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
Anyone else suffering from changed tastes?
I know Bob mentioned he doesn’t chocolate any more, and I’m experiencing similar; almost all savoury foods taste salty to the point of disgust for me. I can get away with eggs on toast etc, but a rich food (two examples, paella and a gravy I made to go on a roast dinner) both tasted so overpoweringly salty they actually hurt the mouth. To everyone ele they tasted normal, soks clearly just me.
Yes I started running into this late on friday! Only for me things taste tangy… which makes me stop and wonder if it isn’t spoiling. I was trying the au gratin potatoes tonight and they tasted tangy, but my boyfriend say it didn’t taste that way to him. There has been several things this weekend that were that, it’s so odd. I hope this isn’t a permanent change but I guess if it is, at least I know I’ll lose the weight I need to, because I can eat things that taste like that when they shouldn’t.
The taste buds get damaged by the retractor during procedure. I’m on day 10 and everything but sweet things taste like dirt to me. Basically it depends on what taste buds were damaged will determine what foods will taste like or taste normal still. From what I’ve heard it takes about 2 months for this to full heal.
On day “5” but techinically only completed the 24 hours x4 since surgery on Jan 30th. Trying to establish a routine as I overdid it on days one and two, feeling confident I had read everything and was a head of the game. Then I tried to eat ham broth with green beans and mushed up potatoes…tasted great..but I believe way too much salt as I woke in the middle of the night with the worst swellimg and pain…no longer honey mooning it, to say the least. I was trying to follow a percocet every 6 hours (prescribed 1-2/6 hours) but had to resort to 1 every four and by yesterday evening, gotten the pain under control and developed a “system” although swallowing is a bear and I awake an hour before my next dose of meds, I use the “system” to kill that hour and prepare my throat for the next round: 1) Rinse immediately with warm/cool salt/baking soda water- (helps get rid of that yucky phlegm from sleeping), 2) try some frozen ice chips, or just recently I froze a jello pack to a point of slushie (that felt great!) 3) Ease into drinking some water or electrolyte water (which seems to taste better right now) 4) Try to get something in my stomach to kill nausea from pain meds (probiotic lactose free yogurt, muscle milk, soft boiled egg) and then take 1/4 or 1/2 of dramamine in the jello 5) Rinse my mouth again with salt water or dilutted listerine to reduce phlegm and take the next round of pain killers with a water or electrolyte chaser…6) if I am staying awake, I chew gum to force swallowing, or if I want to rest, I Suck on Cepacol after dose of pain meds, 7) put frozen peas/ice packs (whichever I have refrozen) on both sids of neck, use neck pillow to sit in upright position – 7) settle in for the next wave and round of meds….Cepacol Hydra doesn’t burn like Chloraseptic right now and has a nice flavor…mint gum helps…but I try to get just about everything sugarless to cut down on phlegm. I am going to try to get a few more hours rest. See you on the next round. Thanks for the posts!~)
Stumbling upon this forum was such a godsend! I’m on Day 6 post-op and what a rollercoaster it has been 🙁 I, too, overdid things on Days 1&2… and paid dearly the next couple after… I’m just so relieved to not feel alone in my pain now. I was starting to think I was a bit looney-tune, always thought I had quite an impressive level of pain-tolerance. I appreciate commiserating (haha), but more than that I am loving hearing all the different coping methods & suggestions fr everyone out there 🙂 Thanks folks! My primary suggestions for coping fall in line with the majority out there I think: LOTS of water (hydration), a humidifier if at all possible, and try to stay on top of pain control med-wise, even if that means waking yourself with an alarm at the next dosage time — sleeping through and waking up to the pain is absolutely horrifying, so look at it like pre-emptive pain mgmt I say!
