Tonsillectomy Recovery Time
After a lifetime of tonsillitis, it was time. I made the appointment. Was I scared? Yes. Was I prepared for tonsillectomy recovery? NO. Can you be? YES!
Planning for and recovering from a tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy procedure, (often referred to as T & A Surgery), can be daunting experiences. The days leading up to your surgery can be frightening. If you haven’t read up yet, you can find information on tonsillectomy methods, risks, costs, adult tonsillectomy, sleep apnea, and numerous tips for tonsillectomy recovery on the other pages of this site. I’ve even added pictures of a post tonsillectomy throat by each day. Study, talk with your doctor and consult with your friends about the decision to undergo tonsillectomy and adenoid surgery. Explore the pages created here to aid in your journey.
If you should decide to have tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy, let us help you through the entire process. Whether due to problems with sleep apnea, chronic tonsillitis and strep throat, tonsil stones, trouble swallowing, or a combination thereof, you can benefit from the experience of others. My own experience taught me that, as patients, we need to advocate for ourselves. Ear, nose, and throat doctors are, by and large, extremely talented individuals. However, very few of them have experienced an adult tonsillectomy, and the subsequent recovery. I have. Many others have too. We share our experiences here at the adult tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy recovery resource center. As you’ll read in the tonsillectomy recovery forum, everyone’s experience is unique. There are many factors that influence the level of pain you experience, as well as the length of time required during recovery. The method, and skill of your surgeon can have an affect, but there are also many things within your control that will reduce pain and recovery time. I’ve tried to include as many helpful tips as possible within the pages of this online resource. Tonsillectomy recovery can be pretty rough, especially if you are unlucky enough to be an adult! It takes longer for an adult to recover from most things. Tonsillectomy is no exception. There are many things you can do to make it go more smoothly. I’ve published numerous tips here on various pages. I encourage you to read up BEFORE you are in the throws of tonsillectomy recovery.
Talk with your doctor, friends, family, and work as you prepare. You are not alone in this. Like you and like me, many others are facing or have faced a tonsillectomy recovery. I created this forum for you. The community of adults or parents of patients will amaze you and warm your heart. I read these comments every day and every day I am humbled by everyone’s story and their compassion for others in the midst of recovery, or the anxiety that often precedes a tonsillectomy. Please join in. Hundreds of other people, perhaps in your same situation, have shared their wisdom, concerns, tips, and questions about tonsillectomy, as well as their tonsillectomy recovery.
-Greg My short bio
I am day 2 post-op. My pain level has been low in general. On the 1 to 10 pain scale, I’m about a 3 to 5 when I try to eat. I felt more pain in the afternoon into evening yesterday. I am only taking Ibuprofen and Tramadol (non-opiate pain med). My naturopath recommended some homeopathic remedies: Staphysagria, phytolacca, & arnica. I’m using ice packs and humidifier as well.
I finally gave up trying to sleep with ice packs last night and cuddled into a upright sleep position. I then slept for 6 hours, waking up a little here and there. This morning I woke up feeling like I might be getting some sort of throat/bronchial thing. It felt like I wanted to cough something up but has passed since drinking water. I also have swelling under my jaw and down one side of my neck.
I am really shaky, having a hard time focusing and remembering, and stumbling around. I am really tired (very normal after surgery). I’ve been eating small quantities of avocado, sweet potato, mashed boiled egg, and creamed cauliflower. I had a smoothie with protein powder added in yesterday and plan to have another one today. I can taste some blood or something else like it but am not gushing.
I know there is the potential for escalating pain over the next couple of weeks. I am a psychotherapist and have scheduled to not see clients for 12 days. Most of them know I had my tonsils out and will be understanding if I need more time.
I am do grateful for all of you sharing your experiences here. I live in Virginia in the U.S. It seems most of you are in the UK. I lived there for 3 years with my Air Force husband. I love Britain!!!
Best to all of you.
