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
Did anyone else break a clot early in their recovery? I did very late at night on day 4 & it seems nothing has been right since then. We called the doctor right away and managed to get the bleeding under control at home thankfully. Another trip to the OR did not sound like fun. Although I’ve no other complications since then at day 13 the pain really hasn’t let up only but a tinny bit, I still can’t handle solid foods, and with or without pain meds I’m sleeping at least 18 hours a day still. This is nuts.
I had a bleeder the night of the surgery but nothing that bad since then. Just every once in a while a little blood when I cough or such, but it never lasts. But I hear you with the pain lasting forever and ever. I’m at the end of day 13 and the pain is almost as bad as it was around day 6. It had gotten better for a few days but now it’s worse. I still sleep quite a bit (sometimes with the pain med I don’t have a choice) but it’s an off and on thing for me. I can’t sleep more that 3 hours at a time right now. I wake up slightly to roll over and get slapped in the face with such pain, my throat being dry etc. …horrible.
Sound like your amount of pain is much more intense than mine especially if you feel you have to sleep so much and can’t swallow even somewhat solid foods. Perhaps you need a stronger pain med or combination of pain meds… I’ve also heard other speak of a pain med/ anti-inflammatory med combo. I would definitely talk to your doctor about what other options there are since your pain is not being managed well at all. Let us know how it goes.
Hi Cassandra,
I bleed for the first time onday 4 which was nothing major and stopped on its own. Untill week 2 i was asleep and felt a trickle down the back of my throat as you can guess i was bleeding but this time i couldn’t Clot it my self, i tried using ice water and then ice cubes but i just wouldnt Stop and i was swollowing it. My boyfriend took me to a&e after half hour as it was obvious it wasn’t. Going to stop. They did many tests on me however after 2 hours it stopped. They advised that this isnt unusall and it can happen when you are older- im only 28. I was discharged and allowed to go home…. if you are bleeding loads i knows its easy to say but stay calm and dont panick.
When i got home after the car jorney i felt sick… yea you guessed i was sick and the bleeding started all over again… it again was trickling down my throat again. This time i felt weird with it was getting really dizzy, luckily my mum had popped by to check on me, she sarted to get worried and i was sicking up big thick clots of blood now i knew this wasn’t right. She rung an ambulance and i was rushed back to hospital as i could hardly breath and was bleeding during the jorney i believe i passed out twice.. again i had more tests done and once the bleeding had stopped about 3 hours later i was put on a drip and given alot of pain killers. I was kept in hospital for 3 days jus on fluids no food and since then touch wood i havent bleed since.
If you dont feel comfortable with the bleeding go to a&e they will help you.
Hope this helps and good luck, but it is common to have bad bleeding when you are an adult.
Goodluck
Thank you for scaring the begeezus outta me…. lol. Now I can just add another ‘oh no’ to my ‘what if’ scale :). I’m glad you made it through, means there’s hope for me yet 🙂
(I’m 27, being opped the 28th Feb ie: slowly but surely losing my mind about the possible outcomes)
Just take every day as it comes, There is light at the end of the tunnel, im on week 4 and still signed off from work, been a month now, due to all the complications ive had, stay possitive and you will get there.
I had my first bleed on day 7, Tuesday, and my second one this morning shortly after waking up on day 9. Both were pretty minor, not too much blood and I was able to stop it after about 10 minutes. I think both may have happened because my throat dried out during the night really bad and when I woke, I could tell that it didn’t feel right in my throat….a small sharp spot of pain. Then the bleeding started shortly after. I also had some minor bleeding in my throat on day 1 about two hours after surgery, but I think that was a lot less than what I had on days 7 and 9. My doc is concerned, but because I’ve been able to stop it each time and it wasn’t a lot, were just going to watch it and ill call if it gets worse or doesn’t stop the next time.
