at dinner time. I cooked scrambled eggs with scallops, as well as some ham and mushroom and onion. I felt pretty good before eating but it didn’t take long before my throat was really hurting and I’m pretty sure the salty ham was the culprit. Anyway, I spat the dummy and took a break from eating, and when I came back was able to eat the rest with less pain by avoiding the ham. After that I had a shower, took some more Endone and watched a movie with the wife. We had a pretty good evening in the end.

To summarise, I think the pain levels have been, on average, slightly lower today, and it’s the first day since the operation that I really haven’t had any daytime naps. The two might be connected, I don’t know.

I’m still seeing small amounts of fresh (as well as old) blood in my spit regularly though, and that’s been bothering me. Until now I’ve just assumed the wound is just weeping or something, but if it doesn’t stop soon, and the pain doesn’t really start to ramp down, I’ll have to go back to hospital and get things looked at. Fingers crossed.

Last night felt like I actually had close to proper sleep for the first time since the operation, instead of drifting in and out of painful semi-consciousness all night. At least, as close to proper sleep as is possible when sleeping in a recliner.

I didn’t take an Endone before lights out and had no trouble getting off to sleep for a few hours – but I did wake up at 3am in a reasonable amount of pain. So I took one, grabbed a Zooper Dooper out of the freezer and watched another episode of Bojack. By the time that was done I had no trouble going straight back to sleep through til 6:30am – so that was nice.

In another pleasing sign, even though I woke up sore, I held off on taking any pills for a bit and discovered that the pain settled down quite quickly after a few flushes and spits with water and diluted mouthwash. So I didn’t take any Endone this morning, just Targen and Panadol.

Since the operation I’ve really had no appetite to speak of, and I’ve really only been eating because I know I need the fuel. However this morning my stomach was actually rumbling for some breakfast for the first time all week. So that’s probably a decent sign that I’m on the mend as well – it’s just a shame that it’s still so painful to swallow, even forcing down my scrambled eggs and smoothie was difficult.

Unfortunately the day kinda went to poo after that. I fell asleep again after breakfast and woke up very sore. Walked up to the shops in the afternoon to buy more soup, and decided to try lying down in bed afterwards to see if that’s tolerable now – spoiler alert, it’s not. Woke up feeling horrible, took some pain pills, and then stupidly decided to try and eat a tin of pepper steak soup for dinner. That was not a good choice… it was more peppery than I’d expected and I couldn’t eat much of it. It made me so uncomfortable I actually burst into tears mid meal and had to go and have a shower. The constant pain and poor sleep is really starting to wear me down.

Anyway, after cleaning up from tea the drugs were kicking in again and the evening wasn’t too bad. I’ve decided that I’m going to have to just keep taking the painkillers pre-emptively and not go without – I’ve got nothing to prove to anyone and I’m struggling to be a sane parent and husband when it’s really hurting. Also, I think too much time prone on the couch is probably just causing me to get more phlegmy and painful – I need to move around more, it seems to help.

Today wasn’t a great start to the day. Our five year old woke up on the wrong side of the bed, the dog didn’t want to eat his breakfast, and maybe it’s nocebo because of those things but by jingo my throat was fucking sore when I woke up. Gargling salt water didn’t help much, so I had a shower and decided I absolutely was going to take both Targin and Endone this morning. After that I really wasn’t feeling motivated to cook eggs, and in the end it took me about 45 minutes to force down a green smoothie plus a small tub of yoghurt and frozen blueberries.

By the time I’d done that I was feeling a bit woozy from the drugs and wasn’t keen to walk the dog so I had a nap instead.

Things did seem to get better from there, though. After waking up, I did take the dog for a walk after all and it was a glorious sunny day, so that helped lift my spirits a little.

Had scrambled eggs and yoghurt for lunch, and soup followed by rice pudding for dinner, but it’s still a battle to swallow even soft foods and liquids. The pain really doesn’t seem to have improved much, I’ve been gargling salty water and eating icy poles but nothing really gives much immediate relief. It comes and goes through the day, which I theorise is mostly to do with the timing of drugs. I’ve been taking the Targen (the slow release oxycodone) first thing in the morning and at dinner time, and today I took an Endone first thing in the morning and one mid afternoon. Right now (post dinner) I feel reasonably comfortable and I think that’s because the Targen has kicked in on top of the second Endone. My script is for up to three Endone per day so I figure this way I can take one more before bed if I feel like I need it…..

