Tonsillectomies

[thestrangequark]

I think the primary reason I take Ambien is for the hallucinations!

I can understand that! I've never taken a recreational drug in my life. Never been interested. But I was so fascinated by my reaction to Ambien that it kind of scared me. It was probably a very good thing I never tried LSD or something when I was young.

Hallucinates are fascinating things. Honestly, the only things keeping me from doing LSD or shrooms are the fear of a bad trip and the fact that they're not really very safe for people with bipolar disorder. In my college years I did take special k a few times and had pleasant hallucinations, though they were very mild; I took only small amounts because I was scared of getting trapped in a k-hole. I also hallucinated once from lack of sleep. I think I'm lucky in that I've never been delusional: every time I've hallucinated I've known exactly what was happening (at least as far as I know! )

 

[Tora Ziyal]

^ Oh, Lord. Special K. <shudder> When I had my neurosurgery three years ago, they used it (along with something else) as the anesthesia. Apparently you can still respond while under it, so they can tell you, for instance, to move your right toe, and monitor how your nerves are being affected. The surgery was over twelve hours -- that's a hell of a lot of ketamine! Took me almost eight hours to come out of it, and it was not a pleasant eight hours. I remember some of it. The rest I was told about afterwards. At one point there were five people holding me down, I was kicking and fighting so hard. At least they knew my legs were still functioning well.

 

[thestrangequark]

^Oh no! You poor dear! At least you seem to be taking it with humor, and now you have a good story to tell! I did know a guy who got stuck in a k-hole and for half an hour all he could do was lay on the sofa and say, "I'm trapped inside a grape."

 

[Tora Ziyal]

^ Oh, yeah, once it was over, I was fine. I've never heard the term k-hole before, but boy does it fit! I was convinced it was still the night before the surgery and I was having a nightmare that I couldn't wake up from.

 

[thestrangequark]

^I assume it was because it was brain surgery that they used ketamine as opposed to another form of anesthetic? They don't use it much in people anymore precisely because of experiences like yours! It sounds like an intense experience! My first hallucination was brought on by anesthesia, when I was a child. I had that feeling of being one with the universe, and hallucinated that my body had come apart into all it's particles and was floating around the room like rainbow glitter!

 

[Tora Ziyal]

^ Wow! Sounds like you got the better hallucination deal! Though I wasn't really hallucinating. More delusional and confused.

Spine surgery, not brain, but you've got the basic idea. When I went for my pre-op exam for one of the follow-up surgeries, the PA said it "couldn't have been" ketamine, because "nobody" uses it any more. So I gave him a mini-lecture on why they use it in neurosurgery. Then we got to the question about whether I'd ever had a blood transfusion, and I said, yes, I'd needed five and a half units for my original surgery. He got that same disbelieving look on his face, but I cut him off with "That's a lot of blood for this little body, isn't it?!" before he could say anything. Arrogant bastard!

 

[thestrangequark]

^Seriously!

Yeah, I do count myself as lucky for never having been delusional. Almost all my hallucinations have been quite pleasant. Though I realized I was wrong in saying I knew what was happening every time. I did have one Ambien-induced hallucination that was slightly disconcerting and which I didn't realize at the time was a hallucination:

I'd woken up in the middle of the night after taking Ambien because my blood sugar was low. The first thing I did, as I always do when I wake in the middle of the night, was look across the room at the digital clock. However, the numbers weren't there. The clock wasn't unplugged, I just couldn't see the numbers. I just thought, weird, and looked at my phone for the time, but while I could see the rest of the phone's display, I couldn't see the time on it. I was too drowsy to be concerned, so I went to the kitchen to get a snack for my blood sugar. In the kitchen I looked at the digital clock on the microwave, but it was the same thing: I could see the light of the digital display, but I couldn't see any numbers!
In the morning when I remembered this, my first thought was that it was a dream. However, beside my bed was a half-eaten apple: the snack I'd gotten from the kitchen.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I gave him a mini-lecture on why they use it in neurosurgery. Then we got to the question about whether I'd ever had a blood transfusion, and I said, yes, I'd needed five and a half units for my original surgery. He got that same disbelieving look on his face, but I cut him off with "That's a lot of blood for this little body, isn't it?!" before he could say anything. Arrogant bastard!

A lecture by Tora Ziyal would be 1) deadly, 2) awesome, 3) all of the above, 4) all of <those> above.

 

[Tora Ziyal]

^ I'm not normally deadly, but that guy definitely would've been putting his life in danger if he'd said one more arrogant word. I've only told the "best" parts of the conversation; there were more.

TSQ, are you sure you didn't hallucinate the apple?

 

[Zulu Romeo]

Fortunately I have never had a tonsillectomy, but sometimes I wonder if I would have been better off with one, what with the frequent tonsillar inflammatory swellings I have had in the past. The sensation of a nasogastric tube wrapped in extra gauze and rubbing against a dessicated tonsil is not one of the best things I have experienced.

