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 everyone,
I had my tonsils out 11 days ago and this blog really helped me through it so I thought I would write about my experience. It was my first operation so I was extremely nervous about the general anaesthetic. I honestly thought I would die, which was obviously completely irrational. I turned 26 one week before the operation.
Day 1 – I was wheeled into the operating theatre and they told me to breathe into a mask five times. It knocked me right out. I woke up to someone saying “wake up” and I assume it must have been the anaesthetist. I was in the recovery room and I remember feeling immense pain and confusion and wanting to curl up into foetal position on my side. Someone told me to lie straight and after a while someone wheeled me to my hospital room. Needless to say, it was very painful and even though I was getting painkillers and morphine through my drip, I could still feel the pain, but it was bearable. I didn’t puke or feel particularly nauseous, but I was definitely not hungry. I felt quite calm and kept dozing of for a couple of hours at a time. I realise now that this was the effect of the morphine. I managed to eat some ice cream and had one of those hyper-nutritious drinks they give you.
Day 2 – I didn’t sleep through the whole night in one go and in the morning I wasn’t hungry. I forced myself to drink a box of apple juice and it hurt a LOT to swallow, but the more I swallowed, the more I got used to the pain. I had a post-operational appointment with my ENT. She told me my scabs had already formed and discharged me. I was still in quite a lot of pain but not to the extent of crying. I was prescribed codeine which made me very sleepy, but also made me feel quite peacefully zoned out. I didn’t sleep through the whole night and found myself counting down the time to take the next painkillers. I drank 3 litres of water.
Day 3 – The pain really hit me this day. My face got very swollen and I felt quite miserable. I tried to watch series but kept falling asleep due to the codeine. I was still only eating liquid foods and probably sleeping around 17 hours a day, but my body needed it. I dreaded swallowing but again, forced myself to drink 3 litres of water. During the night I felt extremely hot, like I was overheating. I even put my head out the window (in November) and tried to cool down. I was very uncomfortable. Again, I didn’t sleep through the whole night.
Day 4 – I got sick of just sleeping the whole time and being such an invalid that I decided to switch to normal painkillers, rather than stay on the codeine. I felt I could bear a bit more pain in exchange for feeling a bit less like a zombie. Needless to say, the pain did increase, but still, it was bearable.I felt a dry tickling in my throat and realised my scabs were beginning to fall off. My face was still enormous, but I felt it had gone down a bit since day 3. I managed to go to the supermarket but felt quite unwell and thought I probably should have just stayed at home. I drank 3 litres of water.
Day 5 – My face began to look a bit more normal but the pain was still pretty intense. I looked at my scabs and say some bits around the edges appeared to have come off. I managed to eat room temperature pasta, which hurt to swallow, but it felt good to eat something proper. I still felt very tired but managed to start watching tv series without falling asleep after 10 minutes. I started to see the light.
Day 6 – I was still in a lot of pain but I felt like I had more energy. I went to the supermarket again and this time it wasn’t as bad as the first time. My pain was still high, but I just kept distracting myself and tried not to think about it.
Day 7 – My energy had definitely increased and I managed to send a couple of emails for work. I also ate some mushrooms and peeled cucumbers dipped in humous. It started to hurt quite a lot after a while so I went back to drinking my soya milk drinks. My scabs had reduced even more, but a lot still remained.
Day 8 – I went into work for a couple of hours and went home when I felt too tired to continue. My pain had definitely reduced and I could hold a short conversation even though my voice still sounded weird.
Day 9 – Pain reduced again and at this point it felt like acute tonsillitis. So inconvenient, but bearable. I managed to work for about 4 hours, but if you can take more than a week off work I would definitely recommend taking at least 10 calendar days. I managed to eat properly and even had pizza for dinner.
Day 10 – I was in much higher spirits and worked for about 6 hours then I went for my check up with the ENT. Most of my scabs had come off except for on the holes where the tonsils used to be. The ENT said I was doing fine and could eat normally.
Day 11 – I felt much more normal. The throat pain was now just equivalent to a standard sore throat and scabs had decreased a tin bit more. I eat chips and a steak and felt good. I managed to work for 6 hours again.
Day 12 – Today I still have a sore throat and still have some scabs, but I can talk completely normally and even sang a bit this morning.
I definitely think I have been quite lucky pain-wise and for not throwing up and I think the best thing I did was to religiously drink at least 3 litres of water a day and sleep as much as I could. It’s really important that someone is there to take care of you too. I don’t think I could have got through it on my own.
Some people say it hurts more than car accidents they have been in, which is very unfortunate, but I wanted to share my story so that people can see that not everyone has it that bad and you just have to expect a very painful time, distract yourself and get on with it. I’m already glad I had them removed. The constant tonsil stones, tonsillitis, swollen tonsils every time I was a bit run down… I’m sure the operation is worth the pain!
