Six things that will make you feel better while your throat is recovering:
Take your medicine
When you leave the hospital, the nurse or doctor will tell you how often you must take your pain medicine so that your throat won’t hurt too much. It’s important that you follow the instructions and take your medication on a regular basis, even if it doesn’t hurt anywhere when you are supposed to take your pain medicine. The pain medicine stops the pain in your throat, or makes it hurt less. But you need to take it as often as you are supposed to for it to help as much as possible. Before you eat, you need to take pain medication half an hour to one hour ahead of time, that will make it easier for you to swallow. It’s really important that you take all the medicine for as long as the nurses and doctor told you to.
Get plenty of rest
It helps to sleep with an extra pillow to lift up your head a little.
You’ll need lots of rest for a couple of days. Go slow. After a couple of days, you can get up and even go outside for a bit. But you have to take it easy for two weeks. Don’t go back to school right after surgery. And avoid playing with friends. They may carry germs or have some kind of bacteria without even knowing it. After surgery it’s easier to catch something because you are more sensitive. If you want to spend time outside, that’s great, but you can’t run, jump or do sports, and you should avoid doing things that make you tired.
Speak quietly
Your voice might sound a little different after surgery, but this should go away once your throat has healed. It’s good for your voice to take it easy, don’t scream or sing out loud since this can make your throat hurt more than it should.
Drink plenty of water
It’s important that you drink a lot. This will help you feel better. Having a dry throat may hurt, that’s why drinking can help reduce pain. You are allowed to drink whatever you want, but some people think that fizzy drinks are causing discomfort. Remember to drink slowly, small sips, that will help since it may be hard to swallow at first. Chewing gum is also a good idea, it makes more saliva in your mouth, and that can help make your throat feel better.
Take it easy with food
The day of the surgery, your throat will be pretty sore, and you may feel nausea. This will pass, but you need to go slow when you eat. Most kinds of food are ok to eat, and won’t hurt your throat too much. Try to avoid hot drinks and food the first couple of days after surgery. Soft food is often easier to start with, this is easier to swallow.
Here are some examples:
- Ice cream, ice lollies/popsicle
- Chocolate and vanilla pudding
- Soup, stewed fruit and berries
- Yoghurt
- Mashed potatoes or sweet potatoes, pancakes, omelettes
- Macaroni/pasta/sticky rice
- Smoothies, milkshakes
Food to avoid:
Hard and crispy food may scratch you, and can be difficult to swallow, and makes your throat hurt. Some examples are:
- Crisps/potato chips and other such snacks
- Hard bread (e.g. crisp bread), rusks and hard biscuits/cookies
- Hard apples
Some food can make your throat sting, like:
- Citrus fruits and citrus juice (oranges and orange juice)
- Ketchup, mustard and spicy food
TIPS on more fun and helpful information
Visit www.narkosewebben.se if you want to find out more about what actually happens when you go to the hospital and have to have an anaesthetic for an operation. You can come along to the clown hospital, meet spy-scout Hilding Vilding, paint and play, play games, watch films and meet lots of kids who’ve been in hospital.
