Tonsillectomy Adult – What to Expect
Tonsillectomy as an adult is quite different than tonsillectomy for children. The methods employed for tonsillectomy in adults and children are generally the same, (See Tonsillectomy and Adenoidectomy Methods page), and the risks for adults are similar to the risks for children, (See The Tonsillectomy Risks
Tonsillectomy – Adult Recovery and Risks
Most studies indicate a two to four percent risk of delayed hemorrhage [severe bleeding]. Where tonsillectomy in adults differs most from tonsillectomy in children is in the recovery. Recovery from childhood tonsillectomy generally takes five to seven days. Recovery from tonsillectomy in adults usually requires at least ten days and more often two weeks.
Before deciding to get an adult tonsillectomy, it’s important to choose a time frame in which you have the time and the support. Recovering over your favorite Holiday might be a good choice in terms of time, (eg holiday leave from work or school), but it may not be a time that people will be available to help you.
The pain associated with adult tonsillectomy recovery, by almost all accounts, is more intense than that experienced by children. Some theorize that children haven’t had as much time without pain as adults and thus their frame of reference is different than adult tonsillectomy patients. Others assume that children may be less able to articulate their discomfort. Having read the accounts of THOUSANDS of adult tonsillectomies in the forum,(See Tonsillectomy Forum page), I can say with some confidence that generally, the younger the patient, the easier the tonsillectomy recovery. There are of course exceptions. I’ve read from many middle aged adults who had a fairly smooth recovery. Perhaps they read up on this website and prepared well. Perhaps they had good genes. In any case, many time an adult tonsillectomy recovery is better than the horror stories we hear about.
“If I could recommend one item to buy before tonsillectomy, it would be a humidifier. My readers know how important moist air is to a healing throat. I bought one of these years ago and still use it daily” -Greg
I’d like to take a moment here to make a suggestion. As you read through the people’s accounts in the various chat rooms, message boards, and adult tonsillectomy forums, consider this: People having a harder time, may be more prone to seek out information and share their experience in these venues. Adults experiencing milder tonsillectomy recoveries, might be less apt to be posting. I don’t want to drag Richard Nixon into my website, but this silent majority may be quietly recovering and you’ll never hear from them.
My advice is to research as much as you can, talk with your doctor, talk with your family and friends, and talk with your employer before scheduling your adult tonsillectomy. I wish you all the best.
I’ve put together a collection of items that I think would be helpful, if not essential, to making tonsillectomy recovery a little more pleasant. Check out the Tonsillectomy General Store.
It is almost 12:30am, night before my surgery (6am). I am nervous. Of course going online and reading horror stories is not helping. I am a 28 year old female, tonsil issues aside, in good health. No children, and a pretty useful husband. I am well prepared, just scared of waking out of anesthesia, to shake my fists and curse my own name. You know, for forcing me to do this to myself. My question is, what really took you by surprise and how did you overcome?
Why does my little Icon over there seem to be vomiting? Keep your omens little Icon buddy. I can do this with or without you 🙂
Hello everyone, I am 10 days into my post op surgery. While my throat still hurts and I lose my voice at not and/or if I talk to much, I’m going along pretty good. The 3rd and 4th day after was pure hell and my surgeon told me to expect that. It seems as though ALL of the issues and pain hit me those two days. I did not want to do anything but lay curled up in bed and cry through it.
For the first 5 days it was nothing but water, gatorade, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese and popcicles. I knew that the key to get through this was to stay hydrated. By Wednesday, I added pancakes with lots of butter and eggs and rice with gravy but keep up the liquids in great amounts, way more than was recommended. At this point I still was not talking at all and was on Percocets. They were too strong for me so I would only take half anf it still worked fine. Also I started seeing the scabbing at the back of my mouth. From the beginning, mucous would building up in the back of my throat that tasted horrible and smelled bad. That was the issue for me the entire first week.I started gargling but you have to be careful with that so as not to “burn” your throat or cause the scabs to start coming off prematurely.
As for sleeping, I didn’t get much of it as I was afraid of drying out my mouth so I got “cat naps” in as much as possible. I bought a humidifier and it was helpful. I naturally sleep with my mouth open so I knew drying out was going to be an issues for me. Sleep upright or on your side with your head elevated. I slumped down a couple of times and ended up choking which added to the pain.
As I’ve said, I had to cut down on my presribed meds but by Friday ( 7 days post-op) I started taking tylenol which worked well. I am now 10 days post-op and I am basically eating what I want with no issues at all. My throat is still sore and I it hurts when Italk too much but other than that, I can honestly say that I have no major issues or discomfort. The key is keeping your throat wet constantly and getting those throat muscle working as soon as you can so that they healing process can begin. I am 47 years old and this was the worse pain that I have ever had in all of the expeiences that I have been through. Out o the 10 days I’ve been dealing with this, two were the worse but once you get pass that, you’re good. Plus it helps to have someone with you to help out. In my case, it was my Mom. Good luck and I’ll keep posting!!!!
