Depression After Tonsillectomy
One challenge that many tonsillectomy patients don’t anticipate is depression after surgery. Even people with the sunniest of dispositions may find themselves in a dark place after enduring the hardships of surgery and its recovery. **Before discussing the topic of depression after surgery any further, let me say that if you are under a doctor’s care for depression before surgery, be sure to work with them to plan treatment after surgery.
Tonsillectomy Recovery- Day 17: Why don’t I feel better?
Tonsillectomy surgery, like almost any other surgery, requires more of your body than normal. The healing process takes energy. After tonsillectomy, eating and sleeping become difficult. This makes the healing process more of a strain. I have tips for both eating and sleeping on other pages. For now I’d like to address the almost inevitable event of depression after surgery.
Two weeks of battling pain, not getting enough sleep, taking narcotic pain medicine, and being removed from your normal social interaction can have a profound effect on your mental state. Being prepared for depression after surgery can help you feel better.
Doing your best to stay nourished, get sleep, and stay ahead of pain will all help. I further recommend planning some simple daily activities like a short walk outside, a relaxing bath, a daily television show. These simple activities can get your mind off the discomfort, give you something to look forward to, and give normalcy to an otherwise abnormal time.
Another trick to beating depression after surgery is to record your thoughts and feelings in a journal. Oddly, this seems to release the struggles a bit. I also suggest participating in the online forums and offering others support. As I’ve often said, when you shine a light for others, you also light your own path.
Finally, let people in. Family, friends, health professionals, even co workers have more compassion than you may realize. Let people help. Ask for help in advance- before you have surgery. I personally would be delighted if a friend asked me to run out for Popsicle’s or chewing gum because they’d run out during their tonsillectomy recovery. Help others to help you. You’ll both benefit.
Finally, try to remember that this is temporary. How you are feeling in the midst of your recovery is not how you’ll always feel. Try to imagine the better life you’ll have without the problems the surgery will have corrected. Again, you can read of success stories in my book and on the forum.
Take care,
Greg
Hi guys
I’ve been coughing like hell. My fear is it is putting a lot of unexpected pressure on the stitches and the scabs . It’s also leading to a persistent headache and pain traveling from the throat to the ear now. I feel as if there’s some liquid that pops up at the back of throat which immediately triggers a long bout of coughing.
It’s causing massive pain .
Is this normal?
Anything I can do to avoid coughing / Any precautions?
Also my doc had written painkillers for 5 days from the day after tonsillectomy,which is tomorrow. But I see the pain levels only going up ,helped by the cough also.
Is the pain expected to go down from day 6 ? Or should I continue with the pain meds even after tomorrow??
Thanks
Ice lollies really help too, but water in copious quantities is really vital.
Thanks Anne. Trying to pop in as many ice creams as possible and water. Difficult but trying.
Hi all
I’m 34 year old.
I had my tonsillectomy yesterday and like most of you I’m.going through the hardships in the worst possible ways. It’s 4 51 am right now here in India and I’m completely out of sleep mainly because of the pain in multiple places in the mouth and also the horrific swallowing pain. The pain I feel while swallowing is just horrendous. Also my tongue was punctured at a lot of points to reduce the width of it for opening up the wind passage more. Food and water have obviously gone for a toss and even the thought of having any food/water/even medicines seems Herculean , All because of the swallowing pain. And no pain killers seem to be helping,guess it is day 1 and hence it will take time. I know it has to be a minimum 14 day recovery period, but is there a chance of all this becoming better sooner than that? Any word on that.
Posting here somehow gives comfort and solace . It is like the Facebook of tonsillectomy. Bringing some emotional respite to.know that I’m not alone in this arduous battle.
Hi Buddy- Sorry you’re having a rough time. I remember it well. As difficult as swallowing is, it’s vital that you continue to drink fluids. Dehydration makes things much worse. I also think that the act of swallowing speeds recovery.
To answer your question, based on thousands of comments here, I can say that many people do recover more quickly than 14 days. I was back at work on day 11 I think. Some recover in a week.
Best of luck. Thanks for posting!
All these pages have been a life saver, just keep reading things to make sure what I’m feeling is normal.
I had my tonsils removed on the 8th Nov, should of been going back to work yesterday but just couldn’t face it. I’m still really struggling with swallowing and eating and talking, so decided to take the rest of the week off as my job is customer based and I would be talking and on my feet all day.
Now yesterday I started feeling really achy and then one minute hot and the next cold, I also didn’t sleep at all the previous night, tossing and turning and then the same last night, I’ve had about 4 hours sleep in two days. I’m struggling with my emotions and feeling very weepy just keep crying all the time. I don’t know what to do, if to go back to see the doctors, I also feel I keep mithering them, been twice since having it done for pain relief and they never seem helpful. Really struggling and just can’t wait to start feeling normal.
Hey Sarah- you’re getting there. Things will start getting better soon. It’s normal to feel weepy- days and days of poor sleep, pain meds, and pain? Heck, who wouldn’t be down. This is temporary. Soon you’ll see a light at the end of this tunnel. Soon this will be a memory. Stay hydrated. Stay in touch!
I’ll be 7 days post op Tommorw I am 32 years old and I have never experienced so much pain in my life and I’ve had two c sections. This is by far the worst I have ever felt…. I’ve been eating mashed potatoes Popsicles some ice cream ice water chocolate milk and juice and pudding. But I can’t wait to eat normal again I am so hungry and everything I mentioned doesn’t cut it..I’m. Also finding myself depressed anyone else feeling this way ? I also hate feeling sleepy all the time.