Rebecca’s Tonsillectomy Recovery Story
I’m 23 years old and had my Tonsillectomy 8 days ago! Boy oh boy has this been a journey. I’ve had my compacted wisdom teeth removed and I thought that was painful, but that is nothing in comparison to a Tonsillectomy. When I woke up from my Tonsillectomy the morphine hadn’t kicked in yet, so I was in a world of pain. I was kept at the hospital for 6 hours, apparently I had a heavy blood supply to my tonsils so I had to be carefully watched. All was good, I went home failed at drinking water and passed out. My first few days blurred together, the pain remained the same day 1-3. I had a terrible time trying to take my liquid morphine prescription and had to switch to oxycodone. The morphine stung and burned on the way down which then made swallowing even worse than it already was. Days 4-7 were awful, there is no sweet way of putting it. I could barely swallow, my saliva was so thick, the ear aches kicked in, restless nights etc. At the end of day 7 and into day 8 I’m feeling significantly better! Swallowing is still sore of course, but much better than before and i’m hoping it only improves from here! Now for some advice to my tonsil-less friends! Don’t feel bad if you read other stories and you see people are eating by day 3. Everyone is different! I’m day 8 and I’m just able to start eating! If you are having trouble getting water down like I was, use crushed ice. It goes down a lot easier, helps with hydration, helps numb and feels pretty good going down. When I had to take my pills I would cut them in half and take it with half a spoonful of applesauce. They slid down no problem at all! I purchased a ton of foods before hand (jello, pudding, Boost, soup, popsicles, ice cream etc). Matter of the fact is that I didn’t have any of it in my first 7 days. I would warrant staying away from citrus flavours (it stings/burns), dairy and sugar. Dairy and sugar thicken saliva and make it harder to swallow, it’s already hard enough…don’t make it more difficult. I hope this helps anyone who is going to go through a Tonsillectomy or is currently recovering. Hang in there, make sure you take at least 2 weeks off work and good luck! 