Well day 8 is almost over for me….not a bad one thankfully! My throat still hurts when swallowing but thankfully the jaw and ear pain has subsided a ton, and I was able to start weaning off the pain killers. I took one in the morning when I woke, which is the worse for me, and then regular Tylenol he rest of the day about every 6 hours or so. I’ll take another pain med tonight before bed to help get me through the night. No signs of infection at all, which I’m thankful for, and overall my energy level isn’t bad. I puttered around the house in the afternoon but didn’t over do it. Going to have some pasta for dinner. 🙂
I go back to the doctor tomorrow morning for my post surgery check up…..hoping that goes well!
I’m at day 7. Its has been the worst 2 days and I hope the worst is done. I don’t do well with meds so it has been tough. Feeling sick all day on top of all this. The ear pain and jaw pain on my left side is so pain full. At the age of 40 never thought I would have to go thru this surgery. Water is my food when I can tolerate it.
Becky
Becky, sorry your having so much pain still. 🙁 I have found that forcing myself to eat more normal foods as much as possible, really helped with the nausea and with overall feeling better. Have you tried soft foods like mashed potatoes, eggs or some soup? I started with those and have moved up to some other things like pasta, and soft rice, cheese and soft bread. Hang in there…and hope you start feeling better soon!
Day 12 complete. Been a much better day. Got a lt of sleep yesterday and it seems to have given my body and te antibiotics a chance to get a upper hand.
Ate real food tonight, was amazing. Zero appetite sadly thanks to all the drugs. I’m presently 18lbs down a counting. Fortunately weight loss is something I wanted so no complaints 🙂
Amy – any word from th doc on the new swelling and pain?
That’s awesome Ben! Glad to hear that today was a much better day. Wow….18lbs. That’s a lot. Good thing it’s something that you wanted, lol! 🙂
Hey Ben- I went to my primary doc appt but only saw the nurse practitioner. She looked at my throat and said she didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, no bleeding. So I don’t know maybe it’s nothing. I guess I’ll just keep an eye on it myself and keep checking to see if my fever climbs. Meanwhile the pain and swelling in my throat has caused me to revert to softer foods instead of progressing further to more regular foods. Had to skip on pizza tonight for dinner and ate soup instead 🙁
The swelling in my legs and feet are the same, she prescribed me a diuretic and for the rash she prescribed a topical cream. Unfortunately I was unable to get both scripts filled today due to a mess up at the pharmacy. Hopefully I’ll get it tomorrow. The nurse practitioner advised I go off the Lortab thinking it was causing the swelling and rash, I don’t agree with her since both started before I started taking the Lortab. So I won’t be following her advise for that reason and because with the amount of pain I’m still in I can’t imagine not being able to take it.
Day 10 has arrived and for the first time since the surgery, I woke up and felt almost no pain in my throat! Accordingly, I decided to abstain from painkillers and have been feeling very good all day. Yes! I am well on my way to fully recovering from my tonsillectomy. It has been a smooth one for me. Thankfully. I wish for the best for everyone that does not have as easy a time recovering and hope that you get better soon. Cheers!
Wonderful Jim, congrats on a good recovery and hope that its smooth sailing from here. 🙂
Jim you are my light at the end of the tunnel! I am day 5 and have never felt pain like this before, not helped by a mouth full of giant ulcers. So good to hear someone’s come out the other side. Congrats!!
Hi Jo, have to agree with the others in that you have no hope of going straight back to work after having it.
I don’t mean to scare you off as if you need this surgery then, have it! You DO recover, but that recovery takes time!
In the U.K I was signed off from work by the hospital for a minimum of TWO weeks. Days 5-7 are the worst for pain btw, so that’s the entire first week gone even if you recover quickly after that as I did. Even then you still need the second week off at home to take it easy (or you run the risk of bleeding), and if you go to work and mix with others you also run the risk of infection, which as Ben is finding out, isn’t very good at all!
Definitely sort out getting the time off work, you WILL need it. Rest up, take it easy and hopefully all will be well for you to return. I had my surgery on the 16th January and returned to work feeling good (only pain when yawning and chocolate still doesn’t taste right ;( ) on the 5th Feb.
You need that time off for many reasons, this is actually quite serious surgery, they’re litterally cutting chunks out of your throat! Good luck. 🙂
Sorry I meant the 4th Feb I was back at work.