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
Had surgery on wednesday. Anyone know how to get rid of the horrible mucas that i have for saliva. Have not had any milk products. can not sleep because of this.
Gargle softly warm salt water…rinse …if u can blow your nose gently…drink some warm low sodium broth. Chew gum during the day too
good luck!
For many years (at least 15) I’ve had very bad snoring and sleep apnea. About 8 years ago I was referred to an ENT and he recommended I have my tonsils removed. Me, I always like to have options, especially when it comes to my health, as I do not believe doctors and big pharma are the answer to everything. In fact I believe they do more harm than good, especially when it comes to things like cancer.
So whenever possible I prefer the natural route, like when I had tendonitis in my left knee and opted for physiotherapy over surgery and I have never regretted that decision. But there were no natural options given by doctors regarding my sleep apnea nor anything I could really find. It was just surgery and CPAP or nothing. I backed out of that first surgery appointment for a tonsillectomy in hopes of finding an alternative. The only thing I could find helped was doing Qigong exercises as the focus of them is deep, diaphragm based breathing and that’s really what a CPAP machine does for you while you sleep. Anyways, my sleep apnea gradually got worse as I got more and more overweight in recent years, mainly because I knew so little about diet and nutrition and wasn’t doing strenuous exercise like I used to, although doing lots of walks.
In January 2013 I got tonsilitis, and thinking it was a cold or the flu I didn’t go to the doctor and opted to try sleeping it off as usual. Turns out it was tonisilitis, and before long the tonsils became infected and an abscess emerged which started affecting my ability to breate even while I was awake! I wound up having to get emergency surgery to have the abscess drained.
When I later met with the ENT specialist who had performed the surgery he was adamant that I must have my tonsils removed. I had the procedure last Friday. So far I see a lot of commonality in other people’s stories: the first 2 days after are not bad, and then it actually starts to get worse. Although I must say I haven’t had nearly the pain some of you have had. As long as I’m not exerting my throat in any way I don’t really have pain and have only used the pain killer prescribed (Tramadol/Acetaminophen) once in a while from the start. It’s swallowing that I find very painful. It’s been 1 week now and the best thing for me to ingest has been my custom concoction of Isagenix IsaPro shakes and a few other supplements from GNC and Walmart. The shakes go down very easily and are highly nutritious. In fact, I would highly recommend that people with difficulty or pain swallowing (that’s probably all of you) for doing the Isagenix 9 day cleanse program while you’re recuperating, particularly because a lot of the softer foods people have been talking about here are not very nutritious and this is the time you need to be building back your strength, and improving your diet can really help this. Check it out: . Also highly recommend watching the Food Matters documentary about learn how our culture has forgotten the truth of the ancient saying “let thy food be thy medicine” – http://foodmatters.tv/.
Hey! Have any of you gotten acne since your tonsillectomy? I am on the night of day 4 and have gotten many pimple out breaks. I am taking amoxicillin and codeine, could this possibly be causing it? I am 14 btw!
YES!!:( i totally understand. Is it just like a side affect or something?! Idk, but its crazy yes.
I think it was just temporary because it’s gone away now! But I did wake up with swollen red, crusty eyelids.. the doctor gave me some cream to use if it got any worse, which it hasn’t so yay!
No one told me about this horrible taste in my mouth, what the hell is it ahhhh
Don’t worry, watch this: http://youtu.be/Z0EqRfGFuhI