Today is day 5 post op Tonsillectomy and Adenoidectomy surgery was Monday. I am a 36 yo female. I had always heard growing up the childnbirth was the worse pain I would probably experiance in life. Today I would beg to differ. I would opt have another child but never this as an adult no way! Although I have been really trying to look on the bright side. My ears don’t feel as clogged and at times I feelnas tho I can breathe better than before.
I’m 34 years old and had my Tonsillectomy on Monday 17th Sept. 2012. Only 3 days ago on writing this.
After my surgeory I ate everything the nurses brought in for me to eat- sandwiches, banana, ice-cream, jelly, cracker biscuits and cheese. I talked normally and the pain was very minimal and bearable enough. I stayed in the hospital over night and the nurses woke me at intervals through-out the night to give me another dose of pain killers. On Day 2 before heading home I ate all my brekkie put before me including- cornflakes with milk, 2 x toasted rolls with spreads and a cup of orange juice and felt fine. That night at home I decided to eat my regular meal of sausages with vegies.
Day 3 I feel like even though I’m still taking pain killers that it’s harder to eat my food. Each mouthful is painful and I feel as though it’s worse than it was when I was eating in the hospital. I’ve spit up small amounts of blood but my doctor didn’t seem overly concerned by what I described to them but said if it gets worse then to contact them.
I have that feeling in my throat too like Amy describes (the flap of skin in my throat) and I was told this was caused from when they had tubes down our throat during surgeory, as it may have left a little cut. Sometimes I feel that annoys me more than the area where the tonsils have been removed.
I sleep with my head elevated and have a bit of an ear ache.
I can’t wait for everything to heal so that I can eat like normal again and so I don’t have this discomfort in my throat anymore. I hope there are no complications.
I wish everyone a SPEEDY RECOVERY and hope that nobody has any complications and instead has a better quality of life 🙂
It’s me again! Just writing on here because I’m in so much pain and I need something to take my mind off it.
I’m now on day 5 post-op and after getting liquid penicillin for an infection yesterday the pain has not improved and if i’m honest, it has got worse.
I am taking my meds on time without fail, icing my neck, gargling with salt water and drinking lots of iced water. I had been managing to eat until today because I actually feel like giving up. I am in SO MUCH pain it is unreal. The pain is actually worse on the left side of my throat. When I swallow it feels like I’ve got a flap of skin stuck there and it is AGONY.
I have looked at my throat and on the left side which is more painful there isn’t a smooth white/grey coating (which appears normal in everyones photos); it looks more like a mass of lumpy scrambled eggs with a black blob in the middle.
I’m waiting for the doctor to ring me back because paracetamol, ibuprofen and codeine are now not enough to take away this pain. I’m trying to stay positive but I’m actually starting to go crazy, i’m in agony and haven’t been sleeping because of the pain. I know that one day when I’m healed I will probably be grateful for the surgery and never have to worry out tonsillitis again but right now I wish I’d never had this done.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I can do? I’m really at the end of my rope here!
Hi – I am day 2 post-op and I am reading some scary things from people about their surgery from years ago who are currently dealing with scar tissue and swollen lymph nodes. some people are actually saying their tongue is fused to the back of their throat OMG! I am getting worried.
So far I am able to manage the pain liquid hydroid/acetaminophen 15 ml every 4 hours. I have a lot of mucus that I can’t get out and eating is not so pleasant. when I drink water…it feels like it is going into my nose and it burns…i wonder if it will be this way forever??? lots of hiccups – I don’t what that is about. I am going to pray that I don’t have any complications.
Yesterday, I pretty much kept an ice pack on my neck afterwards. I am going to do it again tonight. I am sleeping with my head elevated. trying to drink lots of water. I am sorry to you all who are in pain…trying putting an ice pack on. I am also doing antibiotics….
