Two things I forgot to say yesterday, don’t drink/eat anything with red dye, it’s supposed to make it hard for the doctor to identify infection if they need to, and sleep with your head elevated. It makes a difference, because last night out of habit at some point I slouched down and turned over and I felt it when I woke up.

So when I left off yesterday, I was feeling great. Too great. I called my doctors office to set up an appointment, I paid bills (over the phone), I chatted with my husband, and overdid it. When I started feeling it, I decided to take a nap, but couldn’t sleep because my husband was watching TV in the other room too loudly and wasn’t getting my text messages asking him to turn it down.

So I did a truly stupid thing, I shouted for him to turn it down. To be fair, I was half-asleep and on pain meds, but ouch. That hurt. And he didn’t hear me. Then the fact that I got hurt made me mad so I went out there and physically turned it down, pointing to my phone like a madwoman. Also I was irrationally mad at him for cooking chicken-fajita stuff because it smelled SO good and I hadn’t eaten since Sunday night. AND he forgot to grab me a milk shake when he picked my daughter up from school. Not my best moment. He apologized (for the TV) and asked why I didn’t just say something, and like an idiot, I started arguing, out loud, that I had. He apologized and said he didn’t get the text, and went out and got my milkshake like the nice guy he is, but the damage to my throat was done.

Ugh, stupid, stupid me. I drank my milkshake and napped until 7, and when I woke up my throat hurt. I don’t know if it’s because of the yelling (probably) or just because of where I am in the recovery bit (swelling should start becoming an issue on day three) but I was not doing that great anymore.

But happy news, I was allowed to have drinks that were not water or gatorade. I ate some mashed potatoes (SO GOOD!) and drank copious amounts of cran-grape juice with crushed ice.

I also started using this bio-med rinse stuff on day 2 and was allowed to brush my teeth :D. So my throat kept bouncing back and forth from bruised and battered to pleasantly refreshed. I’ve noticed I get really cranky for about twenty minutes between doses of medicine as one dose wears off and the other dose kicks in, but I get really happy about an hour in.

The bio-med rinse is weird, but actually super nice. You just rinse with it for 30 seconds 3 times a day. I do it right after I take the pain killers and it cuts down on the stinging. It also makes your mouth feel less dry? It’s amazing stuff.

Last night the medicine started to hurt really bad. It always stung, but last night it got really, really bad. I eventually figured out the cran-grape was a bit too acidic and switched back to gatorade to chase the medicine down with and that helped. I’ve gone from 4 tsp’s to 3 tsp’s (instructions say 2-4) , and I’m betting that’s why I’m up thirty minutes before the four hour window ready to get my next dose.

I was in a ton of pain this morning around 6:30 AM and it was weird because it was because I swallowed the pain meds and it stung so bad. Also my ears were hurting a bit. But nothing hurt until I swallowed the pain meds, which are supposed to help. I was pretty pathetic for about twenty minutes until the pain killers really kicked in and then I was out until my next dose at 11:00, washed it down with gatorade and felt fine. It still stung, but not as agonizingly. I was allowed to take a shower today (the paperwork said not to until day 3) so it feels great to be clean and the moist shower air helped my throat a lot too. I also started a new medicine today, some kind of steroid to help with swelling and infection risk. It’s a pill, so I was a little worried taking it, but I didn’t have any problem.

I’m able to eat soft foods now but it’s kind of exhausting. My mouth hurts after a few bites so it’s really just a couple of bites of this here, wait a few hours, a couple of bites of that there. Pain wise I’ve been doing fine since about 7:00 AM. I’m more sore than yesterday but I really think that’s my own fault so I’m not talking today, drinking lots of gatorade, replacing the ice backs constantly, and hanging around the humidifier and getting a lot of sleep. Seems to be helping. So hopefully I’ll get back to where I was tomorrow.

My suggestion, don’t talk. You’ll feel like you can talk. Don’t do it. Just text. Also, cranberry grape juice, while delicious, should be drunk sparingly because it is pretty strong. Tomorrow ear pain is really common, but I’m ready. I ordered a hot/cold pack that can wrap around the ears from amazon and it should arrive today or early tomorrow.

Wish me luck…