Anyway – another day almost done – let’s hope things start to improve from here because I’ve had enough of this already. I miss proper food, sleeping in my own bed, and the gym. Tomorrow I might try and walk a little more or find some other way to get off the couch, just to keep my mind off things. It can’t hurt.

Last night was pretty yukky sleep wise, but probably not as bad as the night in hospital immediately post surgery. I got a little sleep, interspersed with Netflix. Started the day with a shower, Targen and Endone, then scrambled eggs and yoghurt. Winning.

I was all alone today as the wife took the dog to work with her, and it also rained pretty solidly all day. That seemed like a perfect excuse to stay glued to the couch, alternating between Netflixing and internetting on the iPad and attempting to sleep. Pain wise, mid morning I would’ve said it was about the same as yesterday – extremely uncomfortable but not agonising. But when I woke up from a nap at about 2:30pm it seemed to hit critical mass and really felt awful – probably the worst it’s been since the surgery.

At that point I took some paracetamol and started gargling with salty water. I also forced myself to eat some soup and rice pudding, and an icy pole after that. That all seemed to help a little, but the rest of the afternoon still wasn’t pleasant. Took another Targen before dinner (sausages and potato salad, and I really had to choke them down). After doing the dishes and having a shower the drugs seemed to kick in, it’s now 10:45pm and it doesn’t feel too sore right now.

I hope that today was the worst of the pain – although I did have a conversation on Facebook with another person who’d had a UPPP. He said that it’ll really start to hurt again once the scab comes off, so I might have that to look forward to in a few days time!

Although I’ve been taking the Targen twice a day, I have a really addictive personality and I’m trying to save the Endone for when they’re really needed. It was good to get through the day on just the one, and I might even skip it tomorrow morning. Also, I’m already a bit sick of being cooped up in the house, so I’m planning on getting out to take the dog for a walk and get some sun at the very least. I was pretty miserable today – hopefully tomorrow will be better.

To be honest, there isn’t a massive amount to report about today. When the nurses checked on me this morning my vital signs were all fine, so they gave me some more drugs and the all clear to head home.

They offered me breakfast but it turned out to be toast and corn flakes, two of the worst possible foods to try and force down a sore swollen throat, so I gave them a miss. At least there were a few tinned peaches which were pretty easy to eat.

I had a flying visit from the surgeon who reassured me that the pain would get a lot worse over the next few days before it got better, so that gave me something to look forward to! Then they wrote me some scripts and medical certificates and let me loose into the sunshine. My dear wife and taxi driver had parked a few blocks away and I’ve gotta say, after being cooped up in hospital it felt good to go for a stroll in the sun. The downside was, I walked past a few coffee shops on the way and realised I’m really going to miss hot coffee and pastries over the next week or two.

We got the scripts filled on the way home (the pharmacist had to get ‘the good stuff’ from the safe out the back) and I grabbed some more soft food (soups, chocolate custard and rice pudding!) for sustenance at the same time. After that it was a pretty uneventful day.

I cooked scrambled eggs for breakfast and as far as ‘foods to eat after a UPPP’ they’d have to rate pretty highly. After that I dozed on the couch most of the day – there has been some minor bleeding from my throat but I don’t believe it’s anything abnormal. My normally insatiable appetite has been pretty much non existent, and I’m not sure if its caused by the painkillers or the fact that swallowing is so painful. Either way, I nuked a small tub of chicken soup at about 2:30pm, did some more dozing, and hung out with the kidlet when she came home from school. Ate a little baked potato (mashed) for tea and chocolate custard for dessert. Protein ice cream and a hot chocolate to round out the day, while I blogged and the wife caught up with Phryne Fisher.

Calorie wise, the last two days feel like they’ve been really low, and so has protein. Part of me is hoping/wanting to take advantage of the low appetite to drop a little fat but the other part knows I need to eat enough to heal up! So I’ve got this weird dichotomy going on – I need to force myself to eat, but not be silly about it seeing as I’m not very active and can’t train. My poor disordered brain is just muddling through at the moment.

Now I’m ensconced on the couch, ready to try and pass the night away upright in my recliner. Hopefully I’ll get at least some quality sleep.

