Vampires are Disgusting: A (True) Tale of Blood and Horror
That's a pretty weird title for a post that isn't even about vampires, but you'll understand as you read. This is ACTUALLY about my incredibly traumatic experience Saturday night, which didn't involve vampires. At least not directly.
I had my tonsils out on January 13. It's been a pretty rough road, a lot of pain and exhaustion and just general frustration, but I had a great day Saturday. Mom stayed home from work with a stomach bug, so I just hung out in my room and watched Angel on Netflix (that's where the vampires come in). I had some soup for lunch, was happy w/ my new cute hair, and overall feelin' pretty good.
About 7:30 I wandered downstairs for some supper. Like I said, feelin' good, so I turned on the oven and took a pizza out of the freezer. I was chatting with my cat in the bathroom, and I felt suddenly like I was drooling or something, so I swallowed my drool (if you've ever had your tonsils out, you'll know drool is a big factor) and went on talking. Then it felt like...wow, even more drool, what's with all this drool? So I decided to spit it out instead. Not drool, my fine friends, oh no! A ginormous gush of blood comes pouring from my mouth into the sink.
I started calling for my mom, and as soon as she grabbed her glasses (she'd been napping), she came running in to find me bent over the sink spitting out even more blood. Now the surgeon had warned us that bleeding might happen, warned us in minute and (we thought) way too much detail, but we were happy that he had. There wasn't any period of dithering, like do we call his office, do we go to the ER, what?? We knew to go straight to the ER.
(It actually happened like this: Mom runs in, "What, what??" Blood pours from my mouth. Me: "I think we need..." Mom: "To go to the Emergency Room.")
I grabbed something to spit into (he was very clear about that), and in my frightened state, I grabbed an Iced Venti Starbucks cup. Not the best choice, I thought later, since it's clear. Yuck. Anyway, Mom had to help me get dressed b/c I couldn't stop bleeding/spitting long enough, and we were quickly in the car and on our way.
I live about 5ish minutes from the hospital, and the surgeon had said the bleeding would stop before we got there. It did, and I was quite relieved. When we got in and told the ER receptionist what was happening, it started again, but stopped very quickly. We picked a private corner of the waiting room so ppl wouldn't have to witness my fabulous grossness. Um, side note here: Wipeout was on the TV, and I know why I wasn't bleeding while we were in the waiting room: my blood was stupified by what I was witnessing on the television. Good Lord.
Anyway. They called us back, still no new blood, and I went into a room. The young lady came to talk money, and that got my blood flowing again. She left looking a bit scared. The nurse came in, by which time it had stopped, and Mom explained what had happened, etc. She was surprised that it was happening to far after my surgery--if it's going to happen, it usually does w/in the first week. She was also impressed by the amount of blood in my cup (a dubious distinction...).
The ER doctor came in a little while later, and he had a med student following him who was also Meg-from-Margaret. He looked at my throat and said I had a "big goobery clot" on the left side. After he looked, I started bleeding yet again. He left to call the ENT surgeon on call. They either basically send you home and have you come into the office the next day to take care of it (hard, on a Saturday), or the ENT on call deals with it there. I hoped they'd pick the latter, b/c this was pretty much the most horrible and gross thing I have any real memory of happening to me. Also, I imagine choice number 2 is the standard when someone is bleeding as much as I was, with a clot the size of mine.
The ENT surgeon arrived, and after she looked at my throat she decided we'd have to take care of it there, that night. I started bleeding again, and this time it lasted a while. I don't know how long, felt like forever, might've been five minutes. By this point my Iced Venti cup was filled nearly to the third line. With blood. My blood. That had come out of my mouth. OMGEW.
The ENT surgeon explained that they'd have to take me to the OR, knock me out, remove the clot, and cauterize the vessel again. I stopped bleeding, and the nurse came back in to do the IV. We threw away my faithful cup and she gave me a basin; I immediately commenced bleeding. I was bleeding the whole time she did the IV, which was sorta funny--normally that's the absolute worst part for me, but I barely noticed. Everyone was so nice; the ER doctor kept sticking his head in to check on me, and the anesthesiologist came in several times. The second time he came in I was bleeding again, and he was explaining everything to Mom, and he was like, "I hate trying to talk to her when she's like that! I hope she knows I'm not trying to ignore her." I was like, "No, no, it's ok...I can hear..." *wretch, spit, cough, gag*
That, luckily, was the last time I bled. After the nurse had started the IV, the ENT checked my throat again and was like, "Yeaaah, we gotta get that outta there." It was huge; I could feel it; and every time I bled it got bigger. I could feel it in my teeth. Imagine you're chewing something a bit softer than gum, but not as squishy as jell-o. It just...sticks...in the back of your teeth, like squish, squish. I know, disgusting, right? And the whole time your mouth tastes like blood, and...well. Pretty much a living nightmare, really.
At that point they were kinda hot-footin' it, and they fairly rushed me over to the OR. The nurses were impressed with the amount of blood in my basin, but I explained to them it was nothin'--I'd nearly filled an Iced Venti cup already.
Have you ever been rolled 100% awake into an OR before? I wasn't in too much pain, so they hadn't given me any pain meds (they'd asked several times), and they didn't want to start sedating me until they had me controlled in the OR, b/c asphyxiating on your own blood and/or blood clot is no one's ideal way to go. Point being, I was completely awake and alert when I got in, and when they were doing the pre-op prep. It's kinda scary and intimidating, b/c I just kept thinking, "I should be out of it by now...this is weird...I'm an interloper here! And, this looks nothing like Grey's Anatomy." Everyone was so super nice and comforting and all, so obviously they realized how I felt.
When they transferred me to the surgery bed thingie, they had it lying down, but I almost choked, so they sat me up. When I leaned my head back, the clot fell back into my throat and I started coughing; the anesthesiologist comes rushing around with a suction thing like they use at the dentist. "Are you alright, are you alright!?" ... "Yeah, I'm ok...."
After that I don't remember much, b/c they finally knocked me out. They did say my blood pressure was super high, but they weren't surprised...considering. Once they gave me the first dose of meds, it dropped right down. I woke up a while later with a sore throat, but the first thing I noticed?? My mouth didn't taste like blood!! I've never been so happy for anything in my whole life. I had to spit out a few bits of clot in my teeth (ugh, super ugh), but after that it was ok.
I woke up at 5 till 11 (there was a clock right across from me), and we got to the ER at about 8. It was about 10 when they took me to the OR. The whole thing didn't take very long, but lemme tell you--bleeding from the mouth for nearly 2 hours is pretty much the worst experience I can remember going through, and I do NOT recommend it!! It happens in about 3% of adults following a tonsillectomy. When the surgeon explained the risk to us (ad nauseum), I was expecting, if it happened, that maybe I'd spit and the spit would be a little bloody. The ER doctor even asked me if that's what happened. I didn't expect to open my mouth and this *rush* of blood come out...and for it to continue like that off and on for the next 2 hours, steadily getting worse each time.
The ENT surgeon explained to Mom that it's pretty much like my recovery has started from scratch. Two more weeks at home, being quiet, resting. Follow up appointment with my ENT on Monday. No Disney World for us. :( We were supposed to leave Wednesday, so that's out now.
Now back to my title: vampires are disgusting. And those people who pretend they're vampires and drink blood? Incredibly disgusting. I don't like to judge people, but after this experience...my God.
So that, in a very long, detailed nutshell, is what happened last night. Blood, emergency surgery, some tears (I cried when I got home; I was traumatized), and a canceled vacation. Coulda been worse, right? :)