Warning! If you are even a bit squeamish don’t read this!

Here we go again … or so the song would have us believe. Just after I thought I was getting better following my adeno-tonsillectomy I found myself in hospital again at the weekend and it was not pleasant. I am writing this whilst I remember it mostly for posterity but also as a warning for anyone out there who goes through something similar.

I had the operation on Wednesday morning and was discharged from hospital on thursday afternoon. To be honest, Thursday I felt pretty much ok but Friday and Saturday it hit me. Eek. I spent most of these days in bed due to the pain, my parents took Daniel and Jessica out for the day on Satuday to give me some rest.

I managed to drag myself out bed at around 3:30pm on Saturday and decided to take a shower, wash my hair, have a shave and afterwards I felt pretty good – the best I had felt all week in fact. I went downstairs where my sister was doing Sharons hair in the kitchen so I sat in the living room with Dave, my sisters partner and we watched top gear. I only recently got into that show but now I love it.

Anyway, I missed a joke and Dave started to explain it to me. I suddenly heard and felt a gurgle in my mouth so coughed a bit to clear my throat. Then he started to explain again and this time I felt a rush of something in my mouth/throat. I had been having trouble swallowing so I’d found that spitting it out (I know it’s not very nice!) helped a lot so I waved to Dave to excuse me and went into the downstairs toilet to spit whatever it was out.

As soon as I opened my mouth it started. A thick jet of blood sprayed out of my mouth covering the toilet seat and most everything else that was in there. I was surprised but thought it was just a one off so I took a deep breath then another spray ejected itself, I got this into the bowl this time but then another quite fierce one happened. By this time my mouth and throat was full of blood so I had to push my hand into my mouth to clear the blockage – it was a thick matted substance that stuck to everything – it was in fact blood. By now blood was pumping out of me and I dropped to the floor and started banging the wall for help because I couldn’t open my mouth without blood pouring out.

I leaned over the bowl and watched the blood pump out rapidly and kept pushing my hand into my mouth to clear an airway. After what felt like a lifetime banging on the wall my sister emerged and immediately called Sharon and Dave.

Now, I don’t really remember much else of what happened. I remember Sharon saying something about calling ShropDoc ( a 24 hour hospital based Doctor Service) and my sister saying something like it’s too late for that and to call an ambulance. Then I remember shaking quite a lot, and feeling very very weak – blood still pumping out and the bowl filling up. Strange shaped items were also coming out – about the size and consistency of teabags but these must have been build ups of blood – I can only guess.

Then all I really remember is Dave holding me up and my sister saying over and over “say awake, stay with me” and I was feeling very very cold. Apparently I blacked out a few times and collapsed. I clearly remember telling myself that this was it – there was no way I was going to get out of this – I had no idea where the bleeding was coming from – adenoids, tonsils, whatever but there was no way anyone was going to be able to reach in and stop the bleeding – then I remember becoming strangely calm and accepting of what was to come. Then I remember waking in the hospital then apparently I was moved to another hospital.

My sister and Sharon told me that apparently when the ambulance finally came they couldn’t get me out of the small bathroom so I had to crawl out and Sharon said the look on my blood soaked face was frightening. Sharon came with me in the ambulance whilst my sister stayed behind and bless her, cleaned up the whole mess before my parents came in with the kids.

Apparently the bleeding stopped when I reached the first hospital but because this was not an Ear, Nose, Throat hospital I would have to be transferred again. One thing I do remember in the ambulance (and Sharon remembers too) is coughing up something that was about half a foot long about three inches wide and was black and soft – like a long thin padded cushion. I don’t know what it was but I gagged as it came out. Later on the Doctors told me that this (and the teabag shaped things) were most likely clots that had been building up behind where my adenoids used to be and and some point they became too many and dislodged causing a chain reaction and opening up the sealed adenoids which caused the futher bleeding.

Also, I remember a lot of people afterwards telling me how pale I looked and being asked silly questions like how much blood was there, where did it come from, was it bright red and so on. Everyone agrees that the amount of blood was somewhere between a third and half a bucketful and I had to spend several days lying in hospital under an intense amount of drugs ( I still have a bunch of pills to take everyday now) including a very strong painkiller called Tramadol which literally puts me into a zombie like almost vegetative state. The hospital also discovered I had picked up a mild infection (probably from the first hospital but they didn’t know for sure) which pushed my temperature right up. After tests were done they found my blood pressure was extremely low and that my red blood cell count again was extremely low.

I really never thought anything like this would happen to me but I especially want to say thank you to Sharon, Dave and especially my sister Patricia for remaining calm, helping me through the ordeal and quite literally saving my life.