Being that the surgery is done under general anaesthetic, I wasn’t allowed to eat anything from midnight the night before the surgery – and I wasn’t even allowed to drink water from an hour before my scheduled admission time at 11am. So on the day of the surgery, I headed into the hospital to be admitted. Lots of paperwork, confirming my name and date of birth multiple times, then into a bed to wait for my turn at surgery.

The first time around I was there until after 4pm before they sent me home, and as you can imagine by that point I was pretty famished! Thankfully this time around there were no unforeseen delays and I was in a gown by about 12:30 and being wheeled towards the operating theatre by about 1:30. A bit of a chat to the friendly anaesthetist, a cannula in my arm, and into the theatre we went. Part of me was a bit disappointed I had to move myself from the rolling bed onto the operating table – it wasn’t like the hospital dramas on TV where they pick the patients up to move them. The anaesthetist put an oxygen mask on me, got me to take some deep breaths, and then fired some Fentanyl into the drip – the next thing I knew I was waking up in recovery a few hours later.

The first thing I noticed was the pain, or lack of it – after lots of reading about this operation in the lead up, I was expecting to be in agony but it was really not too bad. Turns out I’d had local anaesthetic injected into my throat while I was under, and that would take a while to wear off. The second thing was that I didn’t feel sick at all – last time I had surgery under a general anaesthetic I felt awfully nauseous in recovery, and I had serious concerns about that this time because vomiting after a throat operation didn’t sound like a pleasant experience at all! But I needn’t have worried, they may have given me an antiemetic just to be sure.

After they monitored me for a while they wheeled me into a ward for the night, dosed me up with some painkillers and offered me some food. I wasn’t particularly hungry, but after not eating all day I knew I could use the calories, and I was pleasantly surprised to be able to eat a plateful of (soft) food and a bowl of custard for dessert without too much discomfort.

The nurse gave me some medication intravenously to reduce the bleeding (I had a couple more infusions of that during the night and the next morning) and then it was time to settle in for the night with Netflix and a jug of ice chips to suck on. And honestly, for the first few hours it wasn’t too bad at all – I was pretty comfortable, stayed hydrated and well entertained by Bojack Horseman. But eventually I started to struggle to stay awake and decided to try and get some sleep, which is where the fun starts. I couldn’t really sleep properly while sitting upright because the bed was a little short for my long legs, so I laid the bed flat and tried to sleep that way, which was a fatal mistake. I snored like mad, my throat got very dry and painful, and by 4am I was frustrated and exhausted. Luckily at that point the nurse stuck her head in and offered me some more pain relief which I gratefully accepted – a good thing she did, as my neighbours on the ward were probably ready to smother me to stop the horrendous snorting noises I was making. But the Endone kicked in so from then on I lay upright, browsed Facebook and dozed until the lights came on. It was only the next day when I read a US hospital’s recommendations to NOT lie down to sleep in the first few days after surgery, I wish I’d read that sooner.

At one of my toilet visits during the night, I risked a look in my mouth. It wasn’t a pretty picture – the back of my throat was black with blood and stitches and I had a bunch of black blood blisters and fun stuff on my tongue as well.

I had a UPPP performed yesterday so I thought it might be interesting to document the process and my recovery.

For some background, my wife complained about my snoring enough that I went to my GP last year and got a referral for a sleep study. I had that done in-home (which was an experience in itself) and the results came back that I had mild sleep apnea, although when I’m in REM sleep or sleeping on my back the number of nightly AHI events tipped into the moderate range. I tried a mandibular splint, which seemed to help but was a nuisance and gave me a sore jaw.

After further consultation with my GP he suggested I see an ENT specialist to discuss surgical options as he felt that my throat anatomy could possibly be the cause. The specialist ultimately agreed that with my enlarged uvula and narrowed palate that I was a good candidate for a UPPP, although she couldn’t guarantee it would completely fix the issue. My research (read: googling) seems to suggest that it probably has a 60-70% chance of significantly improving the situation, so although I’d initially planned on paying out of pocket (I don’t have private health insurance) I chose to get it done in the public system. The specialist put me on the waiting list and I was booked in for the surgery about seven months later. Unfortunately on the first scheduled date, there was some sort of delay with a surgery prior to mine and I was sent home to await a rescheduled date. Thankfully the new date was only a couple of weeks later and yesterday was d-day for my uvula.