Two days before my surgery, I felt the telltale signs of an impending cold: dry eyes, slightly irritated throat, and the occasional sniffle. During my pre-op call two weeks prior, I had received instructions to call my doctor if I felt sick in the days leading up to the surgery — so that’s what I did. The scheduler asked about my symptoms, and then explained that the biggest concern would be from the anesthesiologist — for example, a moderate to severe cough would get me sent home and rescheduled, but if my symptoms didn’t worsen by the day of surgery, I’d be fine.
This was confirmed on the day of surgery, when I kept letting all my care team know that I had the very beginnings of a cold, including the anesthesiologist. His only comment was that the residual dry throat from being intubated would be made worse by my cold symptoms, but it was nothing that would stop things from going forward.
So, now I’m on Day Two post-op, and Day Four of an impending cold, and colds always start out as a sore throat for me, anyway. I had trouble clearing my throat in bed last night, too, so I’m pretty sure I ended up snoring.
I’ve also got a wicked headache at the base of my skull, which is apparently a common thing after general anesthesia. At first, I assumed that the ache was because I’ve been experimenting with different ways to position my head, and maybe that’s still part of it. My pain relief options are limited to Oxycodone or Tylenol, since NSAIDS can increase the likelihood of bleeding. Current status: attempting to balance an ice pack on my neck and a laptop on my knee.
One other thing worth noting is that I woke up hella sore this morning. Abs, lats, core in general. Not sure if I just slept so hardcore that everything got extra stiff, or if I was using my core more yesterday to avoid using my neck muscles, but things seem to have worked themselves out now that I’ve been up and around for a couple of hours.
I suspect that this is going to be one of those recoveries where I just wish it would be over with already. Isn’t that always the case, though?