Look fwd to hearing everyone’s updates as we go,
Cheers,
Greggory
Ah Amy thats crazy! I remember waking up in recovery and they gave me a popsicle as well but I was still a bit high on the meds so I was waving at everyone and chatting to the girl next to me who had the same thing done haha the nurses couldn’t believe how well i was feeling so they sent me back downstairs to a room to be monitored. From there I just slept and watched t.v. while the nurses checked my blood pressure and temperature and stuff every half an hour. Plus they look after your meds so you don’t have to worry about timing it or any of that crap, was fairly good because come the next morning I felt normal again and was just ready to be in my own bed! I assumed it was pretty standard that they kept you in over night!
I’m on day 5/6 now, pain isn’t that bad as long as I remember to take my meds whereas the first few days I could survive without them for most of the day. I used to get tonsillitis almost once a month so I’m used to having a sore throat it’s just a pain not being able to eat!
I almost ran out of my pain meds today and freaked out, luckily the doctor had given us his number so we called him and he faxed a script through to the pharmacy which was amazing of him, he said after these next few days the pain drops dramatically so heres hoping!
Hows everyone elses recovery going? Have you guys been actually doing stuff or just sitting at home all day like me haha?
I’m just now starting my 10th day after surgery, day 5-7 was increasingly getting worse pain wise and day 8 and 9 I thought the searing pain through my head every time I swallowed was going to send me to the floor. Even now, this morning the pain is pretty bad tho maybe not as bad most of the time. The pain from the surface of my throat actually isn’t that bad, but the muscles surrounding my throat are killing me.
Also I’m having what the ENT said was cluster nerve pain. The swelling clamps down on the near the throat which sends searing pain to both ears, my throat, my temples, in a fan-like motion on the sides of my head above my ears, and oddly a bolt of pain up through the middle of my head to just the right side of center on my scalp… even that spot on my scalp is sensitive to the touch like I’ve been burned. The ENT said this was all part of the cluster nerve pain and is pretty common. Starting midday yesterday, this cluster pain has migrated to being most intense on the right side of my head and duller on the left. I’m hoping this means it’s healing and the pain will go away soon. Right now I usually do ok but about hour 4 after the last dose of pain meds, my pain level suddenly increases.
In my surgery the ENT opted to use cauterization to stop bleeding, this leaving little clusters of black burnt tissue and scabs all over the surgery site. At first it just look gross, then it started disappearing from visual in my throat, the doctor said this was a good thing. But the last two days my body has been getting rid of this black stuff from up where my adenoids were. This black stuff stinks something awful only when you start dislodging them by way of moistening with saline spray and then blowing your nose, you can smell this horrid stuff….and you can’t get away from it since it’s behind your nasal/sinus area.
I started getting post-nasal drip really bad which is hard to swallow and hurts a lot to try to swallow. So I asked the ENT if I could try doing a sinus rinse (netipot if you’re familiar with this) to help alleviate the post-nasal drip. Well about an hour after I did the sinus rinse I start getting hunks of black stuff and other foreign looking stuff when I blew my nose. Sorry this is disgusting, just wanted to put it out there in case anyone else runs into this and starts freaking. My ENT said this is all perfectly normal but to be careful with the nose blowing so that you aren’t causing it all to bleed.
I’ve graduated to eating rice and noodle based dishes that have squishy vegies and small pieces of chicken. I tried something with ground beef and thought I was swallowing sandpaper, so I’ll stay away from that for awhile. I’m going to try some fish this week for variety and it might be easier to swallow than the chicken. I still go back and have pudding, popsicles, baby food etc. when I can to give my throat a rest. I still can’t eat much at once, too many times swallowing and my throat is throbbing with pain. Might also try some seedless grapes this week. I’m still drinking tons of ice water but still like to have some warm tea with my meals, it helps relax the throat muscles to make swallowing food easier. And popsicles are still a must especially when I get dried out and also when waking up.