I’ll say a prayer for you all (Amy and Hillary)
my husband did the same thing as u and share the same sentiment, but i guess u are on ur way to recovery just a few more days to go and u will almost be back to normal. Eat a lot of ice cream dont do much talking. Call your doctor as he may be waiting for you to call him, my husband doc says he was the only one who didnt call him after a couple of days as he would expect him to do so, because all who has remove their tonsils goes through a lot of pain. If your medication is not working call your doc to see if he would prescribe a stronger dose pain med for u, my husband got a need set, but it will agonizing for sometime. My husband couldnt eant anything for days and right now he is back to his normal life after 2 to three weeks, the only probblem he is having is that his taste is not back to normal but you will be ok. Wish u luck
It is so painful.I am on day 7. My ears hurt. I am still bleeding. I had three spots cauterized on Sunday. The Meds are burning and making me gag. Sweet tea is the most pleasant liquid on my throat still. I am tired, frustrated, and sore.
I have them flap or food stuck feeling in my ex-tonsil area too.
I just keep drinking ice chips anything thetas super cold helps ease the pain. I had mine taken off sept 15 2012. And hats all I been doin. Ice ice and plenty of water about 16 oz bottle every 2 hours.
I am a 23 year old female. I am post-op day two. I had a tonsillectomy and had part of my uvula removed. I keep throwing up and this worries me. I am not throwing up blood, but water and bile. Anyone else have this problem?
Hi all. I’m male, 37 and UK resident. I was (finally!) scheduled to have my Tonsilectomy on Thursday (the 13th Sept) last week. The reason for my Tonsilectomy is about 35 years of regular bouts of tonsilitis coupled with severe Ear problems. I had a Cholesteatoma diagnosed and removed last year which was a nine hour operation and this appears to have gotten to the crux of my life-time ear infections, vertigo through my 20’s and hearing loss in that ear! It only took the NHS 36 years to send me for a scan to find it which was lucky for me as the ENT doc reckoned it would have eaten its way into my brain by my 40th and killed me. Anyway, I digress. The Tonsilectomy was also recommended by my same ENT surgeon who removed the Cholesteatoma. Because I get regular Tonsilitis plus my post op ear fails to drain the resulting ear infection goo away down the eustacian tube on that side he decided to go against UK tradition (which is to keep your tonsils even if you suffer badly with Tonsilitis) and have me scheduled for the removal of the little buggers! I say little but they were hardly small, around the size of large walnuts when normal and golf balls when infected. I also suffered from sleep apnia and loud snoring but I think to be fair that’s due to me being over weight, but we’ll see if the removal of the Tonsils helps.
I think a lot of people will read this forum and be very anxious, especially if they have not had an OP before. I managed to go my whole life without any operations and then within the last 24 months I’ve had an Umbilical Hernia Operation, my Cholesteatoma Operation now a Tonsilectomy. I can honestly say that my experience of UK operations under the NHS has been on the whole reasonbly positive. For those who have not had an Operation, here’s what to expect (UK NHS anyway):
You go for a pre-op a day or so before. They take your BP, ask you loads of family medical questions and check if you have caps/crowns or false teeth that they need to be careful of during the op. You then go for your operation. The Tonsilectomy is usually a day procedure here in the UK under General Anesphetic. They ask you to get into your sassy Hospital gown and stockings and you walk to the operating room (you were not allowed to eat or drink 12 hours prior to the operation). You sit yourself on the operating table and then they place the needle in your hand for a drip/fluids and then you get injected with some stuff that helps send you off to sleep. Before lights out, they hold a mask just above your face which has an odourless gas that then sends you off to sleep. During all that, they play the radio, chat to you and it seems based on my 3 operations that this is to calm you down if you are nervy and also to check you pass out as expected. They may ask you to count backwards, this last op they just asked me what I did for a living and whilst I was talking I fell asleep!
