What is Tonsillectomy Recovery Like?

Hey, I’ve been wanting to share my story since it was a bit different than any others I have read. I’m a 22 year-old female. While I was recovering I read recovery stories religiously because I needed to have something/someone to relate to. I chose not to look too much into the surgery before, because I figured it would just be bad experiences that were posted online and I figured recovery varies so much from person to person. I had to have the surgery because I had mononucleosis two years earlier and my tonsils never really decreased that much in size since they had been HUGE when I had mono. Also they were just bothering me. When I would get sick I would get worse because of the swelling of the tonsils and I am pretty sure they gave me fevers as well.

So What is Tonsillectomy Recovery Like?

Anyway, day 1, which is day of surgery (I had surgery in the morning so I am considering that day 1), I went into the operating room after taking the anti-nausea pill they give you before. I was a bit nervous but not too bad. I wake up after surgery and I am feeling great. I kept talking and smiling and I was feeling nothing like I had just had surgery. Obviously the meds were doing this for me. I am rolled out to the ‘recovery/wake up room’ where I start to calm down a bit and they give me a Popsicle. I remember I started feeling a bit nauseous while sitting there. They make sure I can walk and after a few hours I am free to go home. My doctor comes and talks to me before I leave and he says I can take Ibuprofen if I would rather do that than Tylenol or something similar. It was a bit surprising because pretty much every website/nurse/recovery story tells you to avoid ibuprofen because it thins the blood and bleeding would be more difficult to stop. Anyway, I get home, not too big of a deal. I almost threw up twice because of the nausea from the anesthesia, but thankfully avoided it. They prescribed me with liquid Oxycodone that had a raspberry flavor. I knew the pain would get worse and worse so I was very specific about taking my med’s on time. Every 4 hours I would take the recommended Oxycodone. It definitely helped that I was so conscious about it. I would set my alarm throughout the night and wake up to take my meds and drink water to avoid pain and avoid dryness in my throat. I drank soooo much water. This was pretty much my routine the first few days.

Day 2 Not much different pain wise from day 1. Took my Oxycodone every 4 hours and sat up sleeping through the night while drinking water religiously. I tried eating ice cream but it created a thick layer in my mouth so I couldn’t do that. Popsicle’s were pretty much the only thing I ate throughout my recovery. Pain I had was in my throat and ears.

Day 3 I started getting hungrier but it hurt to eat. I just drank water and medication and tried to keep myself occupied. The oxy’ had a weird effect on me where I would be so sleepy but couldn’t fall asleep. Sort of zombie like status. When I tried eating a Popsicle my ears would sometimes feel like they were about to explode. But overall I felt the recovery was easier than expected.

Day 4 Same as day 3 pretty much. Ear pain increased a little bit but I felt I was on the right path. Still slept sitting up. Still took my pain med’s every 4 hours. Couldn’t eat because of ear pain.

Day 5 This is the point where things started changing for me. I had a normal day where my pain was less than the other days actually. I was sitting watching TV, drinking water and suddenly when I swallowed I felt it was a much more comfortable feeling. I thought, that’s weird. I swallowed again and it was a moist warm feeling and that’s when I tasted blood. My heart dropped into my stomach and I could feel my pulse go crazy. I went to the bathroom and starting spitting a bit of blood. It was more like blood spots in my saliva so it wasn’t gushing out but it was red which meant I had an active bleed. I tried drinking ice cold water with ice cubes in it but the bleeding kept on for 1 hour. I finally went to the emergency room where I had the most awful experience of my life honestly. First they want to give me an IV which the first nurse didn’t do properly so she ended up giving me a huge swollen blue patch on my hand where she had attempted to insert the IV and draw blood. I then get to go back where a different nurse is trying to insert an IV and he proceeds to do it in my arm where it squirts out with blood and I am looking at my mom, who was with me, shocked that this was going on. He managed to put the IV in properly and then left. The ENT doc on call then comes out and takes a look and he says I have an active bleed so I need to get cauterized. Wow. I wish I had told him no based on my later experiences because this was THE worst thing that could happen to me. He had to hold my tongue down with this tongue pressing instrument while he took a tool to burn the active bleed closed. At this point I had NO pain medication in my system because it had been so long since I had taken oxy’ and I had been sitting at the ER for a while. This procedure goes on for 15-20 minutes of excruciating pain. I am silently crying and when they finally give me a break I am cussing and shouting because of the pain I am in. Finally when he is done a nurse comes and asks me if I need pain med’s and I can’t even say yes fast enough. They give me some through the IV which makes me feel so much better pretty quickly. I then sit for evaluation for a bit and can finally go home. They assure me there is a 99% chance that I won’t bleed again. I’m thinking GREAT just one unlucky occurrence. I was extremely upset because my throat was so raw that I felt I was back to day 1.

