Grocery Shopping for the Future

My next post I will get into the steps of my hospital visit and tonsillectomy and then discuss my day by day recovery. However, I thought it was important to post first what I've learned in this process about what I could eat so that you can properly plan for after your surgery. If you can get your grocery shopping done the night before it helps prepare you and also makes it easier after your surgery.

One of the most important things I learned was that you NEED to look at the ingredient lists on EVERYTHING carefully! Many foods that you would not expect to be salty or acidic for example are. One mistake I made was having a Jello Pudding Snack. It burned like crazy. I looked at the ingredients afterwards and salt was a major ingredient! READ YOUR INGREDIENT LISTS!

Also, don't worry about where your calories are coming from. Having calories in you will help decrease side effects of your pain medications and also will help promote healing. Eat whatever you can. Many told me to expect to lose weight. I haven't even lost 5lbs, but this is NOT the time to diet. Don't be fooled either. The first 24-48 hours may not be so bad, but it gets worse. Be prepared and don't overdo it while your anesthetic is still working from the hospital. You'll pay for it later.

Most importantly, HYDRATE! Drinking water keeps your throat wet, less painful, and if you become dehydrated you'll experience more pain, have more adverse side effects from medications, and probably end up back in the hospital.

Things to stay away from:

• acidic foods (juices, sauces, some fruits)-they will burn like crazy
• spicy foods 
• salty foods (think of jumping in an ocean after shaving...now think of your throat!, even the littlest of salt bothered me a lot in the first 10 days!)
• crunchy foods (mouth may be too sore to chew, my tongue was too sore to help mush up even a banana)
• crumbly foods (particles can get stuck in your throat or scabs, can make you feel like you are choking)
• ice cream or thick smoothies or yogurts (if it's too thick you'll create more mucus in your throat, making it more uncomfortable, more difficult to breathe, and even more difficult to swallow)
• hot foods 
• extreme cold foods (sometimes in recovery these felt good and helped with swelling, sometimes it was almost like a brain freeze type pain in your throat)
• ice chips (suck on them, but don't eat or chew them, they can tear your scabs)
• be careful with fruits with seeds (seeds will get stuck in your throat and are uncomfortable)

Foods I could eat:

• Swiss Miss Butterscotch Pudding: By far the best and easiest thing for me to eat during my whole recovery. Has a taste, feels like a snack, perfect thickness/not too thick, no salt. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
• Plain cool macaroni, sometimes with butter.
• Gatorade 
• Jello (be careful to stay with small spoon fulls and away from more acidic flavors)
• Plain vanilla yogurt, light-not creamy
• By day 10 I was eating smoothies with 1/2 cup of vanilla yogurt, 1 1/2 cup of lowfat milk, 1 1/2 cup crushed ice, smoothie mix or 1 cup of fruit of choice (things I've added bananas, strawberries)
• By day 10 I could eat mashed potatoes, but was still careful of not having added salt.

Other things to buy:

• HUMIDIFIER-this will help keep your throat wet in the night
• BLENDER-a cheap one will do
• KLEENEX-you might spit a lot of mucus or cough up something or even bleed a little.I was surprised how much I went through.