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
Hi guys, you probably dont want to hear this but this was my recent experience.
Had a tonsilectomy and anoidectomy on the 31st of October. First few days werent that bad. 5 days later i was sitting in the sun and blood started gushing out of my mouth. I the blood began clotting in my mouth and then i was also vomitting due to blood getting into my stomach. Luckily my dad was there and quickly took me to the hospital. Then i was rushed in an ambulence to a larger hospital with a ENT specialist. All the while blood was still pouring out of my mouth and clotting.
The specialist at the larger hospital eventually slowed the bleeding by cortourising the wounds and clamping down on them. By then i had lost soo much blood i needed a blood transfusion and a second bout of emergancy surgery. Spend the next 3 nights in hospital. The second night in hospital another patient had came into my room and turns out he was a meth junky who also shared the same name as me.
That night I began experiencing extream pain and asked the nurse for some pain medication to which she replied “your only allowed 2 tablets of paracetamol and tamadol every 4 hours” the pain got worse and worse and believe me i can usually hack pain have broken many bones in my body before. I kept asking for the doctor but i was told he was in emergancy. Finally when the doctor came by i was in soo much pain i could barely move. He read my script and to his suprise i had been given the wrong dossage of pain meds most likely due to the Meth addict sharing my room!
It has now been another 2 weeks and i still have stitches in my mouth. Barely any pain anymore. Only annoyance is the last few days i have been experiencing excessive saliva production in my mouth. Has anyone experiences this and can you tell me when this will go away? As is is quite annoying.
I didnt mean to scare people with my storey, turns out to have a hemorrhage like i had is extreamly rare. I’m just one of the very unluckly people i guess.
I had a tonsillectomy, inferior turbinate reduction, and septoplasty. By day two I was eating solids, toast etc included, and day three I did a 4km walk in the sun with a friend!
I found a growth of flewh in my throat just beyond my toncil. I thought it was off my epiglottis because it moves with it. At first it was a lump inside my throat. But my doctor thinks it is part of the toncil. I am on my third antibiotic. The first two were to clear an impaction. But my doctor tells me that the growth is quite unusual, but not alarming. I always had problems with this same toncil and not the other, ear problems, congestion, sinus infections, and snoring too. I am on allergy shots. I thought at first maybe my lymphnodes are overtaxed by the allergy shots (I get them in the same arm because the site swells,) and the use of a neti pot which can block the ears up a bit. I am always congested now.
But with so much at risk with bleeds, have any of you wondered why they wouldn’t remove just the problem toncil? I am wondering if I should demand that they leave the better toncil. Why do they want to do both? Would the process of recovery just ruin the more healthy one by making it clear out the post op infection?
I wonder if my job will be waiting for me if I choose to have the toncilectomy.
Flesh not flewh. I wonder what itap was thinking.
I had a tonsillectomy, adenoidectomy, and turbinate reduction yesterday. So far it is not as bad as I feared. I am definitely sore. My throat is swollen, my tongue is black and blue, and it is hard to swallow. The humidifier is helpful. I have been drinking cold water & sucking on ice chips. I have been able to drink Ensure Clear (blueberry/pomegranate) – it is pretty tasty – so I haven’t had any stomach issues with the meds. I am taking liquid loritab every 4 hours and do notice a reduction in pain after I take it.
My ears keep popping which is weird but otherwise I am OK. The doc. said he injected a numbing med. in my throat which should wear off today so we will see how that goes.
Keeping my fingers crossed!
I had the same procedures on 11/19/12 for severe apnea, my whole throat opening way too small. this board with everyones input has been very informative. The first night i was in the most agony i have ever endured, even while on morphene & lortab. I found out it was in large due to the packing for the septoplasty, once that was removed I had relief for one whole day, now it seems the real pain is setting in. Pretty scared.
I found something to eat today that actually helped, ice cold Lipton noodle soup, it soothed enough for me to actually get nourishment. Small victories.
Does anyone know if these sutures get removed, or do they dissolve?
Day 2 went rather smoothly.
Today is Day 3 and I was able to eat some oatmeal. Woo Hoo!!! I am hoping to back off the pain meds & just went for straight tylenol this morning which seems to be helping. The headache is worse than the throat pain.