Good luck!
Hi paige just wanted to say a quick thankyou for that blog post it made me feel a whole lot better about things, had my tonsils out 4 days ago and was managing to cope with the pain, however,this morning I woke up in absolute agony, I started to notice the scabs you were talking about and panicked as no one had informed me this would occurm I was convinced I’d contracted secondary infection from going back to work too soon yesterday! But after reading your blog I feel so much better about everything, plus am very zoned out from all the meds I hastily took! Thankyou so much! 🙂
I know this is really not gonna be a good time, but at this point there is no way my hubby or folks will let me cancel. Here is the crazy part, surgery is dec 19 and I am expected At 2 Christmas celebrations. No one will believe me that I won’t be up for it in 6 days. They all think it’s easy and I’ll be fine 🙁
I wanted to cancel mine too but I’m glad I didn’t. It’s better to just get it out the way and be done with it. You definitely won’t be able to attend two Christmas celebrations on Day 6 and you need to put your health first and rest as much as you can. Your family might not understand right now, but once you get the op they’ll see how much you’re suffering and hopefully realise the pain you’re in. Good luck and remember it’s very important to rest!
Hi everyone
My tonsillectomy was Nov 20th 2012 I’m 40 yrs old and had lots of soar throats as a kid and those disgusting tonsil stones as teenager and adult. So far I haven’t had to take any pain medicine but My throat and tongue was soar and swallowing was not easy. I can’t recommend drinking water enough it has been a huge help. Has anyone noticed the glands in there throat is swollen, I have a lot of mucus and I am spitting up yellowish, brown mucus (sorry for the grossness) and my uvula feels like there is a pocket of mucus stuck behind it. Also there are these yellowish colored scabby spots around the actual tonsil scab. I have been eating applesauce with honey, pear sauce with honey, mashed sweet potatoes and avocados could into little pieces, lots of water at room temperature has been soothing for me. The food even though mashed feels like it gets stuck going down its like I’m learning how to swallow all over again. Thank you for posting your experiences some of them scared the begeebies out of me(bleeding incidents) but all of them made me feel like I’m not alone in this, thanks guys I wish you all a speedy and painless as possible recovery!!!!
I had mine out on the 2ndNovember and i was bleeding badly 6 days after surgery – just relax – dont go out if you can help it- and try and sleep with ure pillow upwards so your head isnt down – i found that water helped me aswell but also cooled porridge the sensation is lovely especially when the scabs arrive 🙂
I’m on day 12. I have been getting pretty depressed about my lack of progress until I read what many of yall have been going through. I guess it could always be worse.
I had a deviated ceptum repaired, pallet trim, and tonselectomy. At my 7 day follow-up my doc said I should pretty much be off the pain meds and back on solid food. Uh seriously? Are you kidding me? I’ve backed way off on the pain meds and have just tried to nut it up but man, this is rough. I was hoping to enjoy Thanks Giving dinner tomorrow since it’s all pretty much mushy food anyway. However, everything I try to eat immediately begins to taste horrible, like metal or something, as soon as I salivate. As if the pain of swallowing, or having anything in my mouth isn’t bad enough, now there’s this horrid taste. Yuck!
I’ve had some wierd side affects that I haven’t seen mentioned here. I have pain in almost my entire mout from that big bone on the roof of the mouth back, it hurts to have anything touch it. It doesn’t matter if it’s hot, cold, or room temperature. It almostseems like cold is worse.
Luckily, I’m blind so can’t see the scabs everyone is talking about although I can definitely feel something back there. It’s like I need to hawk up the world’s biggest lugie but cant. I’m sure this is TMI but I’m also sure yall all know what I mean. 🙂
Things have have helped me the most have been ice packs resting on my forehead and neck and ear area. That’s helped with the crazy ear pain I’ve had. The forehead pack helped with the swelling from my nose, thus aleviating conjestion.
I was really starting to think that I had made a huge mistake in having this procedure based on how my doc says I should be doing and how I am actually doing until I read what yall have all experienced. Thanks so much for sharing your stories. Now atleast I know I’m not crazy, or just being a big baby. I’m 36 and have had allot of surgeries. I have to say this one has been the worst.
It does seem to have worked though as my hubby says my snoring is much improved. He said I still appear to shhave sleep nea but I’m holding out judgement on tat until the lhealing process is complete
Thanks for reading! Good luck to others who are contimplating. My step gramma had a saying, and it’s been getting me through, “this too shall pass.”
I had a deviated ceptum repaired along with my tonselectomy. I also had a pallet trim. Sorry, I don’t don’t the medical name for that one. Anyway, you’ll hardly notice your deviated ceptum repair, escpecially if your doc is able to use the quilting stitch which negates the need for nazal packing. An ice pack will be your best friend for a couple of days as it will ease the swelling and conjestion. Good luck.