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.
Hello, I got my tonsils out 1/15/14 and am currently on day 4 (3 or 4…not sure if you include the day of surgery). I am 38 yrs old with 2 small kids. I was super scared and wanted to bail on the procedure the day of. I have to say, this isn’t anywhere near as bad as I expected. As someone else mentioned, when you’ve had strep a ton, your tolerance for throat pain has got to increase. We don’t have any family in town, so I was grateful a friend stayed with me while my husband went to work and my parents were on the way. It really did help to have someone around the first few days.
I have to believe researching and being prepared has been part of my success with recovery. Four things I cannot stress enough:
1. Stay hydrated, no matter what! Even if it hurts to swallow…it’s nothing compared to how you’ll feel dehydrated.
2. Take your meds on time, every time. You don’t get a medal for being in more pain. I’m on Lortab Elixir and it works great.
3. I’ve set my phones alarm to go off every 30 mins during the night. I turn it off, take a couple drinks of water and go back to bed. I think this has reduced my pain significantly. I’m exhausted, but I’ve got nothing I need to be alert for.
4. Ice, ice, ice! I bought bagged ice from Sonic. Most of the time so far I’ve had ice packs around my neck and ears. Helps so much.
Good luck to everyone, I’ll update in a few days.
-Carolyn
Day 11 – Wow…getting back to normal. Slowly but surely. Thank you Lord!!! I have to say this is going down as the worst experience I have ever to deal with in my life. I truly hope all of the benefits I am looking for out of this surgery come to fruition. I had problems with sleep apnea, horrible allergy problems and ear issues. I am praying that the past 10 days of torture was worth it. For anyone that is going to be going through this or has just started here are some things that I would suggest you need to survive this. Some of this other people may have already suggested. 🙂
1. First and foremost I think you need to have someone there for you at all times. At least for the first week. You will need prescriptions, ice bags, someone to remind you to keep sipping water etc. For me, having someone there for a shoulder to cry on was very helpful. This can be very mentally and emotionally draining.
2. ICE ICE ICE ICE!!!! Ice to suck on, ice for bags on the outside of your throat, ice for ice cold water. I got 4ea 20lb bags of ice before surgery and went through ALL of them. Believe me, you will need it.
3. I preferred a warm humidifier to a cold one. That was just my preference.
4. STRAWS. It was difficult to just drink anything must less try and hold a cup up. Straws are a must.
5. Alarm for nighttime medication. The worst thing you can do is sleep through a dose of pain killers. You will wake up with a dry throat and it will be extremely hard to get the pain back under control. I suggest taking your medication, drinking lots of water and then going back to bed.
6. Thermometer – At certain times I was in so much pain I thought I had an infection. Having a skin touch thermometor was nice to monitor for a fever in case of any infection. I have one that you brush across your forehead. That was quick and did not require anything under the tongue.
7. Alcohol free mouth wash – This will definitetly make your mouth taste pretty foul at times. While you cannot gargle with it you can at least feel some refreshment with this rinse.
8. HOT HOT Showers – Every morning it became a must for me to stand in a steamy hot shower to open my throat after sleeping through the night. For me the morning was the worst for pain. Standing in the steam helped moisturize my throat and give some comfort.
9. Stock – A wonderful friend of mine made me homemade stock and some veggie purees. It was a nice change when I was feeling hungry but couldnt actually eat.
10. THIS WEBSITE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Being able to talk to everyone and have people to talk to that are going through the same thing was a tremendous help. Thank you, Greg!
Great stuff Natasha! Thanks so much for sharing your wisdom. Best of health to you. Please stay in touch.
This site has helped me so much prepare for my Tonsillectomy, thank you!
I had my tonsillectomy (coblation) on jan 10th. Like everyone else I read all the horror stories and prepared for the worst. I know I’m still early on in my recovery but it hasn’t been that bad so far. I’ve been eating soft solid foods since day 1 with minimal pain, of course the pain meds help. Yesteday I had minor bleeding after gargling, luckily it stopped after sucking on ice chips. I’m on day 5 today, have mild ear pain and talking causes me pain so I avoid it. Thanks again for all the info.
Had my Tonsils removed on the 6th. 19th yrs old. Lortab every 4 hours
Days 1-3 are bearable. Pain swallowing but the pain lasts .5-1 second per swallow. Just take the pain killers and you’ll be fine.
Gets a little worse on day 4. My ENT said he could give me a shot of dexedrine for day 4 and on and it will reduce the swelling greatly.
ASK YOUR ENT IF HE CAN GIVE YOU A SHOT OF DEXEDRINE. THIS WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING. My pain is next to minimal after a few hours and he said it will help for a few days. I recommend it 100%. I can drink everything fine with no hesitation, can eat food properly with minimal pain. I’ve even been off the pain killers for a little bit but I’m going to take them anyways.
Food:
Popsicles are just a gimmick. They don’t really help. I guess it just feels good to eat something sweet?
Ice water is the key. Get a bag of ice and crush it and have a cup with ice water at all times. I was constantly sipping on one if I was awake.
Prune Juice is a must. You will be constipated from the pain killers. Prune Juice worked better than other laxatives. Just have like two glasses a day with ice.
Soft Scrambled Eggs with cheese every day will be a good filler.
Watered down and soft/blended rice + curry is good and easy to swallow
Banana smoothie (ice + bananas) goes down well.
Overall, food isn’t that much of an issue. I would say the pain for a splitting headache is 5x worse than the pain associated with a tonsillectomy. The more you hold the water in your mouth before u swallow the more itll hurt cause you think about it. Just swallow as soon as you get it in your mouth and use a straw.
If you’ve have had tonsillitis before its similar to the pain, just a bit more. For someone that had reoccurring tonsillitis I got used to it pretty quickly. The pain to the ears / jaws isn’t that bad, just feels like tension I guess.
I’m not sure why it wasn’t overly horrible for me, maybe because I was drinking water 24/7 the first 3 days so the scab never dried out?
Greg – thank you for your reply. It helps to have others to talk to about this. I am starting the ice now. Ill let you know how that goes!