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
Day 13
Hi Julie: I kind of feel the same way about the throwing up helping. On Day 7 I threw up a few times and my throat actually felt a ton better afterwards. I think I got some icky stuff out that was stuck back there.
I can eat pretty much anything now but I do still take pain pills every 6 hours. I don’t know what I will do when I run out. I have been eating protein bars and shakes for breakfast and snacks, lean cuisenes for lunch and then just a regular dinner. Drinking TONS of water. Ice water feels so good on my throat right now that I can not stop drinking it.
I’m hoping to eat mexican food with the inlaws Thursday night. I had a pina colada last night and that was so good! I’m usually a wine person but wine seems like it would burn so I am afraid to even try it. Anyone out there tried wine?
Just an update for anyone who might experience something similar in the future:
As I posted previously, I had a bleed predawn yesterday morning, had to go back into surgery. Amazingly though, my throat feels miles better than it did BEFORE the bleed. My scabs were thick and pretty gross but they have thinned out considerably since the surgery (maybe throwing up as much as I did in the ER knocked some of them loose?).
So the bleed was scary and no one ever wants to go through that, but it seems like it has helped? Very very strange.
Tomorrow will be a week since my surgery. I am not in much pain at present, only when I swallow. I am still struggling to keep myself hydrated because even swallowing liquids is difficult. It feels like the times I had tonsillitis and my tonsils were hugely swollen, funny enough. I have a humidifier running all the time now but my throat still feels pretty dry a lot of the time.
I *think* I might also have thrush on my tongue. I was expecting thrush because I always get it from antibiotics but I’ve never had it in my mouth. I have Diflucan on hand, fortunately, but I am holding off on taking it until I can cut back on my pain meds a bit so my liver doesn’t take such a huge hit. ha ha. At the moment it just feels like my tongue is wearing a sweater and it’s a liiiiiittle painful toward the back but no sores or cracks or other issues.
So yeah, don’t be scared that a bleed will set your recovery back, it doesn’t seem to have caused a problem for me in that regard.
Oh also at this point I am trying to eat solid foods a couple of times a day. I have managed potato soup, ramen (there is a bowl next to me right now), mac and cheese, scrambled eggs. I am still eating soft stuff too (jello, applesauce). I bought a pretty big quantity of popsicles but I haven’t actually eaten a whole lot of them. My husband and I have been buying off brand Golden Grahams (they are made with real sugar so we call them Throwback Golden Grahams) and yesterday I actually ate six pieces, I pulverized them like crazy with my front teeth and washed them down with water. That is about as ballsy as I have gotten on the food front, though, I am trying not to push it.
Hey Beth! Im at work and doing pretty good. Took a pain pill as soon as I got here and just took another one now after lunch. I am about out of pain pills and I just took my last steroid this morning. Still down 14 pounds. Can’t seem to lose much more then that but Im trying. I would love to get down to my pre-pregnancy weight of 120. It’s a dream of mine I have had for years now. I bought some myloplex protein drinks in strawberry cream and boy are they tasty. I bought a box of protein bars for my breakfast but the darn things have nuts in them. Had a lean cuizene for lunch. Those are not that great but it’s something. My inlaws are coming out to visit us Thursday so I will be trying to clean house this week after work. Lot’s going on. I feel really good but I am stressed about being out of steroids and almost out of pain pills. I go for my follow up Thursday at 11:20. I bet she will say I am good to go. How are YOU doing? Any pain?
Holly, I am so glad you turned the corner so fast! Good for you! Don’t worry, your doctor will do a taper to take you off the steroids (at least that’s what I also hear is done) and if you need more pain meds she will give them to you. After day 9 I just took Percocet in the morning when I got up because that’s when the pain was worst and just taking it the one time/day did not constipate me. I still have half my bottle of liquid Percocet left! Don’t tire yourself out cleaning for your n-laws…they know you just had surgery and are not expecting a spotless house. Take care of YOU first!
The only pain I have is yawning. And its getting better every day. I have eating nuts but they are a bit rough, still they do go down and I can handle them.
I hope you have a great week Holly and let me know how you’re doing!
