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
I had 4 surgeries done on 5/15/2013
– Removal of Tonsils
– Removal of Ethmoid sinus
– Repair of Nasal septum
– Endoscopic sinus surgery
It took them over 3 hours to go through all these surgeries and I was released to go home after 9 hours. Yesterday (12th day post-op) I stopped taking Roxicet Solution(pain-med) and today ( 5/28) I am back to work. As you can see I went through a list of procedures and I had pain all over my face but I didn’t really suffer that much. I was on liquid diet first three days….. slim fast, ensure, yogurt and jello kept me going those three days…. Its very important that you keep drinking ice-water …all the time… and take pain meds as pescribed….use multiple pillows when you sleep. Make sure to brush twice a day. Try not to cough/sneeze during first three four days….. your scabs won’t be damaged unless you make stupid moves like eating sharp food like potato chips, tacos, cookies and harsh solid food. I made mashed potatoes with chicken broth and butter….this will provide your body with much needed proteins to fight back.
Don’t let pain take over you days….. Take pain meds as prescribed and stay on top of your conditions… .. remember..to drink ice-water as much as possible and you should be fine…
Best of luck
Noble-
Boston, MA
Thanks for sharing your story, glad to hear your recovery went well. Did you get the coblation method on your tonsils?
Yes i had the coblation method applied.
As of today (5/29/2013)….i am still very weak with little to no pain…….so i have stopped all my pain medications…. and now I have to focus on re-gaining 12 LBs which i lost due to all these surgeries.
Noble-
Hello everyone. Especially those recovering from their tonsillectomy. I’m on 4 weeks, 5 days and am fine. I was tired and run down up until about 2 days ago but now feel pretty much back to normal. No pain, eating everything. Sometimes taste buds don’t seem quite right, but other than that all good. Sometimes I still feel like there’s a marble stuck in my throat but that gets less and less and I guess it’s normal 🙂 Hang in there. You’ll be fine and be glad you did it.
Hi goodbye tonsil,think you back to normal.i am on 1 month 3 days post tonsillectomy recovery.am normal without a problem!good luck..
Update 🙂 now on day 6… The days are just blending into each other now, i have sat in my bed since monday when i had it done, probably not helping matters to be honest!
Im finding mornings are the most painful, i wake up feeling almost faint and sick with the pain. I only have 8 codeine tablets left so i am trying to ration them. Taking plain old paracetamol and ibrufen the rest of the time. Yesterday was the first time i attempted to eat anything really “hard” my mum made me some cheese on toast with the crusts cut off. I was terrified at the thought of eating toast but it actually went down quite easily and was a nice change from noodles/pasta. Will definately try to eat more toast and hopefully it will scrape off some of the disgusting white stuff thats sitting back there – still tastes and smells awful 🙁
I still find it very difficult to speak, very sore and also sound really weird so trying to keep that to a minimum.
Hoping it will all be over soon! I go back to work in 9 days so i hope i am recovered by then.
Dreading the scab falling off part, i have no idea what to expect, still terrified of choking on them or tasting them – yuck!
Good luck to everyone else going through this 🙂
You should be fine. My Dr told me to try to talk, although I had no real problem talking. He said it helps stimulatw the tissue in the throat and promotes faster healing. Hang in there. You’ll be just fine.
Hi everyone i am a 21 year old female from the uk. I am on day 4 of tonsillectomy recovery.
I was terrified of having the op done as i had never been in hospital or had a GA before. This was the easy part! Apparently my op only took about half an hour, the last time i looked at the clock it was 9.30 and i woke up again at 11. At this point i wasnt in to much pain just felt like a sore throat. I was allowed to go home 4 hours later, felt SOO sick in the car but once i got into bed i passed out again and slept fine that night. The next day wasnt toooo bad either, just trying to sleep for a couple of hours at a time while taking my painkillers. Here in the uk i was only prescribed soluble paracetamol, neurofen and one weeks worth of codeine.
Yesterday things started to get worse, i hardly slept during the night, my ears and my teeth were throbbing, i couldnt relax, painkillers didnt seem to take any of it away. To make it worse aswell i keep feeling the need to have a good cough but i am too scared incase i make it bleed. Also noticed yesterday that my breath smells awful! I am brushing my teeth after everying i eat and using a mouthwash but nothing is getting rid of the smell at the moment. I hope this does not last long as i am literally embarressed to talk to anyone.
