Weight Loss VII: Week 14
Technically this isn't week 14, as the actual calorie counting has been suspended since before my last update, but I'm going to just stick with real time. So important news: Weight remains stable, I'm at 272 which is -36 from where I've started. Still too far from 40 for me to call it "almost 40 pounds" and 2 pounds up from my lowest point, but stability is a good thing. Also, it proves I've been eating pretty well during my recovery.
Speaking of recovery...
If you're reading this, then you know that last Thursday I had a tonsillectomy. We got up at oh-dark-thirty that morning, went to the hospital, and everything proceeded on schedule and went very well. I dimly remember being in the operating room, looking up at the lights, and then suddenly they're waking me up, two hours later.
The tonsils themselves were nearly an inch in diameter--2 centimeters apiece--so what we're saying here is that approximately an inch and three quarters of my throat was taking up by these things. Why yes, yes this certainly was contributing to--and may in fact be the primary cause--of my apnea.
So Thursday, after I came out of the drug stupor, it took them a bit longer than expected to get me to the recovery room where I was able to meet up with my wife, who took good care of me. I spent the day being monitored, and I ate two meals at the hospital. Both actually surprisingly good, given they were hospital food. I napped a bit, off and on, and my O2 saturation remained normal.
Now, this is actually a huge deal. When I had my sleep study, at one point my O2 sat dropped below 80. My AHI level was 72, meaning that I had 72 apnea incidents per hour. An apnea incident is a cessation of breathing that lasts for 10 seconds or more. That's a minimum of 720 seconds out of 3600, on average that I wasn't breathing, or in an 8 hour block of sleep, more than an hour and a half. When you don't breathe, a number of terrible things happen to your body, and the key indicator is the level of oxygen in your blood, AKA the O2 saturation level. Normal is 95%+, and below 90% is a problem. Below 80% is a GIGANTIC HUGE problem.
Given that my throat was swollen up (in particular my uvula which was and still is around 3x normal size, and based on the scabbing ON it, I think it got nicked by the tool used to cauterize the wound after the tonsils were cut out), my O2 sat staying stable was and is a huge deal, because it means that I *can* sleep without my cpap.
Which is good, because I can't use my CPAP yet for another week.
So I got home, and for the weekend I was taking a mix of liquid tylenol and codeine. On Sunday, the inflammation started getting to me. My doctor told me I could, if I felt it really necessary, take some ibuprofen to help ease the pain, but I should avoid it. But the inflammation that was getting to me is something the codeine doesn't touch. I took the ibu and saw immediate relief.
On Monday I stopped taking the codeine entirely, and switched to just ibu and tylenol. Keeping the inflammation down has been critical to my well-being, and besides, I'm not keen on taking addictive substances without need. It's possible that sticking with the codeine would be more effective, but I don't need to do that to my body.
Eating has been shockingly good. I immediately ate regular meals; swallowing soft foods doesn't hurt particularly; sometimes it does a bit, but mostly it hurts the areas around my throat, not the throat itself. I'm sticking to soft, easily chewed foods: Chicken, fish, mashed potatoes, rice, pasta. Mac & Cheese and hot dogs are particularly easy to get down. Soft-boiled eggs or poached eggs in the morning, plus my usual iced coffee. Sometimes a bit of ham. Very lightly toasted bread with the eggs works well, but have to be careful with it. I had sushi last night. Yum, sushi! And of course popsicles. Smoothies haven't been as effective as I'd hoped; the fruit has been more acidic than is comfortable, so even though I've had a couple they have not been quite the stable I had hoped.
The last couple days the pain has been steadily worse, particularly during the periods where the meds are wearing off. This is expected, and will continue degrading until the scabs come off. They've started to come off in a couple of spots, but for the most part are still there.
I still have to sleep upright, so I'm spending my nights on the recliner, as I can't find a comfortable/effective way to do it in bed. If I'm horizontal, my uvula falls back into my throat and cuts off breathing, but it also feels like there is pressure in my neck, which makes everything hurt more. I've tried a couple of times, and I just don't fall or stay asleep in that position.
The recliner isn't super comfortable for sleeping, though, and I can only really sleep in 4-5 hour blocks before the meds wear off and pain kicks in. Today I'm really starting to feel it, but I guess the answer is really just to soldier through it; I think I'm stuck with it until my uvula starts to return to its normal size.
In addition, the enlarged uvula makes spitting hard, and blowing my nose can be excruciating if I blow too hard and it gets sucked up into the nasal passage. OMFG that hurts.
But honestly when it comes to the pain, this isn't worse than the low back pain. I took a lot of ibuprofen when my back was at its worse, and it barely dented that pain; this pain is dulled considerably when I'm on it. Even when it's wearing off, the pain isn't worse than the back pain when I tried to, say, stand up. I don't really feel the scabs at all. I had little to no feeling in my tonsils. I theorize that years and years of regular tonsilitis as a kid deadened the nerves, and this deadening extends back to where the cutting was done. The fact that I can eat pretty well seems to corroborate this. I've read about people not eating much for weeks, but I ate meals right away. Sure I have to be careful WHAT I eat, but I'm getting full nutrition every day.
I have managed to get out of the house twice this week; once for lunch and a quick Costco trip. I was pretty run down by the end of it, but that's ok. We didn't push anything too hard. And last night we went out for dinner because nobody wanted to cook anything. I was already pretty tired when we left, though, and that was close to being a bit too much.