P.S. The open pits where my tonsils are have filled in way much more than I had imagined. It’s so interesting to see how the healing process constantly morphs and how different your throat can look in even just a few days! Your over halfway there now Holly!
Julie, why did they tell you no chloraseptic? That stinks!
They didn’t even really have a good reason I don’t think (my husband talked to them for me), I think they were just creeped out by the idea of me throwing OTC stuff back there. It’s fine though, my pain is manageable today.
I used Chloroseptic occasionally when I was in between doses of pain meds and it definitely took the edge off.
My throat has swelled up a bit as this day has gone on. I kept choking on water so I finally said screw it and threw a blast of it back there. The only thing it really hits is my uvula and that’s all I need to numb up, really.
It’s Sunday now, I had surgery Wednesday. I am 30 years old.
Anesthesia was absolutely awful, I was in recovery for two and a half hours due mostly to nausea. I warned them I don’t do well and have a family history and even with the warnings they were surprised how rough it was for me.
I had to go off of my painkillers late Friday because they were making me vomit, it was getting pretty intense. It was nice to have zero pain to cope with but I couldn’t even keep down water and was pretty close to an ER visit. Now I’m just on Tylenol. I am on antibiotics, seems to be a pretty mixed bag on here about who goes on them and who doesn’t. I have to be on them for ten days and the nurse said since they are preventative I didn’t need to start them for the first couple of days after my surgery, thank goodness.
Chloraseptic spray has been a godsend, it’s really made a difference even in my ear pain. I just wish I could use two sprays instead of one because I cannot really hit everything with just one spray.
My throat is an absolute horroshow, I wasn’t expecting the voids where my tonsils used to be to be so deep. I was actually a little freaked out the first time I looked at them. There is already stuff coming off of them, pretty gross.
I am glad to be feeling more alert but I can only take so many Tylenol in a day and so I think pretty quick I am going to be running into gaps without any pain meds. Not sure what to do about that other than make do with the Chloraseptic.
This website has been super valuable to me. Thank you all for sharing your stories!
Hi, Julie! Welcome to the tonsil-free club! Althought you may not believe so now, you will be grateful later that you had the surgery. I had my surgery one month ago and am already feeling a difference.
Regarding your nausea, have you talked with your doctor about it? If you haven’t, you should request anti-nausea medicine. Maybe that would help. You poor thing! If you had your surgery on Wednesday, you are probably in the thickest of the pain at this point. For me (and many others), days 5-8 were the most painful. I don’t know about you, but Tylenol does absolutely nothing for me–I might as well take a sugar pill.
I truly hope you find some relief, Julie. I can’t imagine what my recovery would have been like without pain meds. There were days that I thanked Heaven above that I had some relief. Even with pain meds, it was excruciating–and that’s in comparison to childbirth and breaking my leg.
Take care and try to get as much rest as possible. Also, make sure to keep your throat moist at all times (with humidifier plus sipping on something ice cold every few minutes). That really helps with the pain. Best wishes!
Just got back from the ER, had to go in and have a couple of spots recauterized because I was bleeding pretty briskly. Terrifying. Hope it’s a one time thing.
Julie, so sorry you had to have this done. I can imagine a re-bleed would be a scary episode. You aren’t taking ibuprofen are you? A lot of doctors don’t prescribe it for the small risk of bleeding it brings (yet many on here have been ok’d for it, so go figure!)
The recovery process is hard enough without a trip to the ER. Hydration is crucial, as Becky said, and keeping your throat wet at all times. It will really help. Sometimes I think, even with that being said, that there’s no rhyme or reason for bleeding. It just happens sometimes.
I hope that the next few days get better for you and that you’re able to eat and drink adequately. You mentioned the nausea? Were you prescribed any anti-nausea meds so that you might be able to take your prescription strength pain killers? It would make a world of difference. (Becky, I am the same way – Tylenol was useless to me). I can sympathize with the nausea after surgery as I had a bad night my first night home from the procedure, with vomiting from the anesthesia but it only lasted that night.