Day 6 I wake up in the morning and feel tired and depressed. My mom is nursing me like a baby and has fresh water for me. I’m sitting in bed drinking water and immediately feel the same feeling I had the day before. The ease I had with swallowing and a warm moist feeling. I knew it. I was bleeding again. I run out to the bathroom where this time it is basically gushing out. I was so scared I couldn’t help but think I was going to die. I try taking the ice water and gargling but it wouldn’t stop. I am so freaked out that we decide to go to the emergency room after 10 minutes. On our way there the bleeding gets less and less and finally when I am there I have a big dark blood clot sitting where the bleeding had occurred. They tried to insert an IV at the ER but I was having none of it thanks to my experience the day before. Since I did not have any ACTIVE bleeding they told me I could go home. Thankfully. While I am home now, I can feel that I am more and more depressed and anxious. The medicine can make you depressed and the combination of that with the bleeding had left me scared and worried. No matter what I was doing at this point I had to have a glass of Ice water with me. It was my safety net I felt. I still had pain in my ears but the throat pain was not bad. The ear pain was the worst pain of the whole recovery process. My parents got me Extra Strength Tylenol at this point because I had not eaten in so long and they wanted to help ease my pain so I could eat. While taking Tylenol it gave me heart palpitations and left me feeling so uncomfortable so I stopped taking that after a day and a half.

Day 7 Had a fairly normal day until I had another extreme bleed. GREAT, how can I be bleeding so much? It was gushing out and I swallowed so much blood. I thought once again I am going to die. But my parents gave me ice cubes to chew and Ice water to gargle and within 20 minutes the bleeding had stopped. I could see a huge clot sitting on top of the previous bleed and I was just terrified constantly. Ear pain was still there and I felt that I had tongue cramps. I was feeling so gross being on oxycodone so I decided to quit cold turkey and started taking Ibuprofen. I had already been bleeding a bunch and I did not even care at this point because I bled regardless of Ibuprofen. Day 8 Another great day to bleed. This was the day where I bled twice. I regretted so much having the surgery at this point. The recovery process was never ending. I had crazy bleeds all the time and I was hungry. My taste buds felt weird and my tongue was cramping. I started reading stories online about all the awful things that have happened to people’s taste buds after having the surgery and scar tissue forming in a wrong way etc. I was losing my mind. I did not want to do anything and I was very sad. Every time I bled I could stop it with Ice water. On another note this was the first day I could go to the bathroom. The most disgusting thing was that I had completely black poop after swallowing so much blood from the previous days. So disgusting and so scary.

Day 9 First day in a while without a bleed. I wasn’t feeling as zombie-esque and I could eat a little bit of soft pasta. I was so happy that I did not have a bleed that I finally assumed it was over. Still pain in the ears but improvement was definite.

Day 10 Yay! I woke up and had a huge blood clot half of the day. So not an active bleed but it meant I had bled throughout the night at some point. During the afternoon I looked in my throat in the clot was gone. I was still depressed, anxious and worried. This day was THANKSGIVING so everyone was eating Turkey, potatoes, cake etc. all I could eat was a thumb sized piece of turkey and then my tongue cramped up so bad so I couldn’t eat anymore. Thank god this was the last day with a bleed. From this day forward I started feeling so much better and recovery was pretty smooth from then on. I went to see my doctor on the two week mark and he said my tonsils had been on a muscle that was fairly exposed somehow so that is why my bleeding chances were so much higher. I lost 8-10 pounds during recovery and it was probably two of the worst weeks of my life. Now two months later I am happy I had the surgery and I urge you to be prepared for some scary stuff while recovering. The only weird thing I have going on now, 2 months post-surgery, is that when I get hungry or thirsty I get a gross taste in my mouth. But my taste buds are normal and I can exercise etc. again.