Morning throat pic...dried out when I fell asleep... Excruciating pain.
Evening throat pic ... after a day of fluids... strong but manageable pain
When I woke up this morning, it was the worst throat pain I have had yet. Ear pain was also present.
6:30: I took my pain
meds. I felt no effect from them, not after an hour, not after four hours. I tried to drink my shake (Ice and protein drink) with a little coffee to keep awake, but it was very irritating to my throat. Two sips, spat them out, back to room temp water and jello. The thing is, my throat has to stay moist. All I could do was lie in my chair, drink room temperature water, wearing my ice collar. Ice chips were too irritating to my throat, so no Otter Pops either.
10:30: I took my second pain med dose. By the time it kicked in around 11:00, the pain started to dissipate and it was back to being manageable. All day long my throat felt very sensitive to cold water - I still could not drink it. I had jello. It was the only thing that soothed my throat, that and room temperature water.
2:30: I tried applesauce with my
meds. It was too acidic and it burned. Back to jello and a protein shake. I tried a few swigs of apple juice (
ok) and a swig of pear juice (
ok for burning but it left a weird coating on my throat).
4:30: I was able to go back to crushed ice. The pain level by this time was bearable. Just to be clear, the pain pills do not get rid of the pain. They just make it tolerable enough (most of the time) so I can do more than lie on the chair.
6:30: crushed ice, water, pain
meds, might have some thinned, soupy mashed potatoes later. We'll see... maybe some low sodium chicken broth.
10:30, then 2:30 a.m. ... more pain
meds, more jello.
Tuesday evening
2:30: I was so hungry I just had to eat something that was not jello. So after my meds, I had mashed potatoes, with so much chicken broth mixed in, it was really potato soup.
6:30: I woke up with extreme pain & took my meds. Maybe it would have been that way no matter what, or maybe it is because I ate the mashed potato soup.
2:30: Next dose of pain meds and again hungry.
Egg noodles, cream of mushroom soup,
More pain today than yesterday. I'm taking the Percocet every 4 hours, and at 3.5 hours the pain surges and becomes much less tolerable. Ice packs are the best thing, drinking ice water is the second best thing.
A nice slow lap around the park
Hardly any blackened flesh left. Mostly scabs. Swelling down. Otter pops still doing their thing. New uvula shape becoming more apparent.
Percocet. Keep a dose log. You will be Shucked up, exhausted, not thinking clearly, and you will need to write down when you take a dose. You do not want to mess this up.
Water. This keeps the pain at bay in equal measure with the Percocet. Ice cold water is very soothing for the throat and helps to facilitate swallowing. I am drinking at least 24 ounces per hour.
Otter Pops (the PNW answer to the Popsicle).
Jello. 
Humidifier. All day, every day.
Well wishes.
Emails. Very short phone calls are okay... longer calls not so much, because it hurts to talk for very long.
My wife (and ghostwriter). She's all right.
Later on, more swelling in my tongue. You can tell it is obscuring the view of my throat, where the scabbing is progressing quickly. The blue on my tongue is from an Otter Pop.