I’m 26 years old and today is my 10th day after the surgery, my pain from day 5-9 was the worst pain ever, I was crying of pain I could not even swallow water it was bad, with the worst earache, headache and Oh my God it is the worst surgery. Today I still have a little pain, with a burning sensation but nothing comparing to those days, I lost 9 pounds and now is that I’m drinking something besides water and the doctor told me that I will lose more weight, I will disappear if I keep loosing pounds. Sincerely, I had to do this surgery because I was suffering from tonsillitis 5 times and even more per year. Good luck to every body and remember to drink plenty of water
Hi Trish,
I wouldn’t say it’s excruciatingly painful but rather just a painful discomfort. You can keep the pain at bay by being on top of your pain meds all the time but it just gets frustrating because you can’t eat properly and you never get a proper sleep. I’ve been pretty lucky in that I haven’t had any nausea or vomiting and I haven’t had any bleeding (so far) either so I’m just dealing with the constant swallow pain.
It definitely helps having someone around to help look after you to aid your healing process but I don’t know if it’s absolutely necessary, maybe if someone came to check on you a couple of times like the others suggested?
I’m from Australia and they keep you in for observation over night before they send you home the next day. I had mine done at around 2pm and was discharged at 9am the next morning on the condition that I ate my breakfast!
Hope everything goes well!
I wish they’d do it that way in the US, I could’ve used some time in observation. I was so out of it that first 24hours I don’t really remember much of it. My boyfriend told me the other day that they had given me a popsicle in recovery, but I didn’t remember that at all until I’d he gave details of that day. I don’t remember going home that day either and apparently my boyfriend the script off at the pharmacy, took me home, then went back out for popsicles and a bag of ice. My first recollection was later that evening when a friend had popped over to check on me. To me that’s pretty scary and it would’ve been nice if I could’ve stayed in one place until I at least had my wits about me a bit.
Oh wow. That doesn’t sound fun at all, Amy. 🙁
With me, I don’t think it would’ve mattered whether I was kept for observation or not. Pretty much the only difference it would’ve made to me is I might have actually drank more. I was in good spirits once I got back to the OR thanks to the anxiety med they pushed when I first got my IV and then the narcotic they pushed right before pushing me back to the OR. My head felt like I was floating, but I was trying to carry on a conversation with the nurses in the OR and even tried to move over to the table before they were ready. I was talking pretty much until they put me under.
Waking up was another matter. You know how some people aren’t morning people and just pretty well depressed until they get up and moving around? Yeah? Well, that’s probably the best way to describe me. My good mood was gone, I couldn’t really talk (which I found out when I tried to ask the nurse to see my tonsils. Which I wasn’t able to do), and I kinda just laid there at first listening to my heart on the monitor and just kept lifting up my hand with the IV and just staring at it. Every once in a while the nurse would come in, jot down my vitals, and give me a small spoon of ice chips. What was fun was trying to get ready when I could barely move. My mother had to tie my shoes for me because I probably would’ve fallen off the bed face-first had I leaned down to do it myself.
I did go to walmart after, had to tell some people I know that I wasn’t able to talk (via mouthing and hand signals), and got to use one of the wheelchairs because I wouldn’t have made it very far. In fact, I barely made it across the store to the bathroom when we got there because the effects from the GA. And just so you know, those power wheelchairs are harder to use than they look! My mother was cracking up because I was driving so badly, so I ended up going for the old school push kind, where I ended up trapped.
yeah my recovery sounded similar to yours Amber Dawn. Though I don’t remember it, my boyfriend said I was very groggy and would only nod every once in a while. He I was just working on my popsicle in slo-mo nodding every once in a while to things he said. When it was time to go home I just looked at him like I didn’t understand. Ultimately he had to help me by laying out my clothes and working them on me a piece at a time, apparently I stood at one point to finish getting dressed but that he made me sit back down because I almost pitched on my head putting my shoes on. LOL 😛
I can imagine it was quite the sight seeing you try to operate one of the electric wheelchairs while still being affected by the GA. lol I think my boyfriend was afraid of something like that, that’s why he took me home so I could sleep while he did the running.