As for drug-induced hallucinations, the most profound ones I can recall involved being on a patient-controlled pump of diamorphine (a.k.a. Heroin) following major abdominal emergency surgery. The hallucinations - sometimes coming on by simply closing my eyes - and complete loss of sense of place, architecture and reality were some of the most disturbing and unpleasant experiences of my life. The pain relief was good, though.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I have abnormally huge tonsils and I had tonsillitis quite a few times from childhood on, but not in the last twenty years. I also got painful huge tonsils every time I was sick, in fact feeling my tonsils start to swell was my warning sign and I could often stave off sickness by getting more sleep and eating well when that happened. Doctors have always expressed shock at the sight of my tonsils when they are perfectly normal, when they've been swollen they have freaked out.

My mother was against taking them out and drilled it into my head that they "fought infection", whether this is true or not I have no idea.

I have not been sick in years and my tonsils haven't had any bouts of pain and swelling in even longer.. though I do feel them if I drink too much red wine or eat too much blue cheese. Otherwise they are dormant. Will they kill me when I'm really old and with less of an immune system? Maybe.

 

[FPAlpha]

I had one a couple of years back and it was a mixed bag.

When they got infected it was one of the worst sicknesses i had experienced because it was so damn annoying not being able to swallow anything without big pains.

After the infection was done the doctor decided they had to be removed. The operation itself was fine but the next 2-3 days were very uncomfortable. First day after the operation was ok but the worst were days 2-3 when the pain began in earnert, fortunately they had some very good painkillers at the hospital (this must be what taking real drugs felt like.. after a sip i felt like floating around and was quite dizzy).

3 days after the operation i was let go from the hospital and only once did i cough up a blob of blood (very thick.. almost glue consistency) but they warned me that this could happen. As it was the only instance i didn't go to the doctor out of turn as they also said to only to the ER if the blood doesn't stop coming.

Each day got better and after 2 weeks everything was up to normal. The first week is the roughest but then we're not pussys right?

 

[Captain Ice]

I was 4 when I got my tonsils out. I barely remember anything: just eating ice cream and getting a visit and present from a friend!

I was two when mine were out, and I've no memory of it at all. I've had over twenty surgeries, though, so I remember some. My advice would be to make the best of it. It's a reason to be pampered, to relax, read, watch TV, have someone bring you milkshakes, and give you hugs. And you get to take pleasing drugs.

I completely and totally agree. I had mine out at 8, and thoroughly remember how many sore throats i had before having them removed

I got mine removed when I was 20. The surgery itself went fine, but the two week recovery was easily the most painful time of my entire life. I lost 30 pounds because I literally could not swallow anything.

After one week, the scab fell off while I was sleeping, and I woke up choking on a pool of blood.

Have fun!

I had a similar experience. However, this happened to me multiple times over the course of the six weeks or so following the surgery. My idiot doctor had nicked a blood vessel while he was in there and steadfastly refused to go back in and look. Toward the end, I was on absolute bedrest. I can understand just waiting and observing if this had happened once, but by the third time he should have gone in there surgically and found out what was wrong. Luckily, the last time it happened he was on vacation. When the hospital called his partner to come in and examine me, the partner ordered a surgical suite immediately. Evidently, it happened again while I was on the table and the doctor told my mother that the bleeding was so severe that I would not have survived had the surgery started five minutes later. This was at 3am. Then he kept me in the hospital for almost a month.

The other thing I absolutely will not forget is the insane amount of Carnation Instant Breakfast I had to consume.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

This is definitely helping me. If it does happen, it doesn't sound much worse than the emergency appendectomy. For those of you in the US who have had it recently, did you have it done as an inpatient procedure? I'm sort of hoping for that since I'd be on bedrest and I don't want to overtax my dad...

 

[RoJoHen]

I went in for my surgery and was back home within 4 hours.

 

[scotpens]

. . .Who names these drugs? Take Cialis... That sounds... dirty.

See Alice. See Alice come.

I take a blood-pressure medication called Cardura. That doesn't even sound like a drug. It sounds like a miracle car polish. "Use Cardura just once a year for that showroom shine!"

 

[Peach Wookiee]

Which marketing guys come up with these names?!

Viagra doesn't sound nearly so dirty... unless there's something I don't know about...

 

[thestrangequark]

Which marketing guys come up with these names?!

Viagra doesn't sound nearly so dirty... unless there's something I don't know about...

Well...Viagra wasn't initially for sexual dysfunction, so maybe that's why it doesn't sound dirty to you! Though, I don't know if they came up with the name before or after they found out it could treat ED.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

Cialis still sounds a bit dirty. Why see Alice?

 

[scotpens]

Cialis still sounds a bit dirty. Why see Alice?

They're changing guard at Buckingham Palace.
Christopher Robin went down on Alice.

Or something like that.