So. Recovery going apace. But I'm ready for this to be over now. Apparently it can take 3-6 months to be fully healed, but hopefully in a week I can at least be back on my feet.
Speaking of recovery...
If you're reading this, then you know that last Thursday I had a tonsillectomy. We got up at oh-dark-thirty that morning, went to the hospital, and everything proceeded on schedule and went very well. I dimly remember being in the operating room, looking up at the lights, and then suddenly they're waking me up, two hours later.
The tonsils themselves were nearly an inch in diameter--2 centimeters apiece--so what we're saying here is that approximately an inch and three quarters of my throat was taking up by these things. Why yes, yes this certainly was contributing to--and may in fact be the primary cause--of my apnea.
So Thursday, after I came out of the drug stupor, it took them a bit longer than expected to get me to the recovery room where I was able to meet up with my wife, who took good care of me. I spent the day being monitored, and I ate two meals at the hospital. Both actually surprisingly good, given they were hospital food. I napped a bit, off and on, and my O2 saturation remained normal.
Now, this is actually a huge deal. When I had my sleep study, at one point my O2 sat dropped below 80. My AHI level was 72, meaning that I had 72 apnea incidents per hour. An apnea incident is a cessation of breathing that lasts for 10 seconds or more. That's a minimum of 720 seconds out of 3600, on average that I wasn't breathing, or in an 8 hour block of sleep, more than an hour and a half. When you don't breathe, a number of terrible things happen to your body, and the key indicator is the level of oxygen in your blood, AKA the O2 saturation level. Normal is 95%+, and below 90% is a problem. Below 80% is a GIGANTIC HUGE problem.
Given that my throat was swollen up (in particular my uvula which was and still is around 3x normal size, and based on the scabbing ON it, I think it got nicked by the tool used to cauterize the wound after the tonsils were cut out), my O2 sat staying stable was and is a huge deal, because it means that I *can* sleep without my cpap.
Which is good, because I can't use my CPAP yet for another week.
So I got home, and for the weekend I was taking a mix of liquid tylenol and codeine. On Sunday, the inflammation started getting to me. My doctor told me I could, if I felt it really necessary, take some ibuprofen to help ease the pain, but I should avoid it. But the inflammation that was getting to me is something the codeine doesn't touch. I took the ibu and saw immediate relief.
On Monday I stopped taking the codeine entirely, and switched to just ibu and tylenol. Keeping the inflammation down has been critical to my well-being, and besides, I'm not keen on taking addictive substances without need. It's possible that sticking with the codeine would be more effective, but I don't need to do that to my body.
Eating has been shockingly good. I immediately ate regular meals; swallowing soft foods doesn't hurt particularly; sometimes it does a bit, but mostly it hurts the areas around my throat, not the throat itself. I'm sticking to soft, easily chewed foods: Chicken, fish, mashed potatoes, rice, pasta. Mac & Cheese and hot dogs are particularly easy to get down. Soft-boiled eggs or poached eggs in the morning, plus my usual iced coffee. Sometimes a bit of ham. Very lightly toasted bread with the eggs works well, but have to be careful with it. I had sushi last night. Yum, sushi! And of course popsicles. Smoothies haven't been as effective as I'd hoped; the fruit has been more acidic than is comfortable, so even though I've had a couple they have not been quite the stable I had hoped.
The last couple days the pain has been steadily worse, particularly during the periods where the meds are wearing off. This is expected, and will continue degrading until the scabs come off. They've started to come off in a couple of spots, but for the most part are still there.
I still have to sleep upright, so I'm spending my nights on the recliner, as I can't find a comfortable/effective way to do it in bed. If I'm horizontal, my uvula falls back into my throat and cuts off breathing, but it also feels like there is pressure in my neck, which makes everything hurt more. I've tried a couple of times, and I just don't fall or stay asleep in that position.
The recliner isn't super comfortable for sleeping, though, and I can only really sleep in 4-5 hour blocks before the meds wear off and pain kicks in. Today I'm really starting to feel it, but I guess the answer is really just to soldier through it; I think I'm stuck with it until my uvula starts to return to its normal size.
In addition, the enlarged uvula makes spitting hard, and blowing my nose can be excruciating if I blow too hard and it gets sucked up into the nasal passage. OMFG that hurts.
But honestly when it comes to the pain, this isn't worse than the low back pain. I took a lot of ibuprofen when my back was at its worse, and it barely dented that pain; this pain is dulled considerably when I'm on it. Even when it's wearing off, the pain isn't worse than the back pain when I tried to, say, stand up. I don't really feel the scabs at all. I had little to no feeling in my tonsils. I theorize that years and years of regular tonsilitis as a kid deadened the nerves, and this deadening extends back to where the cutting was done. The fact that I can eat pretty well seems to corroborate this. I've read about people not eating much for weeks, but I ate meals right away. Sure I have to be careful WHAT I eat, but I'm getting full nutrition every day.
I have managed to get out of the house twice this week; once for lunch and a quick Costco trip. I was pretty run down by the end of it, but that's ok. We didn't push anything too hard. And last night we went out for dinner because nobody wanted to cook anything. I was already pretty tired when we left, though, and that was close to being a bit too much.
So. Recovery going apace. But I'm ready for this to be over now. Apparently it can take 3-6 months to be fully healed, but hopefully in a week I can at least be back on my feet.