Today is the same as yesterday, no sleep last night, still have ear and teeth pain, still a horrible smell and taste in my mouth! Does anyone know when that will start to go away? And also when the scabs start to come off? In the uk we are encouraged to eat whatever we want to keep the area clean. Although it is hard i have managed to eat some super noodles, coco pops, very soft jacket potato and a bit of ice cream.
Any advice would be greatly apprechiated 🙂
Hello goodbyetonsils,
I am also in the UK. I had my operation 11 months ago. I do understand how you feel. I was in and out quite fast and they made me eat a cheese sandwich before I could leave and it felt like eating concrete and with the pain meds I didn’t have too much pain. I was in a lot of pain once I got home and I was also given the same as you but they did give me dihydrocodiene which proved invaluable. It did make me feel sick so they also gave me cyclizine to take along side this which is what I took. I’m sure if you see your GP and explain the pain they may offer you something else. I was pretty bad though because I couldn’t take this at first and ended up back in hospital but once they gave me something to stop me feeling sick it helped an awful lot. I slept as much as I could as when I didn’t I was in pain. I too was told eat things to clean it away and it did help. The scabs came off at about day 10 and if I hadn’t of eaten food to help break it down I think it would of been harder. I found tepid water rather than hot or cold helped. I also had and ice pack on my throat as I was told the heat was bad as it swelled the blood vessels. The taste is yukky but it will go away as the scabs go. I found chewing gum as much as I could helped and it also helped break the scabs down. I didn’t sleep for a week apart from 2 hours a night until the pain relief and I think if I’d had it sooner I wouldn’t have suffered so much. The only thing is it will get better even though you feel so bad in a few weeks when you are fully recovered you’ll look back and be amazed and glad it’s done. Hope you feel better soon. Also I was told avoid dairy as it encourages mucus I don’t know just what I was told. Hope anything I’ve said will hep you 🙂 I was very grateful of this page thanks 🙂
Thank you for your comment 🙂 did you realise when the scabs were coming off? Im having horrible visions of choking on them or something! Ive tried to have a look inside my mouth but it all looks pretty horrible at the moment and i cant really open my mouth very wide! Also im not sure if its normal but my voice has completely changed?!
Hi again. I remember feeling it coming off a bit and I was scared of choking I kind of coughed them out when they were loose, yuk I’m sorry but they were really thick and they slowly thinned out apart from a small area so it was good I ate rougher foods. If they are loose enough to come off they’ll drop out, don’t worry. Once they went it was amazing the difference. I also remember my mouth not being able to open very well but it will get better day by day. My voice changed too but it all goes back to normal. Your throats will have gone through a lot it just needs to rest I liked singing and I was upset because my voice wasn’t right but it’s all fine now.. Hope you are feeling a bit better. and have a good sleep 🙂
Quick question to everyone in the UK.
From seeing your doctor, how long did you have to wait to have the surgery.
I’m holding off to see my doctor just now as I was only there 10 days ago for a problem with my ears. This is a new doctors surgery so I don’t want to come across that I’m one of those hypochondriacs!
My tonsils are driving me mad, I have to push on them twice a day just to get rid of all the phlegm and tonsil stones that have built up in all the small holes. It’s disgusting. I’m annoyed at myself for not being persistent with my old doctor about this. He just kept telling me to not eat after 9pm and it would go away.
Hello In response to your question – how long did I have to wait for surgery – I saw my GP then waited 3 months to see the specialist then waited 10 weeks for the actual operation. Hope this helps:)
If it is bothering you so much you should go back to the GP it doesn’t matter if you have already been recently.
Hello, i saw my doctor with yet another bout of tonsilitus january this year, he finally referred me to the ENT, got my consultation appointment for the end of march, had my op on the 20th may. The longest part is waiting for the consultation date.
I would go to your doctor about it. Last year i felt like i was at the doctors with tonsillitus every month and every time she gave me tablets and said get on with it basicly. They never mentioned about surgery and when i asked they told me you had to have it 8 times a year etc. then i got lucky in january and he noticed i was getting it quite a lot so he finally referred me. I know its a hassle but the more times you go to the doctors regarding your tonsils, it will go on your record and it will work in your favour about getting them removed! Good luck!