Hi Chris, well I am 49 years of age and this has been the most excrutiating painful experience I have ever had to endure. I am on day 6 today and I have just had a raspberry pannecotta desert for dinner just so I had something in my tummy for the meds to take too. OMG, I have just felt like curling up and dying. I’ve had 2 kids and numerous other surgeries, but nothing could be compared to this. I am hoping my recovery time is not too long, as I am supposed to be back at work next week! Lets hope it was all worth it for the times that I won’t have to deal with tonsilitis time and time again. Hope you are recovering well now. Cheers.
Hello- I’m afraid my doctor may suggest I remove my tonsils. They get infected at least 3 times a year. Would anyone mind sharing why they had the procedure done? Thanks! 🙂
JESUS – YOU ARE LUCKY – I HAVE THEM 3 TIMES A WEEK OR AT MAX 2!!! ARE ALL ROBOTS UP HERE AS WHY DID NO ONE RESPOND TO MY QUESTIONS YESTERDAY??? WILL TRY AGAIN
Thought I’d check back in. I had my Tonsillectomy exactly one week ago today. The worst of the pain I’ve experienced seemed to appear early Monday morning and gradually increased through early Tuesday morning. It remained through yesterday afternoon before it started to decrease, slightly. It’s difficult to describe the pain; it isn’t incapacitating, but it can be rather bothersome. It’s worse than the worst sore throat you’ve probably ever had. It almost feels like there’s shards of glass in your throat. I guess I’ve been lucky in that I haven’t had any ear, jaw, or tongue pain or any other pains associated with the surgery.
Now, I’ve been doing my best to keep up on my liquid intake, so I’m sure the pain would’ve been worse had I not. Even though I’ve kept a humidifier going full-blast next to my bed side, the absolute worst pain has been when I’ve had to get up at 3:00 AM and 7:00 AM for my medicine. Like it or not, your throat will dry out a bit if you sleep for more than an hour or so. I don’t seem to be swallowing when I sleep, either. The first couple swallows when you wake up are horrible! I had been eating applesauce before my 3:00 AM and 7:00 AM medicine doses, but I gave that up Tuesday morning because the pain had reached a point where all I wanted to do was down the medicine and curl back up in bed. It was worth it to me to risk an upset stomach due to taking the medicine on an empty stomach than to eat anything. (I never did get an upset stomach.)
You work through the pain, though. Usually, after I was up and had taken the medicine, it would subside to a point where I could get comfortable and go back to sleep or continue on with whatever. And, even with the pain increasing, I’m happy to say I’ve been eating “real” food for at least one meal since Sunday evening. What’s worked so far — small fish fillets, fish sticks, macaroni & cheese, plain chicken, boiled eggs, and pain spaghetti noodles. I even ate two pieces of garlic toast with the spaghetti two nights ago. No issues at all. It tasted so good! I just got over chicken broth and plain foods. I’m also over drinking liquids — around Monday evening, the taste in the back of my mouth got really weird, and Gatorade seemed to make it worse. Water also made it linger, but not as bad. Even brushing my teeth/tongue didn’t seem to do much for it. Anyway, I got sick of it, so I started supplementing popsicles two days ago between my meals. I’ll eat a bunch of them throughout the day, but they don’t seem to affect that strange taste in the back of my mouth or make it as bad as some liquids did. Also, it’s really helped my throat feel better.
I still haven’t favored hot food over cold food or cold food over hot food. I’ve eaten warm, hot, cold, room temperature … It doesn’t seem to make a difference, to me. I haven’t seemed to favor any particular sleeping position, either. I usually sleep on my side, and that’s what I’ve been doing since the first night home. I haven’t had any problems.
I’m happy to say the pain seems to’ve lessened a bit today, although I’m still not interested in talking. I haven’t said much since Monday afternoon. Besides being hoarse, it just makes my throat hurt worse when I talk a lot. It’s good if you can have someone around for at least the first week to help you. Although I’ve been up and out of bed, sometimes, all you’ll want to do is sleep or stay quiet. I don’t think anyone should expect to go back to work or return to their normal schedule for at least 7-10 days, if not longer.
I’ve also cut my Hydrocodone from 3 teaspoons every 4 hours to 3 teaspoons every 8 hours. It happened on accident, actually. It took me so long to eat my lunch (as you’ll find, eating is a task), that I missed my 3:00 PM dose. I didn’t realize it until about an hour and a half later, so I waited until 7:00 PM. I didn’t have any extra pain, so I decided to just see if I could stick to that. The Hydrocodone made me feel kind-of ‘blah’ to begin with. It works almost immediately for pain, but it does have some side effects.
Anyway, one week down, some more time still to go. Just thought I’d give an update. I haven’t been able to open my mouth wide enough to see what’s going on in my throat, so I can’t really comment on how that looks. It felt like something came loose the other night when I was eating, but the sensation went away after a few minutes. I haven’t experienced any bleeding or other problems, so I don’t know if it’s scabbed over yet or not.
It still isn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be!
I am day 13 post op and at this point am feeling great; however, something odd has been happening. The past 3 nights I suddenly get the sensation that I have something stuck in my throat and I cough up this light green “blob”, which appears to be hard mucus. It looks very similar to a small piece of celery. It is dry and hard and cannot be crushed like a tonsil stone and there is no odor to it. It kind of has a rubbery feel to it. Is this normal? It has happened 3 times. I had a lot of congestion and phlegm after surgery so I am hoping that I am just coughing up mucus buildup.