(Keeping in mind what I said before, which is that the title is based on the search term I used when I was looking for information about different experiences, and not on the silly assumption that it’s the same for everyone.)

See also: Tonsillectomy Recovery (Days One Through Nine)

When we left off, mid-Day-Nine, I was about to take Elizabeth to her post-op appointment with the ENT doctor. Luckily, luckily, luckily, LUCKILY, through some sort of LUCKY WHIM or else because she already felt queasy but didn’t want to tell me, she brought a bucket with her. And then she threw up all the way there. She’s always had trouble with motion sickness, but it’s been so long since she actually threw up that I’ve taken apart the Emergency Barf Kit—and I didn’t have a diaper bag with me either. No wipes. Luckily, fast-food napkins in the glove compartment and a roll of paper towels under the seat. But we were almost late because I had to pull over to help her and to empty the bucket in the grass by the side of the road, and then I felt very embarrassed that the doctor would be looking into her non-teeth-brushed mouth after this, and that she was carrying a not-very-clean plastic bucket. But she had a drink at a drinking fountain and she had an Altoid, and I wiped out the bucket with paper towels, and that just had to be good enough. If we’d had more time, I could have washed out the bucket in a hospital bathroom, but we signed the sign-in sheet at 12:59:34 for a 1:00:00 appointment, so there wasn’t time.

She saw the doctor, and he said everything looked great. He let me look, and it was not as gross as I’d feared: I could definitely see pinkness/redness and a small (dime-sized) scab, but it didn’t look AWFUL or scary to me. I told him that Elizabeth did/didn’t want to know how bad it looked like the Day Ten Scab Process would be, and he said “Ha ha ha” but then didn’t say anything else. And I felt silly, then, for having been indirect, and too silly/awkward to then follow-up with something more direct, so I hope it’s that there really isn’t any way to know if the scab situation is going to be worse/better than usual and that’s why he didn’t answer (rather than it being that he can tell it’s going to be bad so he didn’t want to scare her worse).

The doctor mentioned again that the codeine could be causing nausea, but the thing is, she’s been throwing up MORE when I skip a dose or a dose is due-but-late. And she hadn’t been in a car for over a week, and she was scared and upset about the appointment, and she’s been eating a lot of dairy and sugar, and she’s always had problems with motion sickness, and the chart says ear pain is a common side effect so I’m guessing the area that handles motion sickness is also involved in this. Still, he says to keep it in mind, and that she can switch from tylenol/codeine to just tylenol now.

He also says she’s “talking through her nose” and that she needs to practice learning to talk again. I’d noticed she was hard to understand, but I’d thought that would go away with the throat pain and swelling. But no. She has to practice.

Day Ten: We were out shopping (MUST GET OUT OF HOUSE OMG MUST GET OUT) and we stopped at a fast-food place for lunch. I got the kids hamburgers, and I got one for Elizabeth too even though I didn’t think she’d eat it and she said she didn’t want it: it was only a dollar, and I figured if she took a single bite that was a good step back to normal, and also the other kids would fall like vultures on anything she didn’t eat so it wouldn’t go to waste. She ate 2/3rds of it. AND she didn’t throw up in the car: I gave her benadryl half an hour before we left, and either it worked or else it’s that she wasn’t upset/scared today, or WHO KNOWS, anyway she didn’t throw up.