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
I am so hungry and I can’t eat either because it hurts or it will stay stuck in my throat. The taste in my mouth is disgusting and makes me want to vomit all the time. I was given hydromorphone which makes me sick (I vomited blood), so now I am stuck without pain medication. I can’t sleep properly and I don’t want anyone near me since I know that my mouth stinks. I have been crying all day (day 5 today). The pain is so bad… Feeling really depressed.
I know I’m late to the game but I promise it gets better. I’m on day 11 and I have depression anyway, and I know it’s hard. Cepacol lozenges really help with the pain and you can also take Advil or Tylenol. Just no aspirin! Best of luck 🙂
I’m about 4 days out of surgery and i was doing completely fine until a day ago when my kinda boyfriend stopped by to give me books on his way back to the university we both go to. It’s orientation week for our second session and all my friends are back there after being away for a month and I’m stuck at my parent place recovering for another two weeks (or even more because my body is shit) because I can’t drive back under the influence of my medication. It’s driving me mental and i’ve been crying for the last day and a half. I already struggle with anxiety and depression and I feel having to recover from surgery is not helping in the slightest. Just trying to feel like i’m not alone is killing me, when everyone is back home and i’m not.
I am just reading this. I had my tonsillectomy when I was 21, Talk about fun! I was in college at the time and had continuous battles with strep and apparently what I thought was allergies often wasn’t! Unfortunately, I had an extremely rare case that went misdiagnosed and my tonsils eventually abscessed before getting the treatment that I needed. After being on steroid’s and penicillin for 3 days I had to have the surgery. When they took my tonsils out they found that they had began to rupture causing an infectious leak into my blood stream. I was on SO much medication and running extremely high temperatures for 2 weeks post-surgery they were afraid I would get meningitis but I was able to dodge that bullet. I couldn’t figure out why I was in such a funk, no one ever mentioned anything to me about depression being a concern! I was SO miserable. I think most of it was due to the pain, I didn’t want anyone to visit me, talking hurt, and I cried due to the throat and migraine pain from anesthesia for about 2 weeks… the depression lingered on for about a month because of all of the other complications I was having because of the infection spreading. Glad to see I wasn’t the only one in a funk. It faded quickly once I was back on my toes, but I have to say that was the worst couple months of my life. Happy that it’s all in the past now 🙂 You don’t think you can survive another day in that sort of pain, but you do! Then, the rest is history 🙂
Thanks for posting Kelsey! Hope you are well.
Hi Kelly,
2.5 weeks seems normal to me. I was a college student at the time and I think I returned to class 2 weeks after surgery (which ended up being too early) and I remember either studying (I missed two weeks of my senior year and was then 2 weeks away from finals!), crying, or sleeping/passing out where ever I was.
Although I was tired of drinking ensure for so long I continued to do so since it gives you a lot of nutrition pretty easily. Otherwise I’d say just take it easy and if you need to sleep – sleep and if you feel like you will be depressed forever and ever…you won’t. I promise.
Best!
Jen
Hi Jen,
Thanks so much for your reply–I appreciate it! 🙂
I know it has been a few months since anyone has commented on this page, but I was just wondering how the long the “post-tonsillectomy depression” phase has lasted for others. I had my tonsillectomy about 2.5 weeks ago and am doing pretty well with regard to the pain. I haven’t needed to take pain medication of any kind for about five days–My big issue now is feeling exhausted and depressed! I’m just curious how long others experienced feelings of depression and exhaustion after their tonsillectomy. I’m wondering, is it more due to coming off of the Percocet, or simply your body recovering from the trauma of surgery? Also, are there any vitamins or supplements that help during this period?
Thanks, Kelly
I replied above! Don’t know if that actually replied to you directly!