Surgery right before school

livelovelaugh22 · Aug 18, 2016

I hope I didn't come off as being rude. I truly mean well--I'm just a bit exhausted from studying, is all.

Or perhaps the fact that I was able to successfully complete the semester (with a 3.74 semester/3.91 cumulative gpa :0!) despite the bump in the road is astonishing? :)

KelRN215, BSN, RN · Aug 19, 2016

Why isn't there the option to post-pone surgery until winter break? The risk of bleeding is highest in the 14 days post-tonsillectomy. That's how long pediatric patients are expected to wait before returning to school at my hospital.

As for me, I got told that I needed to have brain surgery "sooner rather than later" about 4 weeks before I was scheduled to move in for my freshman year of college. I, then 18, basically told everyone to go to hell and went to college as scheduled, completed my freshman year and had surgery exactly 3 weeks after I took my last final.

Erythropoiesis · Aug 20, 2016

I had a tonsillectomy at the age of 20, so I will give you my opinion based off of my personal experience.

If I had to do it again, I would, but that was hands down THE most excruciating ten days of my life. The doctor told me to expect to be on bed rest for a full ten days, but actually I didn't turn a corner until day 12 when I was able to get up and go to work again. On day 6 I thought I was healed enough to try eating something heavier than jarred baby food, but I was wrong and I hemorrhaged in the middle of the night. It was terrifying and I couldn't sleep for the rest of that night because I was so scared I would bleed to death. I puked all the time too, even on Zofran. Bathing two open wounds in stomach acid was great for healing. Finally on my ten-day follow up appointment my doctor was concerned that I hadn't really healed as well as he'd hoped. I was still very inflamed, so I got a cortisone shot and THAT was when things finally came to an end for me and I started to feel a lot better soon after.

I was whacked out on prescription narcotics for 11 straight days, and codeine makes me itch so that sucked. Also, it darn near paralyzes your digestive system so that was miserable too. The codeine is in liquid form, and it burns the open holes in your throat when you drink it, which for me was once every 3.5 hours. I slept most of the time. When I wasn't sleeping I was straight up in pain, and I consider myself to have excellent pain tolerance. You'll be hungry but at the same time will be scared to eat because anything you try to eat burns your throat. Even drinking water sucks.

I'm not trying to scare you from the surgery--I saw tremendous improvement once my tonsils were gone, but could I have even in my wildest dreams imagined going back to school after four days? Um H-LL NO. You really have no idea how you'll tolerate any surgery until you go through with it. Having as many complications as I did won't be good with school in the mix.

IF it is possible for you to defer your surgery until a time between semesters (which will require a discussion between you and your doctor), I would really urge you to do it. If you must, then do your class online and get a tutor if you need one.

2soon2beOTC · Aug 24, 2016

Two thoughts.

1). I can attest to having to wait forever -- and the worst possible date -- for your surgery. Diagnosed in Oct., had to wait until July for surgery. Nothing life threatening obviously but majorly painful. There was simply no availability. It was frustrating and scary and a hellish year.

2). Your health is priority one. Having surgery in July caused me to miss starting a nursing program in the Fall. I was devastated. But now? I am soooo glad I did it. I have no pain, had no idea what kind of pain I had been living with for years (kinda creeps up on ya), and so it was the best (hard) thing I've ever done. Bottom line: your health is priority one. Take care of yourself and you'll figure out a way (great suggestions above) to handle school.