Five Years

Anniversary

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

See ya never, tonsils!!!

When I was 15, I was all scheduled to get my tonsils removed. I went to the pre op appointment a few weeks before surgery and the doctor was checking my throat and lymph nodes. I don't remember his name... And I feel bad because he saved my life. While feign my lymph nodes, he noticed my neck was swollen. I made a few phone calls and an hour later, I was getting an US of my neck. That's when they discovered that I had Graves' Disease. Like... A pretty bad case of it. My tonsillectomy got cancelled and within weeks, I had all sorts of testing done, many hospital visits, and was given radioactive treatment to kill my over active thyroid. The doctor saved my life because...had I gone under anesthesia with my thyroid in that condition, and had it of reacted to the anesthesia, I may of not come out of surgery.

Now fast forward 10 years. I still have those tonsils. I. Hate. My. Tonsils. I get strep a couple times a year, it's not that bad, but I had tonsil stones. Don't know what they are? Google it. I got them all the time. And I was ready to be done. So...10 years later, I scheduled another tonsillectomy. 
I'm all healed up now. I took nearly 2 weeks off work and slept a lot. My throat pain was manageable. I ate a lot of soup, ice, pudding, yogurt, and...yeah, that's about it! 
The miserable part wasn't my throat. It was my ear. Apparently, your tonsils and ears share a nerve. And my left ear killed the entire time. Couldn't sleep more than a few hours. Couldn't even make it 4 hours between medicine without crying most days. 
But it's been over a month now and I'm all back to normal! I was well taken care of between Darren and my wonderful neighbor. So far, it's been nice not having them! I can't scratch my throat anymore, but I'm hoping I can retrain myself to do that haha. Goodbye, tonsils. You're not missed!

I'm back!

It's been awhile! Let's see what has happened since I last posted. Well, the coolest thing that happened was Darren went to Peru and hiked Mt. Machu Picchu! He went with 4 brothers, 2 sister in laws, and a family friend. He was gone for 10 days, which was a long time... But he had a great time!
That's Machu Picchu behind him. The hike was 4 days long. Before and after the actual trek, the did some traveling. They visited Puno, and Lima. They even got to go to the Lima Peru Temple :)
There's all the brothers. Well, minus Shawn. Not sure why he's not in the picture...

It was such a neat experience for him and I'm so glad he took advantage of the opportunity. It's a once in a lifetime trip!