If you are very intolerant to any prescription painmeds you might want to ask your doctor about Nucynta. It’s a newer pain medication that is similar to Vicodin and Percocet but seems to be better for those that get nausea with these meds. The only caveat is they will tell you you can’t take it if you are on any kind of antidepressant medication for some reason. My doctor gave me a prescription for that in case I couldn’t tolerate the Percocet. I never needed to fill it though, as Percocet was fine (barring the constipation issue!)
Hang in there and it will get better! I’m on day 20 and it has gotten much, much better. 🙂
I want to know something. I’m 20yrs old. I sighned 2 pieces of paper today and they had me make an appointment so i could get a tonsillectomy done… It set for the 31st. Do i have to get the sergery done? Is it mandatory if u already sighned? I dnt want to get it done. I want to beat this on my own. Besides. I’m scared shitless.
I actually was on anti nausea meds and they didn’t make a dent. Craaap.
I DID take some Ibuprofen the day before my bleeding started. I am pretty irritated about it actually, here is what happened:
I was taking Tylenol at the time, can only take 8 a day, that leaves gaps with no pain relief at all. I call the help line for my ENT group (it’s the weekend) so I speak with the on call surgeon. He says alternate tylenol and motrin. My husband goes to the store, sees motrin is ibuprofen (neither of us had ever purchased it so we had no idea). We opted to skip it. The next day I was in more pain so we called the guy BACK and he insisted that SOME ibuprofen was okay so I took some. I only took it twice.
This is a doctor in the same ENT group as mine. MINE said no ibuprofen, absolutely not. The other doc said no, go ahead, it’s great for this, it CAN increase bleeding risk but that is unusual. What the hell. I am positive it was a combo of dry throat + ibu that did it. I will complain to my doctor about it at my follow up. ha ha ha. 😀
Anyway, I am feeling much better today. I wasn’t having much pain at all but they did give me hydrocodone instead of the lortab and told me to give smaller quantities a shot. I took half a hydro and feel quite good actually, no pain to speak of for a few hours. It is starting to come back a little bit now but not terribly. I don’t know how much of that is the remaining anesthesia still in my system + the iv pain meds they gave me earlier. Guess we’ll see what tomorrow brings. PLUS they put a little motion sickness patch thing behind my ear when they found out I didn’t do well last time I was knocked out. It helped a lot and they said I should leave it on until Thursday. No complaints here.
My biggest concern at this point is the bill (we have good insurance but it’s still the ER!) and the worry that it will happen again. I am trying to rest and keep my mind off of it but it is hard.
Thanks for the support, folks.
(in addition I called the nurse helpline today because I am so paranoid to ask about the chlorasepctic spray and they said not to use it. Boo. I am feeling okay now so it’s not a huge deal but still a bummer.)
Personally, I am getting really frustrated with all these ENT’s and their totally conflicting instructions regarding ibuprofen. Julie, whatever you do, don’t blame yourself and it may have had nothing to do with the ibuprofen. I took it on or about day 7 because I had to stop taking Percocet (bad constipation) and Tylenol was doing absolutely nothing for me, I took it against my doctor’s recommendation (and I am NOT recommending anyone do this) because the pain was just so bad, especially for me around day 7-9 or so. Plus with so many on this board being told ‘no problem’ to taking ibuprofen I figured the risks were minimal.
I have read a lot of sites about tonsillectomy and if you go to even just some random ENT sites (websites for ENT offices) they will often have FAQ about tonsillectomy and say ibuprofen or Tylenol are fine.
I don’t blame you one bit for being mad. I would be too. Two doctors in the SAME practice don’t even agree on the use of ibuprofen post-tonsillectomy? That tells me that there really is absolutely no consensus whatsoever as to its use post surgery for this type of operation. It makes me angry that you were put in the position of having to decide on your own with two conflicting opinions. These ENT’s really need to get their s&@t together!
I’m so glad you’re feeling better and that the Vicodin is helping you. That’s great news! I, too, was given anti-nausea meds (called the on call service the night I came home from hospital and was vomiting and the on call doc called it in) and I threw up again a few hours after I took it. Sometimes the anesthesia just has to work its own way out. I’m glad they gave you the scopolamine patch – they really should do that for every post-op person to help with the nausea.
I hope you have a much better night tonight!