How my quest to cure bad breath almost killed me
Posted: Sat Nov 04, 2017 12:58 am
I've had BB since I was a teenager but only in recent years had I begun to notice a strange sensation in my throat and very occasional tonsil stones coming out when coughing or talking. Gross. These things smell awful. I finally felt I had to do something about it as it was seriously affecting my life and confidence in social situations. I told my doctor who suggested gargling salt water. Yea... That wasn't going to cure it so I went private to a different surgeon who stuck a camera down my throat and saw no signs of any tonsil stones but reluctantly agreed to perform a tonsillectomy to see if it helped the discomfort in my throat.
In May I had the operation. I woke up, drowsy with a painful throat but everything was fine. The surgeon afterwards came by my bed and told me how surprised he was at the state of my tonsils. They were covered in tonsil stones. "Great", I thought. "I've made the right decision". I was discharged that day and sent home with some nice pain meds to recover for a couple of weeks and then carry on with my life.
5 days after the Op, I was getting ready for bed when I felt a very small tickle in my throat. I coughed a few times and walked to the bathroom by which point blood was pouring out of my mouth into the sink. My girlfriend was thankfully home and heard me spluttering away and called an ambulance. Was rushed to hospital, bleeding did not stop. I lost half of my blood in an hour, white as a ghost, heart pounding, blood pressure crashing and my body and brain started shutting down. I eventually blacked out and woke up a short while later having bags of blood being squeezed into my arm. Since the wound was still open, every squeeze of the bag sent blood shooting out of my mouth. A horrifying feeling but it eventually stabilised me and I stayed in hospital for several days before being sent home to recover.
4 days after that, more or less the same thing happened again. Lost a huge amount of blood in a short period of time at home. Remember being in the resuscitation room thinking to myself "What on earth have I done? I'm going to die here or this will just happen again, Why did I choose this?". I then vomited up 2 bowls of blood, the doctors started running around and I blacked out again. Woke up 2 hours later after an emergency operation and several blood transfusions and was in hospital for another week.
Thankfully that WAS the last of it. 3 months later I had fully healed and had gradually got my strength back after taking loads of iron tablets. I don't want to scare anyone as apparently this sort of thing is very rare but it is still a risk. If you ever go through with this, always always have somebody with you at all times. My gf being able to call the ambulance saved my life.
The best news is, the bad breath has gone and it really has made a huge difference to my life. Good luck to everyone else trying to shift halitosis.
In May I had the operation. I woke up, drowsy with a painful throat but everything was fine. The surgeon afterwards came by my bed and told me how surprised he was at the state of my tonsils. They were covered in tonsil stones. "Great", I thought. "I've made the right decision". I was discharged that day and sent home with some nice pain meds to recover for a couple of weeks and then carry on with my life.
5 days after the Op, I was getting ready for bed when I felt a very small tickle in my throat. I coughed a few times and walked to the bathroom by which point blood was pouring out of my mouth into the sink. My girlfriend was thankfully home and heard me spluttering away and called an ambulance. Was rushed to hospital, bleeding did not stop. I lost half of my blood in an hour, white as a ghost, heart pounding, blood pressure crashing and my body and brain started shutting down. I eventually blacked out and woke up a short while later having bags of blood being squeezed into my arm. Since the wound was still open, every squeeze of the bag sent blood shooting out of my mouth. A horrifying feeling but it eventually stabilised me and I stayed in hospital for several days before being sent home to recover.
4 days after that, more or less the same thing happened again. Lost a huge amount of blood in a short period of time at home. Remember being in the resuscitation room thinking to myself "What on earth have I done? I'm going to die here or this will just happen again, Why did I choose this?". I then vomited up 2 bowls of blood, the doctors started running around and I blacked out again. Woke up 2 hours later after an emergency operation and several blood transfusions and was in hospital for another week.
Thankfully that WAS the last of it. 3 months later I had fully healed and had gradually got my strength back after taking loads of iron tablets. I don't want to scare anyone as apparently this sort of thing is very rare but it is still a risk. If you ever go through with this, always always have somebody with you at all times. My gf being able to call the ambulance saved my life.
The best news is, the bad breath has gone and it really has made a huge difference to my life. Good luck to everyone else trying to shift halitosis.