When you wake up (which is like a second later), you will be away with the fairies for a bit. You may feel dizzy or sick. Personally I just felt kind of drunk which was not unpleasant for me. Then as you start to wake up a bit more they bring you water to drink and you then discover that swallowing hurts a fair bit. About the same pain level as Tonsilities I found, so not that awful. They then made me eat some Toast with Jam and watched me as struggled to swallow it down. By this time, you are so hungry you will eat pretty much anything! If you can swallow and drink, they get you up and out the bed. Wait for you to have a pee and possibly a poo and then send you home with a bunch of pain killers and instructions to rest for 2 weeks (no work) and advise that it will get more painful. You can’t drive home as you will be all woozy from the hospital drugs for at least a day.
My experience of the post op pain so far has been as expected based on this forum and way more painful than anything I’ve previously expereinced. I consider myself to have a fairly high pain threshold. On a scale of 1-10 (ten being most painful) I’d put braking my elbow at about a 5, my Hernia pre and post op at about a 6, smashing my teeth out on my bike when I was a kid and splitting my lip open about a 5 and the pain I went through last night about an 8, possibly a 9.
Initially the first two days after the op were acceptable in pain terms. Like a very bad bout of Tonsilitis. The swelling fo the dangly thing and my tongue were more annoying than anything, making talking and swallowing painful. In fact, personally, all I have wanted to do since the operation is to drink drink drink! Which is a good thing as it helps. I’ve found that water and warm tea are my favs and the usual diet coke or other fizzy drinks are too painful. Milk also has an odd effect making my mucus levels triple! I’ve read that dairy in general does this so I’d say avoid it if you can and keep to plenty of water. By plenty, I have been drinking about a Pint every waking hour and peeing probably twice as much as normal at least. The pain started to get worse for me on day 3 and now (day 5) its at an all time peak so far (but may get worse yet I fear). The pain is mainly in my ears, jaw and of course swallowing. Eating is simply awful but here in the UK they breed us tough and ice cream and jelly is not on the menu. Instead we’ve been told to consume normal food and plenty of tough things to swallow like toast, dry biscuits, crisps, peanuts etc. Its all very painful but I think I see the sense in this as it makes for a tougher throat quicker and therefore I presume a speedy recovery!?! Quite honestly though, I wish I was a yank as ice cream and jelly sounds like the best thing. As a result of me being quite persistent by nature, I’ve followed this eating advise and found it to be total agony. I am, in true British form however, keeping a stiff upper lip and getting on with it. I need to lose weight anyway and I think that’s a guarantee as I am solely eating for survival only!
Okay, the bottom line then is that I’m finding this a very tough ride for recovery and without the pain killers I imagine it would be unbearable so I’m glad I live in the 21st century. The NHS gave me a tiny amount of pain killers which only lasted 3 days. My wife rang the GP to get some more and they swaped me to Codine based pain killers as the diclofen based ones (although really much more effective) were giving me the squirts and pain in the tummy to rival the pain my neck! My Tonsil holes can hardly be seen in a mirror or by my wife as the swelling in there is very large. My tongue feels twice the size as does the dangly thing which is resting on my tongue making me gag. What bits I can see in the mirror are a thick yellow at the moment and its spread to my dangly thing and tongue too. My breath is unpleasant but not rancid and I’m pretty much doing nothing but sitting and sleeping and reasting. The thought of actually doing anything does seem a bit much at the moment. I took a bath and had a shower today which made me feel more human for a few hours but I’m pretty much exhausted. My wife is therfore very stressed as we have two young children and both run a family business so she is taking all the pressure and I’m like a grumpy pain zombie on the sofa. I’m not the type who likes attention when unwell so my kids think I’ve turned into the grinch or something.
I’m hopeful that by this weekend I’ll start to feel better rather than worse but at the moment I have to be honest and say that this is by far the most physical pain I have experienced thus far but I have to look at the positives which at the moment seem very vaigue!
When kids have a tonsillectomy, they get jello and ice cream for a reason – calories and no pain. Would you scrape a cut on your knee that is healing? If swallowing rough foods hurts, LISTEN TO YOUR OWN BODY and eat soft, cooling foods. No pain is …. no pain.
Mother of three sons, one scheduled to have a tonsillectomy in November, age 23. Canada.
Good luck and hope you recover soon.