The doc did warn me that Days 5-6 would be the worst so I am, unfortunately, waiting for the bottom to fall out but hoping for the best.
The comments on the boards have been helpful – I would not have attempted oatmeal if it weren’t for someone else’s recommendation. So glad it worked out.
Day 3 was not so bad. I woke up with pain in my ears but had some water & oatmeal washed down with 2 Tylenol and I was good to go. Still feeling sleepy but that I ok.
I can talk and last night I ate some pastina (mini pasta) with butter.
Today is day 4 & I’m feeling pretty good. I finally got to brush my teeth and damn that felt great!!! I am very hungry! I was able to eat some scrambled eggs & 1 piece of toast for lunch. All went well.
Was day 5-7 the worst for I??
Definitely start drinking ASAP or you will be in ER with dehydration. Cold Gatorade, Popsicles, and sherbert are good to start with. Couple of sips every few minutes can, hopefully, keep you from throwing up. Once you are keeping things down, consider adding other cold solids – I found that mushed-up banana mixed with apple sauce would go down the easiest. And a word of caution from someone 5 days out – I felt awesome until 2nd day mid day, taking only Tylenol. Then pain hit me like a brick and hasn’t gone away for more than a couple hours at a time. Don’t fall behind on taking your pain meds. Start as soon as you feel any discomfort. Good luck!
I’m on day 9 now. On Sunday, day 6, I was feeling really decent. The pain meds were helping and I had slept decent that morning. Might have even ate some KFC mashed potatoes and gravy. So being my normal self I decided I needed some laundry cleaned. Big mistake, I bent wrong or moved too fast. Because the next thing I could taste blood and I was on my knees in a second. Thankfully, I had my boyfriend at my side in seconds. He rushed me to the car and straight to the hospital. I was glad to find the throw up bag the ENT center gave me, I needed it. I was spitting, crouching and throwing up blood the whole 5 minute ride. I was terrified, never been that scared in my life. Rushed right into the ER and straight back to a room. I didn’t know I could spit up so much blood in chunks like that. My ENTs doctor on call was rushed in to see what was going on. I had finally stopped bleeding and had big clots on both tonsil sites. They rushed me into surgery and recauterized the areas to stop the bleeding. They hospital kept me over night and let me go at noon the next night. The bleeding started at 9pm Sunday and surgery was done by 1am. The only thing I learned from waiting in the hospital is room temperature water feels better, eggs get stuck in the throat and canned peaches are amazing. I am taking my meds on a schedule to prevent the pain from getting worse. Even 4 hours an it starts to hurt again. It’s almost 4 am day 9 and I noticed the yellow scabs are mostly gone, just the dark scabs remain from the second surgery. I have this thick siliva feeling that won’t go away, probably from the scabs coming off. I’m doing better but I’m still terrified that a bleed might happen again 🙁 I know if I am really careful I should be just fine, but an experience like that one is going to stick for a while (scariest night of my life). Well, I should try to go back to bed but I just wanted to put my story out there. Helps clear the mind and makes me feel better reading all of the stories out there. Just remember to bend over to pick up socks, lots of room temp water, KFC mashed potatoes and gravy and of course, canned peaches. Good luck 🙂
I’m 24 and I meant “do not bend over to pick up socks.” Thanks
Hey Snow,
Glad everything worked out well for you with the bleeding. I had a similar incident on Day 6 myself in which while taking one of the thousands of sips of cold water a day, some got caught in my throat and before i knew it, I cough twice and that was enough for me to get the feeling of blood in my mouth. Much like you, I panicked, ran to the washroom to paint my toilet bowl red, mixture of fresh blood and cloths. Having little idea on how to make it stop, I put a bad of ice on my neck and immediately started drinking ice water, sucking on ice chips and even had a popsicle. After 4-5 minutes it stopped somehow and I was left with the gross feeling of having blood in my stomach and feared I was going throwing up that would re-start the whole process again. I have been extra careful since, fearing any little thing can lead to a bleed (e.g. your bending over or my slight cough). For anyone out there wanting to be a hero and trying to eat solids before the right time or do hard physical activities before they are properly healed, I warn you that bleeding from the mouth/throwing up blood from a Tonsillectomy is a frightening experience and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. better play it safe and wait a few more days. Good luck everyone!